Synopses & Reviews
This lavishly illustrated book is the first in any language to explore fully the vanished world of the Russian country estate. Priscilla Roosevelt brings to life these magnificent aristocratic dwellings, discussing their origins, their design and decoration, the social, family, and cultural life within their walls, and their physical demise after the 1917 revolution.
"It is a lost world, a world of art and politics, love and nature, of lavish displays of wealth and intimate family gatherings destroyed utterly by the Bolsheviks, and brought back to life in this beautiful, fascinating book". -- Andrew Coyne, Toronto Globe and Mail
"In this illustrated history, Roosevelt examines three manifestations of this 'self-contained world': aristocratic playground, patriarchal enclave, and cultural arcadia. The book maps the hierarchies and allegiances that shaped Russian estates large and small". -- Washington Post Book World
"A piece of graceful erudition, faultless in its vivid prose and evocative illustrations recalling the playfulness as well as the melancholy of the Russian pastoral scene". -- Anne Simpson, The Herald
"One of the many virtues of Roosevelt's work is that it serves to preserve this vanished world in the reader's imagination". -- Nikolai Tolstoy, Daily Telegraph
Synopsis
From the reign of Peter the Great, Russia's country estates were oases of barbarian splendor and personal freedom in a vast, sparsely settled, and authoritarian land. This lavishly illustrated book is the first in any language to explore fully the vanished world of the Russian country estate. Priscilla Roosevelt brings to life these magnificent aristocratic dwellings, discussing their origins, their design and decoration, the social, family, and cultural life within their walls, and their physical demise after the 1917 revolution. The Bolshevik revolution destroyed both the world of the estate and much of the evidence about it. To recreate this lost world Roosevelt has drawn on many sources - including the physical remains of once-grand manor houses (many photographed for this book), the invaluable diaries and memoirs that chronicle a way of life that was to perish, and the Russian art and literature that estate life produced and in which it was portrayed. Juxtaposing images from art and from the novels of such literary giants as Turgenev and Tolstoy with the real milieu that inspired them, the book is a beautiful and vivid portrait of Russian country life.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 344-352) and index.