Bread of Exile

by Dimitri Obolensky

Most of this book is about bygone days of imperial Russia. However, instead of being a typical "Nicholas and Alexandra" book or "How the Royal Family Lived", the passages here are first person accounts, recorded as memories, or as the actual journal entries. Through this, the reader gets a picture of what it was like living in the upper echelon of society in the latter half of the 19th century, and the early 20th. It is striking and gorgeous.

245 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 1999

About the author

Scholar of Byzantium, the early medieval Balkans and Russia who could claim descent from Rurik.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of memoirs of various antecedents of Dimitry Oblensky. That of his father was a bizarre remembrance of the land on which he grew up and traversed. Those of his grandmother and great aunt were fascinating. These two girls grew up as contemporaries and friends with the future Nicholas II and his siblings. They’re remembrances of the homey atmosphere of the Romanov’s under Alexander III and Empress Minnie was fantastic. I must admit that I lost interest after that and did not read the last segment, which was the actual meme jot of Professor Oblensky.