Examen de l’ouvrage de M. le marquis de Custine intitulé La Russie en 1839, traduit du russe par Alexandre Kouznetzoff

Rare first edition.

Only 3 copies recorded in the CCFr: Paris (BnF and Assemblée nationale); Rouen.

Contemporary-style half olive calf over marbled boards, smooth spine ruled in gilt, cherry morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper sides, pastedowns and endpapers of vat paper, red edges, modern binding.

This work constitutes a refutation of Astolphe de Custine’s "La Russie en 1839" (Paris, 1843, 4 vols. 8vo), which portrayed the country as backward while challenging the tsarist regime: « Avec une légèreté incroyable, avec une impudence qui n’a pas de nom, et l’intention manifeste de calomnier, d’offenser et d’injurier l’empereur et l’impératrice, il entre dans différents détails, et en tire des conclusions à sa manière […]. Je dirai seulement que le marquis, tout en croyant voir beaucoup, n’a en réalité presque rien vu, et qu’il s’autorise de ce peu qu’il a pu voire réellement, pour hasarder les jugements les plus absurdes… » (pp. 47-48).

Custine’s work was banned in Russia, and Tsar Nicholas I, outraged by the author’s “betrayal” after having granted him an audience, commissioned several rebuttals from writers.

Gretsch nevertheless states in his foreword that he had received no request from the Russian authorities, and that he had written this response entirely on his own initiative.

Born in Saint Petersburg, Nicolaï Ivanovitch Gretsch (1787-1867) was a Russian writer, linguist, literary critic, and journalist. The author of several novels, the best known being The Black Lady (1834), he distinguished himself above all as a grammarian and literary historian.