The Empire of the Czar: or, Observations on the Social, Political, and Religious State and Prospects of Russia

Astolphe de Custine

Translated by Anonymous

14 chapters · about 7 h

3 volumes in Sphinx

Get it in Sphinx

Coming soon to iPhone and Android. Join the waitlist to hear when Sphinx opens.

Join the waitlist
Your phone

We'll only email you about Sphinx; you can ask us to remove you any time.

The opening

CHAPTER XV.

fete of peteehoff. the people in the palace of their master. immense power of the emperor. — the empress Catherine’s motives for instituting schools. — views of THE present EMPEROR.” — RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY. FOREIGNERS’ DESCRIPTIONS OF RUSSIA THE AUTHOR’s MOTIVES IN WRITING HIS TRAVELS. — NO MIDDLE CLASS IN RUSSIA. THE CHILDREN OF THE PRIESTS. CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS. ABJECT MISERY OF THE PEOPLE. RULES FOR FOREIGNERS WHO WOULD SEEK POPULARITY IN RUSSIA. PROBITY OF THE PEASANTS. PICK-POCKETS IN THE PALACE. THE JOURNAL DES DEBATS. THE SITE OF PETERHOFF. THE PARK ILLUMINATIONS. A CITIZEN BIVOUAC. THE ENGLISH PALACE. SILENCE OF THE CROWD. THE BALL. GOOD ORDER OF THE PEASANTS. ACCIDENT IN THE GULF. EVIL OMENS. THE EMPRESs’s MODE OF LIFE. DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUMINATIONS. — REVIEW OF THE CORPS OF CADETS. A CADET IN FAVOUR. THE CIRCASSIAN GUARD.

It is necessaiy to view the fete of PeterhofF under two different lights, the material, and the moral; thus viewed, the same spectacle produces very different impressions.

The whole book is in the Sphinx app.

About this edition

The words
Anonymous's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 4 places
  • The scanned copy's binding, edges and specks, read by the OCR as stray characters (12 blocks)
  • Other material that isn't the author's, in 2 places
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
  • The printer's imprint (“Printed by A. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square”) (3 blocks)
  • The title lines above chapter XV (“THE EMPIRE OF THE CZAR.”) (2 blocks)
  • The closing line “END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.”
  • The printer's imprint (“London : Printed by A. Spottiswoode”) (2 blocks)
  • The library's book-pocket label (University of Toronto Library) and specks (8 blocks)
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 11 places