Astolf de Custine is a famous French monarchist and aristocrat. Many know him as a traveler, and came to his world popularity after a trip to Russia and the publication of a book entitled "Russia in 1839". Also in his work there are plays and memoirs.
Writer Biography
Astolf de Custine was born in the small town of Niederwiller in Lorraine in France. He was born in 1857. His grandfather, Adam Philippe de Custine, who was a division general, was well-known in the Seven Years' War and the War of American Independence. In 1792, he commanded during the battles on the Rhine for the cities of Worms, Speyer, Frankfurt and Mainz, which he eventually managed to occupy. However, soon the Prussian forces forced him to partially retreat, the Convention accused the general of not having made the proper efforts to keep Mainz and sentenced him to death. In August 1793, the sentence was carried out. Astolf de Custine's father also died on the guillotine during the Jacobin Terror.
The hero of our article was brought up by a mother named Delphine de Sabran (her portrait above). Largely under her influence, the young French aristocrat developed a craving for travel. It is believed that during the most difficult periods of his life, this helped him to demonstrate a persistent character and ability to sacrifice himself.
In his youth, Francois Rene de Chateaubriand, who was closely acquainted with his mother, had a great influence on him. This is a French writer and politician whom Delphine met before the French Revolution in the house of his older brother Jean Baptiste, whose wife she was close enough friends with. It is believed that between them there was a love affair. However, in his memoirs that were published after his death, Francois Rene de Châteaubriant nobly kept silent about these relations, but devoted a whole passage to Delphine and her castle Fervak, which was acquired in 1803. A few years later, a gap occurred between them, but after that, Dolphin continued to literally idolize Chateaubriand, and her son inherited such a cult in relation to this writer from her. It is believed that on the very first trip with her son, she went in order to heal spiritual wounds due to the coldness of the writer. The formal pretext was the need to improve the health of Astolf.
On his first journey, Astolf de Custine set off already in 1811. He visited England, Switzerland, Calabria, Scotland and Spain. At that time, his literary talent was only forming, he still did not think that he would write books about travels someday.
In 1814, he attended the Vienna Congress as one of Talleyrand's assistants. Based on the results of this work, he wrote service memoirs.
In 1821, the hero of our article started a family, and soon a son was born to him. True, a happy marriage did not work: two years later, the spouse and little son died. After this, de Custine became a religious person, this change can be observed in his work.
In 1824, he was at the center of the scandal when he was found unconscious, beaten and robbed in the vicinity of Paris, besides he was undressed and lay in the mud. Immediately there were rumors about Astolf's bisexuality, allegedly he had a date for a young soldier in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, and military comrades attacked him, beat him and robbed him. After that, the biography of Astolf de Custine began to be monitored with particular close attention, his position in society was greatly shaken. For example, they stopped taking a young man in some noble houses, and often openly scoffed at him. At the same time, the artistic and intellectual elite did not reject it. Among his friends were Theophile Gauthier, Johann Goethe, Francois Châteaubrien, Frederic Chopin, Stendhal, Honore de Balzac. For example, he lived with Goethe for several months, in his house Balzac read his works. Frederic Chopin often played in the evenings, and he had a particularly close relationship with Sophie Ghe, the then-popular writer and owner of a prestigious literary salon. For many years there was a lively correspondence between them.
Literary Experiments
Over time, de Custine began to write travel books. By 1822, he was completing a series of essays on his trips to Scotland, England, Italy, and Switzerland. In 1833, he describes his trip to Spain, and in 1839, a trip to Russia, we will tell about this work separately.
Also known are his works Alois, or the Priest from Mount Saint Bernard, Light as It Is, Spain under Ferdinand VII, Romuald or Calling, Letters to Farnhagen von Ense and to Rachel Farnhagen.
Beatrice Chenchi
In 1833, the hero of our article writes one of his most famous plays, which is dedicated to the daughter of a Roman aristocrat who killed her father. He makes Beatrice Chenchi the main character of his work, who became famous for her courageous behavior during the investigation and incredible beauty.
Her story often attracted writers, de Custine was no exception. She came from a wealthy Roman family, was born in 1577. According to a common version, which can be found in the play of the hero of our article, her father, Francesco Chenchi, hated his seven children from his first marriage. He deprived all sons of any support, and regularly beat his daughters.
