1839 Travel Journals Marquis de Custine [Reprint]

Journey for Our Time: the Journals of the Marquis De Custine. [Marquis de Custine (1790-1857)]. Edited and translated by Phyllis Penn Kohler with an introduction by Lieut. General Walter Bedell Smith. NY: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1951. 338 pages. Front and back gutters have foxing. Some rubbing and edge wear to dustjacket, which is now in a protective clear jacket cover. Jacket not price clipped ($4). Overall very good copy of first edition. 1 copy only.

La Russie en 1839 (The Journals of the Marquis de Custine), who was dubbed the "Tocqueville of Russia", were first published in Paris in 1843 and were widely read in England, France, and Germany. They were banned in Russia. Custine spent most of his time in St. Petersburg, but also visited Moscow and Yaroslavl. They provided insight into Imperial Russia under Nicholas I. There is a character representing Custine in the 2002 film Russian Ark. His conversations are intended to reflect Russia's continued struggle to search for its own identity and define its relations vis-à-vis Europe. There are several capsule reviews on the back of this printing by the leading Russian authorities in the West from that time, including Smith, Arthur Koestler and George F. Kennan.