Customer Reviews

Life on the Russian Country Estate: A Social and Cultural History

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What a wonderful book! A wonderful peak at a past that will never come again. Chekhov could not have done it any better. I lived in Russia for six years and visited many of these wonderful estates, a hint of the aristocracy and landed gentry life of the 17th and 18th centuries: Ostankino, Kuskovo, Arkhangelskoe, others, so much beauty. Ms. Roosevelt captures the perfect architecture, the colorful gardens, the jeweled ballrooms and theaters. Plus, her writing is not only informative and accurate, but entertaining. You feel like you are looking out from a gilded frame on the painted parlor wall. This book deserves a permanent place in a cultured family's library.

Frederick R. Andresen, Author of "Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia."

Priscilla Roosevelt is a marvelous historian with a rare aesthetic sense. Her book on Russian country estates not only explains their appearance in the eighteenth century and their extraordinary development in the nineteenth century, it gives the reader a visual sense of estate architecture and garden design. When I bought this book, I read it straight through. Later, I picked it up, studied various houses that appealed to me, and let my mind wander. Reading this book is a vicarious trip straight into the world of the Russian nobility. No new reader of Tolstoy's War and Peace should tackle that book without first perusing this one!

Ms. Roosevelts highly informative and readable text combines with the volumes many photographs and illustrations to bring to life the world of the aristocracy and landed gentry of Russia and those who served them, more than a century ago.

Ms.Roosevelt's engrossing study takes on this vast subject with apparent ease and succeeds.

I recommend this book to anyone at all who is looking for an intersting read. Whether your a history buff or not you're sure to enjoy this book. By the time I had finnished the first paragraph I was unable to put it down!