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The Nineteenth Century --- Russia
Out of Print
This book was first published in 1975.
London, 1831.The Marchioness of Charnwood is giving a ball. With her flair for dramatic effect she had hoped to present a special guest - a young Russian romantic poet - to fashionable London. But the Count Andrei Durov has not answered her letters and no one has heard of him for some time. The Marchioness has been badly let down.
Her nephew Lord Tobias Dorchester is also at the ball. His aunt appeals to him to help solve the mystery of the missing Count Durov. Later Toby lets himself be goaded into a massive bet with a wealthy fop that he cannot find the Count. So Toby is bound for Russia.
Toby chooses a travelling companion - David Buchanan the son of a merchant. David had lived in a town on the Baltic when he was a child and he can speak Russian.
Toby and David arrive in St Petersburg. There they have to contend with petty bureaucracy, spies and a hotel which is overrun by bed bugs. They soon find out that there is indeed a mystery about Count Durov. It is clear that something is being kept from them.
Then they are quietly told to go to Moscow. They take the hint and go to the English Club in Moscow where they meet Andrei's half sister, Tamara. She is able to tell them that the Tsar Nicholas I has had her brother imprisoned in a private mental home. (The Tsar disapproves of Andrei's writings but has a problem because Andrei has well known foreign friends).
How can Toby, David and Tamara rescue Andrei and smuggle him out of Russia? A plan is soon hatched with the help of the Dark People (the Russian peasants). There is a raft trip down the Volga and a ride across the steppes with Kashkin of the Third Section (the secret police) and the gendarmie in pursuit. Finally there is the barrier of the high mountains and deep gorges of the Caucasus, complete with wild and hostile tribesmen.
This is a thrilling story but what makes it so fascinating is the detailed background. Westernised St Petersburg with its wide streets and palaces contrasting with older Moscow with its narrow streets, medieval battlements, onion-domed churches, and wooden houses. The river thoroughfare of the vast Volga with rafts, barges and steamships. And much more.
Geoffrey Trease is always at his best when writing about Russia.
Comes with a note about the Tsar Nicholas I and Russia in 1831.
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