Book excerpt: Eugene Davis's "Souvenirs", based on the author's tour of the continent in 1885-6, provides not only vivid vignettes of the life and times of Irish scholars, revolutionaries and artists living on the continent, both well known and obscure, from the time of the French revolution down to his own day, but also gives fascinating insight into how his contemporaries perceived the nature of Ireland's relationship with the European continent during the 1880s. This was a decade in which the future shape of Irish political society was being forged and when an optimism abounded that Ireland itself was about to become one of the nation states of Europe for the first time. These qualities help make the book an entertaining, enjoyable and informative read, and also a work of much historical interest and relevance.