A Taste for Freedom: The Life of Astophe de Custine Book

A somewhat uneven but nevertheless engrossing account of the author of one of the greatest books ever written about Russia (La Russie en 1839, or, in English, Letters from Russia). Muhlstein devotes almost as much space to Custine's mother as to himself, and she was a fascinating character, but it does unbalance the book somewhat. Custine, who was gay, had the courage (and the pedigree and the income) to live openly with his partner all his life. He seems to be a writer for this century, rather than the two last-- and it is to be hoped that more of his work, especially the letters to Rahel Varnhagen, will appear in English translation,