NEWSLETTER FROM PARIS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 947, 4 October 1957, Page 17

NEWSLETTER FROM PARIS

MEMOIRS OF THE COMTESSE DE BOIGNE, edited by Sylvia de Morsier; Museum Press Ltd., English price 21/-. DELE d’OSMOND was old enough to remember being the spoilt child of the court of Louis XVI, but in 1830 young enough to pilot the Duchess of Orleans through the barricaded streets of Paris. For forty-odd years her birth and station and enterprise brought her into the company of the leading statesmen (and their women-folk) in Western Europe, and she was shrewd, well educated, and just a little malicious. Her memoirs were written for her nephew (she had a strong sense of family) and they amount to a discursive personal newsletter about a crucial period in European history. Their historical value varies. Mme. de Boigne was diving into her memory, and at times recording

family tradition rather than writing as an eye-witness, and on some points (for example, Castlereagh’s utter subservience to Metternich) she was surely mistaken, Yet her portraiture is vivid and rings true, and her general comments are often illuminating. She is an eloquent witness of the intelligent French aristocrat’s changing views about 18th century utopianism, about Napoleon, and about the hopeless effort to keep the Restoration anchored to commonsense and moderation. In 1830 she discussed current issues with the workmen repairing her house, and concluded that if the King’s Ministers had had a fraction of these men’s good sense, the current crisis could never have arisen. The present edition is technically a little disappointing in that no hint is given of how this abridgment was derived from the original, and the editor gives no help to the understanding of the text beyond identifying certain individuals. The volume is, however, pleasantly set out and eminently readable: an admirable introduction to the

Revolutionary era.

F.L.W.

Wood