Only the elder sister Anthony managed to get married, despite strict supervision, she sent the Pope a petition in which she talked about how her father mistreated her, begging to marry her or send her to the monastery. Clement VIII took pity on the girl - he forced Francesco to determine her dowry and pass off as representative of a noble family Carlo Gabrieli.
Beatrice also wanted to get married in order to get rid of the tyrant father, but he was categorically against it. He placed his second wife, Lucretia Francesco, in the castle of Petrell, located in the Kingdom of Naples, where he raped Beatrice. The girl also wrote a petition addressed to the Pope, but it did not reach the addressee.
According to the common version, which is also followed by de Custine, the father raped his daughter on the matrimonial bed right in front of her stepmother. This bright and colorful image has long entered European literature, although it is not known exactly where the rape occurred, or whether it took place at all.
Thinking of taking revenge on her father, she took Brother Giacomo as her assistant. They tried to poison the father at first, but the opium had no effect on him. Then it was decided to kill him using a weapon, and throw his body out of the window so that everything looked like an accident. In addition to Beatrice, the plot involved her young stepmother Lucretia, who was also tyrannized by her husband, the eldest son of Giacomo, as well as the lord Guerra, who requested the hands of the main character of the play, but was refused.
The investigation lasted several months. Guerra killed one of the mercenaries who cracked down on Francesco, but the second was detained and testified. At that time, the entire Chenchi family consisted of two brothers Giacomo and Bernardo, their sister Beatrice and stepmother. All were tortured, which only the main character of the play withstood. High-ranking Roman aristocrats have repeatedly appealed to the Pope with requests to pardon the convicted, but they were executed.
This caused public discontent, as Francesco Cenci knew everything firsthand. He himself was in prison three times for perverted sexual inclinations, but received pardon from the Pope, having paid 200 thousand piastres. The inquiry lasted for a year. The death sentence was pronounced on the same day, only the youngest of the Chenchi brothers was pardoned.
Beatrice with his stepmother Lucretia and brother Giacomo were executed on the bridge of the Holy Angel in Rome, chopping off their heads.
Trip to Russia
The Marquis made a trip to Russia in 1839. He spent three summer months in our country, during which he almost daily recorded his thoughts and observations about everything that surrounded him. All this was framed by him in the form of letters to his friends.
Returning to France, he processed his notes into a separate book, which was published in 1843. The work became incredibly popular, the first edition sold out in just two months. In the same year she was released in England and Germany. In total, up to 1855, about 200 thousand copies of this book were sold in the USA and Europe.
Background
The first success to the hero of our article came after the publication of his travel notes about traveling to Spain. It was then that he drew attention to the interest with which everyone around him relates to works of this kind. The book was highly appreciated even by Honore de Balzac, who advised Astolf to give his assessment to other parts of Europe, for example, southern Italy and Russia.
When the book of Alexis de Tocqueville was published in the late 30s of the XIX century, de Custine finally decided on his future route. The fact is that the French politician in his treatise "On Democracy in America" argued that in the future the whole world will be based only on two powers - these will be Russia and the United States. Therefore, Astolf concluded that our country is no less interesting than America, which he also wanted to visit. He chose her as his next destination. Due to the fact that the choice was made precisely for this reason, de Custine himself was later called the "Tosquil of Russia."
The French monarchist arrived in our country in 1839. He visited Moscow, Yaroslavl and several other small cities, but spent most of his trip in St. Petersburg. In his country, Astolf was known as a reactionary and conservative, constantly fearing that democracy would lead a crowd in power in France. In Russia, he hoped to find weighty arguments against democratic government by the state in favor of the monarchist. However, he was really shocked by the Russian form of autocracy, the slavery of the common people who surrounded him, his unquestioning consent to his own humiliation.
The content of the work
De Custine begins his notes on Russia with a description of the journey on a ship that departs from the German city of Lubeck to Kronstadt. He spends several weeks in St. Petersburg, attends balls, meets local aristocrats, and is received by Emperor Nicholas I.
Acquainted with the capital, in his book "Russia in 1839," Custine describes a trip to several other cities, which he visits with the escort provided to him. He goes to Moscow, from there to Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, and then returns to Moscow again. The whole trip takes about three months, Kyustin decides to visit Russia in the summer. From Moscow he arrives in St. Petersburg, from where he returns back to France.
