Books: The Lady Was a Bourbon

DAUGHTER OF FRANCE (336 pp.)—V. Sackvilfe-West—Doubleday ($4.95).

Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchess of Montpensier, Chatellerault and St. Fargeau, Sovereign of Dombes, Princess of Joinville and Laroche-sur-Yon. Dauphine of Auvergne, and Fille de France, was something of a royal office joke. But since the office was the 17th century French court—Louis XIII was her uncle, Louis XIV her first cousin—the lady left footnotes in the sands of time. Biographer V. (for Victoria Mary) Sackville-West, 67, has written a witty, informal, entertaining book about the bedeviled woman who was known not by her titles, but with...