THE PRIVATE CAPITAL: AMBITION AND LOVE IN THE AGE OF MACDONALD AND LAURIER. Gwyn, Sandra. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, c1984. 514pp, cloth, $34.95, ISBN 0-7710-3736-8. CIP Grades 12 and up Reviewed by Allan S. Evans Volume 13 Number 2 1985 March "You cannot judge a book by its cover," or perhaps one might say, by its title. On the book jacket, this massive work is promoted as "a magnificent and infinitely entertaining panorama of Canada's governing society in Ottawa from the time of Confederation to the eve of the First World War." This is an accurate statement in terms of the period covered. Not content with exaggeration, the in-house enthusiast indulges further in excess by variously characterizing the book as intense, lively, engrossing, dramatic, hilarious, rivetting and witty. If this hyperbole is unfair to the reader, it is even more so to the author, who obviously is a gifted researcher dedicated to her topic. But it is doubtful that she sought, or would claim to have achieved, the heights proclaimed above. The work is detailed and scholarly, to be sure, but it will appeal only to very acquired tastes. It seems preoccupied with the trivial and obscure, both in terms of its featured personalities and events. Thus it is neither significant as history, nor particularly interesting as retrospective titillation, as the title would suggest. The book's most attractive feature is its photographs, making it a frightfully expensive vehicle for visual history. Allan S. Evans, Emery C.I., North York, Ont.