MRS. SIMPSON

From the Duchess of Windsor's memoirs and other discreet portraits, Garrett has prepared an illustrated souvenir of the once-Great Romance--""a love that was even stronger than the substantial forces arrayed against it."" All the familiar stories of Wallis' willful childhood, heady debut, dismal first marriage, London socializing, and lifelong partying are recycled; and the outward course of the marriage is chronicled (with ""misjudgments"" and her dominance duly noted, internal tensions dismissed) for those who weren't around to read the papers and didn't catch the reruns. Garrett, however, has nothing but pap and twaddle to set against the scathing view of the Duchess (and the humiliations of the Duke) in the Bryan and Murphy Windsor Story. So readers who don't want to know the whole truth about the footloose pair, but seek some substance, would be better off with the 1979 abridgment of Frances Donaldson's biography of Edward.