Some Books of the Month. 



THE " ENTENTE CORDIALE." * 



Mlle. de Pratz has had the felicity of writing 

 a book which all will agree to praise. P'or once 

 let us start with the outside. The cover is dark 

 red, witli a design in gold copied from a beau- 

 tiful ancient book cover. It is like a I-rench- 

 woman to desire that her inmost thought should 

 have an adequate outside garment. The internal 

 idea is a noble one, and especially grateful to the 

 Review of Reviews, for that which we have 

 been tr}-ing to do for years by means of the 

 Scholars' International Correspondence and the 

 exchange of homes Mile, de Pratz is doing on a 

 wider basis. Whereas English p>eople generally 

 used to decline acquaintance with " foreigners," 

 preferring to fight them, now the desire to be 

 friends is gaining ground. But how can you be 

 friends with people of whom you know only 

 their outward appearance? Mile, de Pratz sets 

 out to show her countrymen and women from the 

 inside. This she is peculiarly qualified to do. A 

 Frenchwoman to the fingertips, with no alien 

 blood, she was educated in England and obtained 

 her diploma in an old-established London college 

 for women. .Ml who read her brilliantly written 

 book will realise her command of English and her 

 knowledge of England. During her years of 

 study here her holidays were always spent in 

 France, and later she became Professor of 

 Literature in a Paris Lyc^e and General Inspec- 

 trice of Public Charities. Add to this the fact 

 that her social position is a high one, and it will 

 be readily seen that her advantages for seeing 

 both English and French points of view are 

 c-xception.il. 



Mile, de Pratz rightly says that of all countries 

 in the world France is the most difTicult to know, 

 largely owing to a temperament essentially their 

 own. I*'or instance : — 



The licad of .\ Krcnch f:imily will not aiimil ,in oulsiflct 

 of nny kind into his circle unless he knows everything 

 about that outsider, even if the stranger !« of his own 

 r.ice and nitionalily. 



Of cour.se, this originated in the strict seclusion 

 from the outside world of the jeune fille which 

 was once so rigorously maintained. Another 

 reason why the French arc so oft<'n misunder- 

 stood by us is that they wear th<'ir vices on the 

 outside, blatantly, flagrantly, whilst we conceal 

 ours, and thus they appear worse than they are. 



* France from Wilhiu. By Claire dc Pfatz. 

 (Iloildrr .iiicl .StouglUuii. IDS. fid. net.) 



Then, too, we form our estimate mainly from 

 Parisians, and Paris is the intellect not the heart 

 of France. Comparing France and England, 

 Mlle. de Pratz says : — 



The essential racial diflerences between the French 

 and English lie in the fact that the French are absorbing 

 and assimilative, while the English are aggressively and 

 wilfully non-adaptable. The French believe that they 

 have much to learn from other nations. The English are 

 inclined to believe that they have nothing to learn 

 from anybody. But as nations, as individuals, 

 always possess the qualities of their defects, this 

 non-adaptability of the Englishman constitutes his 

 very strength, and makes his race the dominant race 

 when brought into conflict with more barbarous peoples. 

 That is why he is so excellent a coloniser among inferior 

 communities. But when in contact with other civilised 

 nations, he can learn nothing from them. He carries 

 his own habits and customs and personal idiosyncrasies 

 wherever he goes, and considers them infallibly superior 

 — because they are English — to the habits, customs, and 

 idiosyncrasies of the inhabitants of the country in which 

 he has decided to live, 



thus explaining many of the inconvenient mis- 

 understandings which it is her object to clear 

 away. 



These quotations, however, give very little idea 

 of the gay brightness of style and broad outlook 

 of this desirable book, and tell nothing of the 

 attractive illustrations, verbal and pictorial. Of 

 Frenchwomen Mlle. de Pratz says : — 



The type of woman who knows little or nothing con- 

 cerning her husband's business affairs and who is content 

 to receive a weekly wage from her husband to cover the 

 household expenses and her own does not exist in France. 

 The French wife is not only her husband's confidante, 

 but is essentially a coworker and partner, sharing all 

 his interests both in business and private affairs. She 

 prefers to work if she has no dowry, rather than to live 

 upon her huSband's generosity. She will not allow him 

 to sui)ix)rt the entire expenses of the household, for she 

 has .a fine spirit, and insists upon her own economical 

 independence, whether it comes from her own private 

 income or whether it be the wage of her own efforts 

 Yet in a I'aris kilrhcn nothing is ever lost or wasted, and 

 everything is subjected to the scrutinising eye of the 

 mistress of the house, who knows to a nicely the resources 

 of her gardemanger. 



But the book itself must be read, for there is in 

 it not one word that can be neglected; whether 

 she is talking about education and the stress 

 laid on that as beyond mere instrtution ; the 

 chapter on match-making, which M1U-. de Pralz 

 obviously approves of; the inside view of a 

 F'rench Lyct^c, with a delightful story which I 

 have no space to quote ; the Paris -Salon ; or the 

 final chapter on that bane of Paris life — La 

 Concierge. 



