+ Lond. Times. 5: sup. 3. F. 2, ’06. 150w.
Barine, Arvede, pseud. (Cecile Vincens) (Mrs. Charles Vincens). Louis XIV. and La Grande Mademoiselle. **$3. Putnam.
The present story continues the career of La Grande Mademoiselle where the author’s “The youth of La Grande Mademoiselle” dropped it, just at the close of the Fronde,—that protest of the French nobility against centralization. Mme. Barine’s heroine was related to Louis XIII., was the richest heiress in France, and aspired to be an empress, a political power and a nun. “Her mad vagaries and misguided impulses” furnish material for a comic as well as a tragic study of a fascinating period.
“It is a book of striking interest, and the rendering is tolerably well done, though it retains French idiom too much, and gives us occasionally but jerky English.”
+ – Ath. 1906, 1: 262. Mr. 3. 70w.
“The proof of the merit of Mme. Barine’s work lies in the fact that one is eager to read it in spite of the very bad translation. To a subject replete with picturesque interest Mme. Barine has done full justice.”
+ – Critic. 48: 471. My. ’06. 220w.
“The narrative has all the vivacity of fiction, though at the same time its historical care and accuracy are evident at every turn. The translation, which is anonymous, is easy and unaffected.”
+ + Dial. 40: 96. F. 1, ’06. 250w. + Ind. 61: 41. Jl. 5, ’06. 250w. + – Nation. 82: 10. Ja. 4, ’06. 100w.