The authoress of this book is well calculated to do her subject justice. She has the requisite industry, and the requisite tact, and the result is a work as instructing as it is attractive. In reading history, where every thing is seen through a certain medium of dignity, few realize the ignoble origin of many remarkable events, and the meannesses to which remarkable personages often descend. A work like the present tears away the flimsy veil which covers both, and enables us to see glory in its night-gown and slippers, government at its toilet, and events in their making. France, under Louis the Fourteenth, with its external grandeur and internal meanness, its great men and its intriguing women, its charlatanrie and harlotonrie, loses much in such a mode of treatment, but the reader gains more than France loses. Miss Pardoe follows with her keen, patient mind, the manifold turns of court diplomacy, and discerns, with feminine sagacity, all the nicer and finer threads of the complicated web of intrigue. As a woman, she is acute to discover the hand and brain of her own sex in every incident where women took a part; and none but a woman could fully unveil many of the events which elevated or disgraced France during the reign of Louis. The sharp and cynical Frederick of Prussia said, years ago, that “the petticoat history of the seventeenth century remained to be written.” A considerable portion of Miss Pardoe’s work supplies this need as regards France. Her book, full as it is of kings, warriors, statesmen, priests, nobles, artists, poets, is still more laden with women. The Harpers have issued the work in a style of great elegance and beauty, with illustrative engravings. It cannot fail to attract many readers, not only because it deals with an important epoch in history, but also because its details have the interest of romance. * * * * * _The Good Genius that Turned Every Thing into Gold, or the Queen Bee and the Magic Dress. By the Brothers Mayhew. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 16mo._