_Memoirs of Lucien Bonaparte, (Prince of Canino,) written by himself.
Translated from the original manuscript, under the immediate
superintendence of the author. Part the First, (from the year 1792, to
the year 8 of the Republic.)_
In the publication of these memoirs the Prince of Canino disclaims any
personal views. “I do it,” he says, “because they appear to offer
materials of some value to a history so fruitful in great events, of
which the serious study may be useful in future to my country.” In the
commencement of the brief introduction from which these words of his
are quoted, he complains, but without acrimony, of the pamphleteers
who have too often made him the subject of their leisure.
“Revelations, secret memoirs, collections of anecdotes, the fruits of
imaginations without shame or decency, have not spared me. I have read
all of them in my retirement, and I was at first surprised how I could
have drawn upon myself so many calumnies, never having offended any
person. But my astonishment ceased when I had better appreciated my
position—removed from public affairs, without influence, and almost
always in silent or open opposition to the powers, though sufficiently
near to keep them constantly in fear of my return to favor, how was it
possible for the malice of the courtiers to leave me in repose?”
It is not our intention to speak at length of these memoirs. Neither
is such a course necessary in regard to a work which will, and must be
read, by every person who pretends to read at all. The author
professes to suppress all details that are foreign to public
affairs—yet he has not too strictly adhered to his intention. There
are many merely personal and private anecdotes which have a very
shadowy bearing, if any, upon the political movements of the times.
That the whole volume is of deep interest it is almost unnecessary to
say—for this the subject is alone an assurance. The style of the
Prince de Canino, is sufficiently well known to a majority of our
readers. The book now before us possesses, in prose, many of those
peculiarities of manner, which in so great a measure distinguished,
and we must say disfigured, the author's poem of the _Cirreide_. Here
are the same affectations, the same _Tacitus-ism_, and the same
indiscriminate elevation of tone. The edition of this book by Saunders
and Otley is well printed, with a clear large type, and excellently
bound.