Kazimierz Waliszewski Bibliography

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LectorRecitator
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KAZIMIERZ KLEMENS WALISZEWSKI (1849–1935)

The Romance Of An Empress: Catherine II. Of Russia (1894)

ℹ️ "'This is a romance' says the writer in his preface, 'in which fiction finds no place. Even legend enters into it no more than it must needs enter into every faithful evocation of the past. The reader's curiosity, however, and his taste for adventure, if he has it, will lose nothing, all the same'. Materials, it seems, for an exact and minute study of Catherine have only of recent years been forthcoming ; now, out of the seventy-two volumes of documents already published by the Russian Imperial Historical Society, scarcely twenty can be found which are not directly concerned with the history of her reign. And there are other materials, scattered in obscure Russian periodicals, other documents, contained in the State Archives in Russia and in France, which have never been consulted, and which are quite out of ordinary reach. Such, M. Waliszewski tells us, are the main foundations of this 'Romance of an Empress', in which he has endeavoured to present, without fear or favour, the results of a thorough and impartial in- vestigation. One consequence, which is both interesting and significant, is that the book has been forbidden to be circulated in Russia." (Translator's Preface)

https://archive.org/details/cu31924028401648/page/n11/mode/2up

The Story Of A Throne: Catherine II. Of Russia (1895)

ℹ️ "The readers of The Romance of an Empress will be aware that the author intended to complete that work by the one which now appears. It does not seem to him that this course requires any justification. Always important, whatever may be the figure to be evoked, the historical value of the entourage, of surroundings, becomes intensified by the importance of that figure. With a powerful personality, it seems to spread and in some sort reproduce the action of one motive force, in direct continuation of this exuberance of power." (Preface)

https://archive.org/details/cu31924028401747/page/n11/mode/2up

Peter The Great (1898) · Translated by Lady Mary Loyd (1853–1936)

https://archive.org/details/cu31924079609248/page/n11/mode/2up

A History Of Russian Literature (1900)

ℹ️ Short Histories Of The Literatures Of The World.

https://archive.org/details/cu31924087964650/page/n7/mode/2up

Ivan The Terrible (1904) · Translated by Lady Mary Loyd (1853–1936)

https://archive.org/details/ivanterrible00loydgoog/page/n9/mode/2up

Paul The First Of Russia, The Son Of Catherine The Great (1913)

ℹ️ "The tragic figure of the son of Catherine the Great is one of the most enigmatic in history, and also one of the most discussed. Mad monarchs have been common enough, and in the second half of the eighteenth century such an affliction hardly called for remark. George III in England and Christian VII in Denmark were the contemporaries of the Czar Paul, whose case however presents some special features.

In the first place was Catherine's son really mad ? Till lately it seemed to be admitted that he was so, at any rate in the last years of his life. The events of his reign of nearly four years were unanimously regarded as the grotesque and disastrous result of the uncontrolled caprice of a demented tyrant. All this is now contested, and in the last few years there has been a complete reversal of the received opinions both of Paul's character and intellect and of the value of his work.

The progress of science, both medical and historical, has made it necessary to revise to some extent views formerly accepted, but the reaction has been carried to extremes. In the eyes of his most recent Russian biographers Paul is not merely not a lunatic ; he has become almost a great man. They are not content to celebrate his great qualities and his brilliant talents ; they incline to think that he had genius. His reign, far from having been a series of cruel misfortunes for his subjects, as used to be supposed, was in the opinion of these historians a period of beneficent activity and development which, had it not been cut short by the death of the sovereign, might have been the beginning of unexampled prosperity and greatness.

How is it that we have deceived ourselves so long and so grossly ? How was it that Paul's own mother shared the common delusion to such an extent that she did all she could to exclude him from the throne ? Moreover, if he is really worthy of the place in the Pantheon of great sovereigns which is assigned to him by his new apologists, how do they reconcile this historic eminence with the eccentricities of his mind and character which they do not deny, and with the calamities which they admit were the consequences of his government.

All this gives a new aspect to the problem and the following pages may help to indicate a solution."
(Introduction)

https://archive.org/details/cu31924028412835/page/n11/mode/2up

Poland The Unknown (1919)

https://archive.org/details/polandunknown00walirich/page/n7/mode/2up
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