EMPIRE OF THE CZAR A Journey Through Eternal Russia

About this book, a U.S. ambassador to Moscow wrote, "I could have taken many pages . . . and, after substituting present-day names and dates for those of a century ago, sent them to the State Department as my own official reports." French nobleman Astolphe de Custine traveled through Russia in 1839, expecting to find evidence to support his views on the superiority of autocratic rule. However, his three-month journey actually reversed his opinion, as his exhaustive account details. Bill Kelsey's Falstaffian tones bespeak an aristocratic sensibility; his intelligence, facility with Russian names, and considerable endurance serve the tome amply. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 02]