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Pilgrim princess : a life of Princess Zinaida Volkonsky / Maria Fairweather

Author
Fairweather, Maria, 1943-2010
Published
New York : Carroll & Graf, 2000.
Copyright Date
©1999
Edition
1st Carroll & Graf ed.
Physical Description
xx, 316 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

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Contents
Childhood and Youth Through War and Peace -- Childhood: Her Father's Daughter -- At Court -- War: 'Our Knight and Angel' -- Peace: Paris and London -- A New Europe: at the Congress of Vienna -- Travels: Rome, Paris and 'the Mud of Odessa' -- Rome, Verona and Paris -- Moscow -- The End of an Era -- A Salon in Moscow -- The Villa and the Church -- Rome: the Villa Volkonsky -- Rome: Dead Souls and Souls Reborn -- The Beata.
Summary
"This biography brings to life, through it's subject's vibrant personality, a romantic period of enduring fascination. Princess Zinaida Alexandrovna Volkonsky was born in 1789 soon after the fall of the Bastille. A member of one of Russia's oldest families, she became a maid of honour to the Dowager Empress, Maria Feodorovna. At court she was soon noticed by Alexander I with whom, after their love affair, she maintained a deep and lifelong friendship." "Married to Prince Nikita Volkonsky, one of the Tsar's aides-de-camp, she travelled across Europe as part of the Imperial suite during the German and French campaigns when she met Goethe. Her exceptionally lovely voice and her musical and dramatic talents were widely praised during the peace celebrations in London and Paris and at the Congresses of Vienna and Verona. It was as the hostess of one of the most influential literary and musical salons in Moscow: as 'Queen of the Muses and of Beauty' as she was dubbed by Alexander Pushkin, who was a frequent guest together with his friend, the Polish poet Mickiewicz; as well as for her closeness to most of the Decembrist revolutionaries, that Zinaida is most remembered in her native Russia." "Spirited and powerful though she was, Zinaida had inherited a strong tendency to depression. A lifelong search for spiritual answers eventually brought the Princess to the Roman Catholic Church and to a new life in Rome. Here she at first created another salon, entertaining among the many Russian and foreign artists, Stendhal, Rossini, Donizetti, Glinka and Sir Walter Scott. Above all Nikolai Gogol became a close friend, working on part of his great novel Dead Souls in the garden of her villa." "Although a friend of Popes and Cardinals, Zinaida's growing mysticism and a lifelong wish to help those in need eventually led her to abandon her former life. Taking vows of poverty as a Franciscan tertiary, she gave up the last decade of her life to helping the poor. At her death in Rome, in February 1862, her coffin was followed to its last resting place by crowds of beggars to whom she was known as simply as 'la beata'." --Book Jacket.
Subject(s)
ISBN
078670831X
9780786708314
Note
"First published in the UK by Constable"--T.p. verso.
Description based on surrogate.
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 300-304) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 8876026