THE RHINE

The above titles appear in the Great Rivers of the World series. Glyn's Seine (""Like the Jordan, the Ganges, the Rhine, the Seine is a holy river"") is essentially a travelogue, gives something of the feeling that the author was indeed searching for material. Between pauses to test the wine and cheese along the banks of the river, Mr. Glyn traces its course, over a year's time, from its source at the shrine of Sequana in Burguudy past the seven miles of the Seine in Paris which comprise ""without doubt the most famous river front in the world"" (shades of Theresia Gabarrus, Baudelaire and Jeanne Duval) downstream to Rouen and and the sea. It is a leisurely journey by bus and barge, subjective, Rees' Rhine (""The Rhine is the greatest of all Europe's rivers"") is more efficient, more objective as it describes the river's 800 mile course, its history as frontier and route, its political and artistic associations (Goethe and Schiller, Hoelderlin, Adenauer, Heine, Beethoven). The legends (St. Ursula with her eleven thousand virgin companions, Charlemagne, Siegfried, the Nibelungenlied), the art and architecture receive separate attention. The series appears to be at an accessible, acceptable popular level, the performance of the authors variable.