Transcriber's note: Obvious printer errors have been repaired, butspelling has not been standardized. Any missing page numbers are thosethat were not shown in the original text.
MEMOIRS OF THE
DUCHESSE DE DINO
(Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan)
1831-1835
Edited, with Notes and Biographical Index, by
THE PRINCESSE RADZIWILL
(NÉE CASTELLANE)
WITH PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1909
Printed in England
This history is composed of notes made in England duringthe Embassy of the Prince de Talleyrand and of fragmentsof letters addressed by my grandmother, the Duchesse deDino (afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan),during a period of thirty years, to M. Adolphe de Bacourt,who gave them to me by her desire.
Some months before her death in 1862 my grandmother,who was then fully aware of her condition, herself told meof the precious legacy which would be transmitted to mewhen she was gone by M. de Bacourt, her executor, andadded her final instructions and advice.
A just judgment on conspicuous ideas and persons ispossible only after the lapse of many years, and so I shouldwillingly have postponed the publication of these Memoirs.But some years since, my niece, the Comtesse Jean deCastellane, published the story of the early years of theDuchesse de Dino, and as many readers desire to have thecontinuation, I have decided not to withhold it any longer,and it will be found in the following pages.
The book throws more light on the last years of thePrince de Talleyrand than any previous publication, andit speaks so well for itself that I need say nothing for it.The place which the Duchess occupied in the EuropeanSociety of the first half of last century is also too well VIknown to need to be recalled here. Her personal charm,like her intellectual distinction, has rarely been equalled,but the moral fascination which she exercised on all whoknew her is less well known. Intellect is a great sourceof strength, but nobility of soul is a greater; and it wasassuredly this which helped the Duchess in many difficultpassages in her history.
It is this sense of nobility and distinction which, in myopinion, is the chief characteristic of her Memoirs.
CASTELLANE, PRINCESSE RADZIWILL
CHAPTER I | PAGE |
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Paris, May 9—A crowded drawing-room—Eridge Castle—Troublein Paris—A Naval Spectacle. | 1 |
CHAPTER II | |
A Visit from the Duke of Wellington—Politics at Paris—TheKing's Birthday—The Princess Victoria—Europeancomplications. | 12 ... BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR! |