BERLIN SOCIETY

London: Sampson KLow, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1885. First English Edition. Hardcover. Very Good +. Uncommon first English-language edition in publisher's cloth binding. 8vo, xi, 236, 32, brown pebbled cloth pressed in black and gilt. Vasili was the pen name of Princess Catherine Radziwill (1858 - 1941), s a Polish-Russian aristocrat. In 1884, Nouvelle Revue published a series of articles written as letters to a young diplomat by the elderly Count Paul Vasili. The articles were critical of Berlin society and full of damaging gossip about the imperial court. The publication of the articles, collected in this book, created a great scandal at the court Count Paul Vasili was a fictional character and a subsequent investigation indicated Auguste Gérard, the empress' French reader, as the author. Only in 1918 in her book Confessions of the Czarina, Radziwill admitted that she was the author of Berlin Society. Scarce.