A book about this journey comes out in France, four years later. It contains detailed observations and thoughts of the Marquis about what he saw Russian reality. He describes Russia exclusively in dark colors, attributing hypocrisy to the nobility and only an attempt to imitate a truly European way of life. Astolf de Custine’s quotes about Russia are known, in which he very accurately characterizes the mores and orders he saw. Here are just some of them.
The rich are not fellow citizens of the poor.
Of all the European cities, Moscow is the broadest field of activity for the worldly libertine. The Russian government is well aware that under autocratic power, an outlet is needed for rebellion in any area, and, of course, prefers rebellion in the moral sphere than political unrest. That is the secret of the licentiousness of some and the connivance of others.
The army of officials, this sheer ulcer of Russia. These gentlemen form a kind of nobility.
Russia is ruled by a class of officials ... and often ruled against the will of the monarch ... an all-Russian autocrat often observes that he is not at all as omnipotent as they say, and with surprise, in which he is afraid to admit to himself, he sees that his power has a limit. This limit has been put to him by the bureaucracy.
Russia is a country of completely useless formalities.
Attitude to the Russian Autocracy
In Russia, the author constantly notes that it is difficult for him to breathe, he directly feels the tyranny that comes from the monarch. The consequence of this, in his opinion, is the classic Russian character, enclosed in a strictly limited framework of unquestioning obedience.
The Frenchman comes to the conclusion that the principle of pyramidal violence applies in Russia, when the tsar has unlimited power over officials and nobles, and those, in turn, are full-fledged rulers over their subordinates, peasants, and all serfs. All this spills out in a special form of cruelty among themselves and over their own family. This pyramid operates in the opposite direction, notes de Custine. In this case, it manifests itself in the form of hypocrisy and fawning over all the higher ones.
The French writer notes that, in his opinion, the Russians do not like European culture, imitating it only in order to feel themselves to be a more powerful nation than they really are. A sign of this is the hypertrophied ambition of the Russians.
In his book of all classes, he praises only peasants who live freely in the province, having a freedom-loving and simple character.
Kyustin criticizes unity and tyranny as the main institution of Russian rule. At the same time, he manages to note that the only person with whom he was really pleased to communicate, who was sufficiently exalted in his soul and educated, was Emperor Nicholas I.
Editions
The first edition of La russie en 1839 was published in Paris in 1843. These were four volumes, with a total volume of about 1,200 pages. The price of such labor was quite high at that time (about 30 francs), but even so, it was sold out in record time. By 1855, the book alone in France was republished three more times, but the demand for it turns out to be so great that four more unlicensed publications are published in neighboring Belgium. In 1843, translations of it appeared in English and German, and in 1855 an adapted edition for the American market appeared.
In Russia, the book is almost immediately banned because of its critical content. Individual copies enter the country only in the form of smuggling. Russian aristocrats read it in the original in French.
The opportunity to read certain passages in Russian appeared only in 1891, partly by the work of Kyustin published by the magazine "Russian Antiquity". In 1910, an abridged retelling of a book entitled "Notes on Russia by the French traveler Marquis de Custine" was published. In 1931, an extremely abridged version appeared in the publishing house of political prisoners under the heading "Nikolaev Russia", later it was reprinted in 1990 and 2007.
The Russian reader succeeds in fully getting acquainted with Kyustin's translated and commented work only in 1996, when his notes were finally published without cuts or abbreviations. Currently, there is even a similar audiobook.
Relationship to a book abroad
In Europe, Custine's book immediately became popular. There is evidence that even the French king Louis Philippe personally ordered it for his library. The king of Belgium spoke positively of her, and the German naturalist and traveler von Humboldt read it to the Prussian ruler Frederick Wilhelm IV.
In 1951, in the preface to the American publication, the US ambassador to the USSR, General Walter Smith, noted how accurately and colorful descriptions of Russia and its inhabitants were given in the book by Custine.
In a preface to another publication in the United States in 1989, Professor of History Burstin noted that Kyustin’s eloquent and inspirational story should recall that the Russian Empire is still hiding under the cover of the Soviet Union.
In Russia, the study and study of the book began only in the last few years. After the appearance of this work, several phraseological units appeared that entered into European culture. For example, this is a “prison of peoples”, the main meaning of which was the stereotypical view of Russia as an extremely backward and authoritarian state.
End of life
De Custine himself no longer had a family and died in the fall of 1857 in the small French province of Fervak, located in the Lower Normandy region. The writer and traveler at that time was 67 years old.