Books by Astolphe de Custine

Astolphe de Custine was born in into the French aristocracy in 1790, during the period of great civil war upheaval in France. Both his father and grandfather were guillotined during the Terror. Long established in his anti-revolutionary and pro-monarchical instincts, Custine went to Russia in 1839 'to find arguments against representative government'. In doing so he achieved remarkable feats of travel and observation, and was dubbed by many 'the Tocqueville of Russia.' He died in 1857.