CECILE SOREL

The autobiography of the famous French actress is an expansive reminiscence of an ""artiste"" whom age has not withered, and certainly not subdued- judging by the feverish tone of most of this. Nee Celine Seure, her childhood certainty that she would go on the stage was not deflected by a convent schooling, and she went on to achieve her ambitions with the Comedie Francaise. The elegance and excitement of the world through which she moved and the continuing acclaim and adulation over some thirty years; the acquaintance with many other luminaries, Rejane, Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Briand, Chaliapine, Charlie Chaplin, Duse and D-Annunzio, Clemenceau and Mussolini; the torment of her love for the Comte de Segur- who marries her- and then abandons her for another woman; the command performances- and tours; the ""intoxication"" of her profession, and her dedication to it--- all this makes up a memoir of a private life in the public eye.... A full dress performance- but a lot of naked emotion just the same.