Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-04
ABOUT BOOKS AND BOOK MAKERS
Sir Richard Wallace's Charming
Partisan Memoirs.
Walter Besant's Description of the
Great City of London.
A Trio of Notable Travellers and Their
Trip Down the Danube-Notes
of New Publications.
Book Chat.
IRY L. B.

published anonymously, is generally at
tributed to Sir Richard Wallace, an
Englishman who spent most of his life
at the French capital, and had the entire
of the best society. He went to Paris
late in the thirties as an art student,
and being of good family and OF good ad-
dress, he made friends gradually with
many of the young men OF that day
painters, sculptors, literary men, actors,
actresses and singers, statesmen and
iournalists-who were or who subse-
auently became famous. The record be-
gins with the time of Louis Philippe,
and continues to the downfall of the
empire of Napoleon III. The contents
consist almost entirely of what one gen.
Grafton calls gossip and which later ages
raise to the dignity of history. The
book abounds in numberless entertain
ing anecdotes, full of wit and humor.
There is scarcely page Of his recollec-
tions that does not contain clear story,
sharply drawn pen portrait, happy
characterization, or picture OF bit OF
typical Parisian life. He haunted the
studios of the great artists, the Boule-
varde cafes, the theaters, the opera
house, always meeting some one OF
whom he has an anecJote to tell, or
whose talk he reproduces with
lightness of touch and a
sparkle that are Enthusiastically
French. If the reader be Monarchist,
Imperialist or Republican he will not
marvel more at the unfailing interest OF
each page than at the extraordinary col
lection of eminent persons whom the
author all his life knew intimately and
met frequently. A list would range
from Dumas the elder to David the
sculptor, from Rachel to Balzac, from
Louis Napoleon to Eugene Delacroix,
from Louise Philippe to the Princess
Demidoff, and from Lola Montez to that
ether celebrated woman. Alphonsine
Plessis, who was the original of the
Younger Dumas, Dame aux Camellis."
He knew these persons as no other
Englishman could have known them,
and he writes about them with charm
that has all the attraction of the most
pleasing conversation.
He mentions many times meetings
with Alfred de Musset. Eugene Sue,
Balzac, Dumas and Meyerbeer; OF pleas
ant evenings with Taglioni, Roeseau and
Delacroix, Gus Auber, Beranger, Guizot
and Thiers, and writes entertainingly of
Gustave Flaubert, Rachel, Kegnier,
Bernhardt and Louis Napoleon.
He gives vivid picture of the city
during the revolution OF 1S4S and during
the Franco German war, and the ccm-
mune Is not the least interesting por-
tion of very interesting book. He was
very near the seat of power OF the ma
ton, perhaps too near to see the peo-
pie, as a whole, and so France to him is
merely men and women, but great men
and women, who pulled the strings
which moved the puppets of history,
yet in this case they made, unmade and
remade France. and go far as the deeds
OF individuals can be said to have af-
fscted the state, the book is OF necessity
extremely interesting and never dull,
and until some day when true repub-
lican-a man who can see the current of
popular opinion which ran eide by side
with that of dynastic feeling, writes in
telligently of the recent transformation
of France, an Englishman in Paris will
hold very prominent place in the es-
TEEN OF students and readers OF French
wit, anecdote and modern French his.
tory.
x*x
London. By Walter Besant. The
picturesque historian ia thoroughly
we'll established institution, and
narural sequel to him is the picturesque
antiquarian. 1t will be we'll if all who
attempt to recall the past in the style
adopted in Mr.. Walter Besant's Lon
don, WELD as [graceful pen as his and
have as keen an eye for the scenic effects
of the life they undertake to depict. Mr..
Besant's object may best be gathered
from his preface. "The history of Lon
don," he says, ''has been undertaken by
many writer's, the presentment OF the
city and the people from age to age, has
never, | believe, been attempted" Ac-
cordingly it has been his endeavor "to
present pictures of the city of London,
instantaneous photographs, showing the
streets, the buildings and the citizens,
at work and at play" In other words,
he provides series of backgrounds for
historical novels, emitting the plots and
the characters. He fits from period to
period, not concerned so much to trace
processes OF development as to note
new growths that have reached maturi-
ty. The result is an eminently readable
book, giving good deal of information
in pleasant, chatty manner, and likely
TO whet the readers appetite for study
OF more serious and Systematic works
on the same subject.
To write really new book about old
London would seem an impossible task,
yet he has done so and his plan and ex.
ecution deserves high praise, 1t is
neither history, or a chronicle, it is q
series OF descriptions of the city as it
was, successfully, after the Roman oc-
cupation, under the Saxons and Nor
mans, Plantagenets, Tudors, in the time
of Charles III, and that Of George II.
Although much OF the writing
is imaginative, no liberties are
taken with facts; there is accessible
a great mass OF material not yet util
lied by any historian except the late
Professor Green in his English People,
and Mr.. Besant, who seems to be a
thoughtful antiquarian, has made good
use of much OF it. Old customs, ways
OF living, methods of trade, etc., receive
careful attention, and the deductions
are reasonable and interesting. The
average young person." who hates
history, can scarcely help liking the
book, while men and women who are
looking for reading matter neither light
nor heavy, will find London entirely to
their taste. He mentions the great
plague and the great fire, the merchants
on the quays and on 'chsnge; the
shopkeeper in Cheapside; the priests
and monks; the feasting and singing;
the criminal in the pillory; the riding
OF the lord mayor and the alderman;