NEW BOOKS

The following books, economically, politically, historically or biographically related to Foreign News, have recently been published in the U. S.:

Napoleonic Sextette: NAPOLEON AND JOSEPHINE, THE RISE OF THE EMPIRE--Walter Geer-- Brentano ($5.00).

THE DIPLOMACY OF NAPOLEON--R. B. Mowatt--Longmans ($5.40).

NAPOLEON --Elie Faure--Knopf ($3.00).

NAPOLEON AND HIS COURT--C. S. Forester--Dodd, Mead ($4.00).

NAPOLEON, AN OUTLINE--Brigadier General Colin R. Ballard--Appleton ($5.00).

THE MANUSCRIPT OF ST. HELENA-- Translated by Willard Parker--Appleton ($2.00).

Written by one American, three Britishers, one Frenchman and a great Corsican, printed, bound and delivered to an unsuspecting public by five U. S. publishing houses, this small Napoleonic library represents the first half of the season's output on the first French Emperor since Lothaire, grandson of Charlemagne.

In truth, as a library or as a mere collection, it is the smallest of drops in the largest of buckets. The splash is, therefore, proportionate in size. But why did the drop make the splash in the bucket at this particular time? The only satisfactory answer that can be vouchsafed is that this is the 155th anniversary of the great Emperor's birth, or the 103rd anniversary of his death. If neither of these answers is correct, the drop must have dropped not by any conscious cooperation of the publishers, but simply because it dropped.

The one extraordinary thing about Napoleon is the perpetual interest which his name evokes. Let anything from a horse's hoof to a pyramid be found that has the remotest connection with him--and the daily press gives it a place of honor on the front page; and the Sunday editions immediately put on weight. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and one or two more of the better known empire-builders--where are they compared to the great Buonaparte? Dim and distant figures. Time may be re- sponsible for this inequity in interest. But not even the Duke of Wellington, who was born in the same year as Napoleon, nor George Washington have ever attained that universality of fame which belongs to the Little Corporal. Hence, because many millions of words have failed to say all that is to be said, Napoleon continues, and will long continue, to make the ink flow, the typewriters clatter and the printing-presses hum.

The first of these books is concerned principally with an impartial review of Josephine's life. Because it really is impartial, it is a book of intense interest, leaving the Empress, on whom the world has lavished a fair share of sympathy, a startling contrast to other imperial ladies and a strange mixture of vices and virtues.

The second is a scholarly and critical account of the methods--passing under the euphemism of diplomacy--whereby Napoleon gained his ends. Few books .on Napoleon are as engrossing.

The third is strikingly written and is an attempt to justify Napoleon's ends by his means. While often despising his ends, M. Faure certainly believes that his subject has a reserved seat in the sun. ". . . the most significant personality, I think, since Christ," says he.

The fourth, quite the most insignificant of the sextette, is chiefly re- iteration and somewhat flippant reiteration at that--a good journalistic summary, nothing more.

The fifth from the start assumes that Napoleon was a great man and a great actor and, in a series of sub-headed paragraphs, gives amazingly well a poignant outline of his life. The observations are keen, the style pleasing, the treatment intelligent. Considering its scope and the fact that it is written from a semimilitary standpoint, the book is an excellent piece of work, easy to lead, easy to digest.

The sixth and last book is allegedly by the Great Man himself. Written, as the title hints, at St. Helena, the book is virtually Napoleon's confession of his faith; and his faith was something not to be measured by known standards. It was primarily his faith in himself. It is a story of an Imperial Ego in which the Egoist describes the events of his reign "because his character and his intentions may be strangely misrepresented." They probably are, have been, and will continue to be. Napoleon proceeds to set matters right. The task is not small; his book is, however, too small to save him from the misrepresentations he feared. In the main, he tells alike of his successes and his failures, his love for Josephine, the reason for his escape from Elba, etc. The sentences are short, sometimes overbearing, sometimes modest--a perfect tally with Napoleon's character. If the manuscript is a forgery--this is unlikely, for, as the translator remarks, Napoleon "went out of his way" to disavow it--it is only possible to congratulate the forger on his vicarious cerebrations.