BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10127, 9 May 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Napoleon and the Fair Sex : By Frodk. Masson. Wm. Hoinemann, London. This volume, which is a translation from the French of Masson's woll-known work, traces the great Napoleon's love affairs through a chequered life. Even when woman (says Masaon) plays a comparatively mediocro part in a man's life, it is essential to see what sorb of a woman attracted him, what were his relations with hor, and wHkt tho feelings, physical or moral, she inspired in him, to onqniro which of his actions wore attributable to woman's influence, and how far his thoughts were modified by the beauty and conversation of women in daily intercourse M. Masson endeavours to show Napoleon as a man, us son, as lover, as husband, as father. He has collected round him all that he could find that shows him as he was, that speaks of him as ho was, or that animated him. Though ho rovoals a seamy and littlo known side of Napoleon's character, ho shows that tho greab conqueror was equal, if nob superior, to the rank and file of men in his treatment of women. Tho work will be read with interest by all those who study Napoleoniera and its influence on tho history of France.

Tnu Ebbing of tub Tide • T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square, London.—This volume is tho colonial edition of a collection of South Son stories by Louis Becke, so long and favourably known in connection with descriptions of aboriginal life in tlie South Pacific. Tho stories are clerorly and powerfully written, and delineate every phase of life in the Pacific in the olden time. They are tho product of a writer who is an observant student of human life and men and things,

The WosDERFDii Visit ; By H. G. Wells. Macmillan and Co., London.—The volume is by the author of the " Time Machine," and is a work of remarkable power and imagination. His fanciful dream of an angel's visit to earth, and what he thought of things mundane, is a strikingly original performance, and is well worth reading.

The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard : By A. Conan Doyle. Longmans, Groon, and Co., London.— This is a story of a French officer, of tho time of the First) Empire, and of the First Napoloon. His adventures are varied and exciting.

The Trumpet Major : By Thos. Hardy. Macmillan and Co., London.— Trumpet Major, John Loveday, was a soldior in the war with Buonaparte, and the story depicts lifo in Great Britain at the time of the threatened invasion of England by Buonaparte. Ib revives reminiscences of a state of things wltucb has. passed away for ever.