THE TRIAL OF GENERAL DE GAULLE

The French edition of this book was confiscated last December as liable to disturb public order and as an insult to the Head of State. The ultimate justice of these charges may perhaps be questioned, but the immediate truth of the former will be clear to the reader. Cast in the form of a trial set in the near but indefinite future, with fictional characters confronting real ones in the witness box, M. Fabre-Luce's novel is a political interrogation and inquiry. De Gaulle's personality and his entire career are laid open to all the charges which the Right and Left have made, and while the worst the General faces is a vote of censure, the tension throughout is considerable. Only three specific charges have been made, involving De Gaulle's Algerian policy, his intervention in judicial processes, and his alleged substitution of personal rule for the traditional constitutional role of the President. American readers may encounter some difficulty with unfamiliar legal procedures, references to little-known events, the somewhat slapdash and awfully British translation, and with the author's peculiar implicit point of view (M. Fabre-Luce was tried by De Gaulle after World War II as a Vichy collaborator). In spite of its bias, it is an all-inclusive examination of the complicated motives of Gaullism.