As the wife of the American Minister to Belgium, Isabel Anderson had special opportunities and for securing information; and this, joined to a natural talent for description, has enabled her to produce The Spell of Belgium, a volume of absorbing interest; the complete story of "the Belgium that was."

"The fact that the author herself has been so active and so unselfishly devoted to the cause of Belgium even adds to the irresistible fascination of 'The Spell of Belgium.' The volume sweeps the horizon - touching history, legend, triumphs in painting, music, science, and showing why the 'spell of Belgium' exists from events that have gone before. The book is far more than entertaining and instructive - it is inspiring in its purpose - and preserves a record of Belgium that has a wide appeal for children as well as grown-ups; for it is in writing for children that Mrs. Anderson has achieved her notable triumphs. And more than any other one book, this dainty volume from the pen of an American woman reflects a world-wide sentiment of today, that no matter what may be suggested in terms of peace, one thing that the world at large will be insistent upon without reservation, and that which reflects the almost unanimous sentiment of America - German and native-born Americans alike - is the restoration of the integrity of Belgium, no matter what the cost may be to the victorious or the vanquished." -The National Magazine

"Her chapters are chiefly reminiscent of her life in Brussels, with motor-car visits to various places both in the Walloon highlands and on the Flemish plain. One may look in vain for evidences of any close acquaintance with the life of the Belgian people, though her view is ever that of kindly sympathy. In an overcrowded country, even before the desolations of war, the struggle for life seemed to be keener than ever, but of the charm of spell which this land of art and legend, of Van Eyck and Rubens, cast upon her, there can be no doubt. It is with a sympathetic pen, and in fascinating literary style, that Mrs. Anderson writes, whether she depicts the glories or catalogues the woes of a nation - or often crushed, yet so often resurgent....Chapters on politics, industries, tapestries, paintings, and the modern literary situation delight us....The volume is worthy of a king's welcome." -The Nation

"Will be warmly welcomed by those who admired her gracious description of Japan as seen by an Ambassador's wife. The same womanly charm and gentle observation of what came within the scope of her life and official activities illume this volume, the subject of which however will win for it a fictitious interest above and beyond the treatment....Will well repay the reading of it." -Publishers Weekly

CONTENTS

Foreword

I. The New Post

II. Diplomatic Life

III. Brussels Before the War

IV. In Days of Knight and Villain

V. Battling for a Kingdom

VI. Belgian Kings

VII. Politics and Plural Voting

VIII. Belgium's Workshops

IX. Tapestries

X. Primitives and Later Painters

XI. La Jeune Belgique in Letters

XII. Motoring in Flanders

XIII. Legends of Antwerp

XIV. In the Walloon Country

XV. A Last Word

I Synopsis of the War

II Letters From the Front

III American Relief Work

Bibliography