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Before the Glory Ended
The whirl of dancers on mirrorlike ballroom floors...the gleaming rails racing beneath the Orient Express...the scented warmth of forbidden boudoirs...the dark shadow of intrigue and danger...
All were part of Jean Riebeck's world as he pursued his strange and gallant destiny amid the tangled crosscurrents of pre-WWII European politics and war...and amid the conflicting passions of two very different women - the beautiful duchess, wanton wife of his own cousin, and the proud English girl who first would not have him, then would not let him go....
All were part of Jean Riebeck's world as he pursued his strange and gallant destiny amid the tangled crosscurrents of pre-WWII European politics and war...and amid the conflicting passions of two very different women - the beautiful duchess, wanton wife of his own cousin, and the proud English girl who first would not have him, then would not let him go....
396 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Ursula Zilinsky
4 books1 followerBorn 1931 in Karlsruhe, Germany
Died 2015 in Seatlle, WA, USA
Ursula Zilinsky (née Greissemer or Griessemer) was born in 1931 in the German city of Karlsruhe. After being raised in Munich by her parents, Otto (Tom) and Winifred Greissemer, she was educated at the International School of Geneva (Switzerland) before emigrating to New York together with her parents in 1949.
In New York, Ursula went to University, where she met her later husband, Pieter Zilinsky.
According to the 1969 German edition hardback jacket of "Before the Glory Ended", the couple had two children.
According to Pieter's obituary, the two retired to Seattle, where they were active in several poets society's as well as the Seatlle Arts Museum and Asian Arts museum before Ursula's passing in 2015.
Died 2015 in Seatlle, WA, USA
Ursula Zilinsky (née Greissemer or Griessemer) was born in 1931 in the German city of Karlsruhe. After being raised in Munich by her parents, Otto (Tom) and Winifred Greissemer, she was educated at the International School of Geneva (Switzerland) before emigrating to New York together with her parents in 1949.
In New York, Ursula went to University, where she met her later husband, Pieter Zilinsky.
According to the 1969 German edition hardback jacket of "Before the Glory Ended", the couple had two children.
According to Pieter's obituary, the two retired to Seattle, where they were active in several poets society's as well as the Seatlle Arts Museum and Asian Arts museum before Ursula's passing in 2015.
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March 10, 2022DISCLAIMER: this is not my review. I quote simply what Kirkus published about Before the Glory Ended so people have an idea what it might be about. I wasn't successful in tracking down a copy for myself yet.
Quoted text from Kirkus, June 26 1967
"Adding an applique of glamor to the glory, this is a hedgehopping history of the crucial years, from before Hitler through the Cold War, from Paris and Vienna and Budapest in the `30's to London later, and from the morning coats of palaces and legations to the anonymous attire of a man working in a small back room of London's intelligence. With elan, and with a certain sweep, this bouffant novel follows one Jean Riebeck--from his youth with his cousin Istvan and aunts, all Hungarian nobility, to his later service as a French career officer, to World War II when he was sent into Germany as a saboteur, survived and escaped Buchenwald to reach England. There hospitalized for a long time he met Jenny, a nurse, began the intermittent romance which was to become stronger--almost decisive enough for him to give up the postwar intelligence work which found him here, there, and finally negotiating beyond his official capacity for the release of his cousin Istvan from the Russians....Every now and then there's a quiver to the stiff upper lip of romantic heroism (""Adieu, I can't say An Revoir"")--but on the whole it's a very dashing, decorative entertainment. Like its hero--the genre is a casualty of modern times, but it should certainly find a substantial residual readership."
Quoted text from Kirkus, June 26 1967
"Adding an applique of glamor to the glory, this is a hedgehopping history of the crucial years, from before Hitler through the Cold War, from Paris and Vienna and Budapest in the `30's to London later, and from the morning coats of palaces and legations to the anonymous attire of a man working in a small back room of London's intelligence. With elan, and with a certain sweep, this bouffant novel follows one Jean Riebeck--from his youth with his cousin Istvan and aunts, all Hungarian nobility, to his later service as a French career officer, to World War II when he was sent into Germany as a saboteur, survived and escaped Buchenwald to reach England. There hospitalized for a long time he met Jenny, a nurse, began the intermittent romance which was to become stronger--almost decisive enough for him to give up the postwar intelligence work which found him here, there, and finally negotiating beyond his official capacity for the release of his cousin Istvan from the Russians....Every now and then there's a quiver to the stiff upper lip of romantic heroism (""Adieu, I can't say An Revoir"")--but on the whole it's a very dashing, decorative entertainment. Like its hero--the genre is a casualty of modern times, but it should certainly find a substantial residual readership."
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