‎MOLLOY (Joseph Fitzgerald).‎
‎The Russian Court in the Eighteenth Century.‎

‎ London, Hutchinson & Co, 1905, 2 vol. in-8°, xii-318 et x-[319-597] pp, 2 portraits gravés sur acier en frontispices et 16 pl. de gravures hors texte, reliures percaline bordeaux, dos lisses avec titres dorés, têtes dorées (rel. de l'éditeur), plats lég. défraîchis, qqs rares rousseurs, bon état. Texte en anglais.‎

Reference : 96680

‎"This belongs to a class of books which it is difficult to appreciate. They are certainly not edifying, and yet they tell a story which has to be told. How can we understand the French Revolution unless we know something about the crimes of the ancien regime ? And how can we understand the Russia of today except we see how it was governed in the past. But it must be confessed that the task of making oneself acquainted with these things is nothing less than nauseous. There is scarcely a relief in the uniform level of baseness and wickedness. Sometimes we come across a strong man or woman ; but a good one almost never. What a story, for instance, is that of the deposition of Peter by Catherine ! There is nothing quite so sordid even in the revolutions, whether accomplished in the Palace or the camp, of the Roman or the Byzantine Empire. And in the midst of it all "the Holy Synod awaited to greet and congratulate her," while the crowds admired her piety when, having doffed her uniform, she went to attend Mass. Less than a week after this the deposed Peter was dead, – of dysentery, it was said. It was not he, it was she, who was felix opportunitate mortis. Mr. Molloy acquits her of complicity, and it is perfectly trim that the Orloffs were capable of that or of any other crime; but that she was "an inexperienced young woman" who did not know that her deposed husband would be a source of danger we cannot believe, even on the authority of Frederick the Great. For an "inexperienced young woman" she acted with extraordinary courage and readiness." (The Spectator, 30-12-1905)) ‎