THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. By Joseph Turquan. Author of “The Love Affairs of Napoleon,” “The Wife of General Bonaparte.” Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
⁂ “The Empress Josephine” continues and completes the graphically drawn life story begun in “The Wife of General Bonaparte” by the same author, takes us through the brilliant period of the Empire, shows us the gradual development and the execution of the Emperor’s plan to divorce his middle-aged wife, paints in vivid colours the picture of Josephine’s existence after her divorce, tells us how she, although now nothing but his friend, still met him occasionally and corresponded frequently with him, and how she passed her time in the midst of her miniature court. This work enables us to realise the very genuine affection which Napoleon possessed for his first wife, an affection which lasted till death closed her eyes in her lonely hermitage at La Malmaison, and until he went to expiate at Saint Helena his rashness in braving all Europe. Comparatively little is known of the period covering Josephine’s life after her divorce, and yet M. Turquan has found much to tell us that is very interesting; for the ex-Empress in her two retreats, Navarre and La Malmaison, was visited by many celebrated people, and after the Emperor’s downfall was so ill-judged as to welcome and fete several of the vanquished hero’s late friends, now his declared enemies. The story of her last illness and death forms one of the most interesting chapters in this most complete work upon the first Empress of the French.
NAPOLEON IN CARICATURE: 1795-1821. By A. M. Broadley. With an Introductory Essay on Pictorial Satire as a Factor in Napoleonic History, by J. Holland Rose, Litt. D. (Cantab.). With 24 full-page Illustrations in Colour and upwards of 200 in Black and White from rare and unique originals. 2 Vols. Demy 8vo. 42s. net.
Also an Edition de Luxe. 10 guineas net.
NAPOLEON’S LAST CAMPAIGN IN GERMANY. By F. Loraine Petre. Author of “Napoleon’s Campaign in Poland,” “Napoleon’s Conquest of Prussia,” etc. With 17 Maps and Plans. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
⁂ In the author’s two first histories of Napoleon’s campaigns (1806 and 1807) the Emperor is at his greatest as a soldier. The third (1809) showed the commencement of the decay of his genius. Now, in 1813, he has seriously declined. The military judgment of Napoleon, the general, is constantly fettered by the pride and obstinacy of Napoleon, the Emperor. The military principles which guided him up to 1807 are frequently abandoned; he aims at secondary objectives, or mere geographical points, instead of solely at the destruction of the enemy’s army; he hesitates and fails to grasp the true situation in a way that was never known in his earlier campaigns. Yet frequently, as at Bautsen and Dresden, his genius shines with all its old brilliance.
The campaign of 1813 exhibits the breakdown of his over-centralised system of command, which left him without subordinates capable of exercising semi-independent command over portions of armies which had now grown to dimensions approaching those of our own day.
The autumn campaign is a notable example of the system of interior lines, as opposed to that of strategical envelopment. It marks, too, the real downfall of Napoleon’s power, for, after the fearful destruction of 1813, the desperate struggle of 1814, glorious though it was, could never have any real probability of success.
FOOTPRINTS OF FAMOUS AMERICANS IN PARIS. By John Joseph Conway, M.A. With 32 Full-page Illustrations. With an Introduction by Mrs. John Lane. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
⁂ Franklin, Jefferson, Munroe, Tom Paine, La Fayette, Paul Jones, etc., etc., the most striking figures of a heroic age, working out in the City of Light the great questions for which they stood, are dealt with here. Longfellow the poet of the domestic affections; matchless Margaret Fuller who wrote so well of women in the nineteenth century; Whistler master of American artists; Saint-Gaudens chief of American sculptors; Rumford, most picturesque of scientific knight-errants and several others get a chapter each for their lives and achievements in Paris. A new and absorbing interest is opened up to visitors. Their trip to Versailles becomes more pleasurable when they realise what Franklyn did at that brilliant court. The Place de la Bastille becomes a sacred place to Americans realizing that the principles of the young republic brought about the destruction of the vilest old dungeon in the world. The Seine becomes silvery to the American conjuring up that bright summer morning when Robert Fulton started from the Place de la Concorde in the first steam boat. The Louvre takes on a new attraction from the knowledge that it houses the busts of Washington and Franklyn and La Fayette by Houdon. The Luxembourg becomes a greater temple of art to him who knows that it holds Whistler’s famous portrait of his mother. Even the weather-beaten bookstalls by the banks of the Seine become beautiful because Hawthorne and his son loitered among them on sunny days sixty years ago. The book has a strong literary flavour. Its history is enlivened with anecdote. It is profusely illustrated.
MEMORIES OF JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER: The Artist. By Thomas R. Way. Author of “The Lithographs of J. M. Whistler,” etc. With numerous Illustrations. Demy 4to. 10s. 6d. net.
⁂ This volume contains about forty illustrations, including an unpublished etching drawn by Whistler and bitten in by Sir Frank Short, A.R.A., an original lithograph sketch, seven lithographs in colour drawn by the Author upon brown paper, and many in black and white. The remainder are facsimiles by photo-lithography. In most cases the originals are drawings and sketches by Whistler which have never been published before, and are closely connected with the matter of the book. The text deals with the Author’s memories of nearly twenty year’s close association with Whistler, and he endeavours to treat only with the man as an artist, and perhaps, especially as a lithographer.