Custine (Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, Marquis de)

Romuald ou la Vocation, 4 vol. in 2, half titles, errata, foxing throughout, slight marginal staining in first part of tome 2, contemporary French half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt tooled with floral motifs, green endpapers, 8vo, Amyot, Paris, 1848; with loosely inserted ALS to unknown recipient, dated Rome, 1^st January 1847, written during his religious period, and containing references to his sentimental life, watermarked paper, 4to (3)

*** Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, Marquis de Custine (18 March 1790 – 25 September 1857) French aristocrat and travel writer (1790–1857) known for the work ‘La Russie en 1839’. This work concersn not only Custine's travels through the Russian Empire, but also the social fabric, economy, and way of life during the reign of Nicholas I. Custine was the grandson of a general in the French revolutionary army. Both his grandfather and father were executed in the Terror, but his mother, a freethinker, was an important social and literary figure during the Napoleonic period. Custine, though married for social reasons, was homosexual, and was the focus of a public scandal when an assignation with a young guardsman went awry. In the years after these tragedies, Custine became very pious. He was acquainted with many great writers like Hugo, Balzac, Stendhal, Baudelaire, Lamartine, and Sophie Gay, but his homosexuality, or the rumor of it, was always a barrier to his social and literary life. The letter is addressed to an old friend, with whom the author might have had a relationship before his conversion. De Custine expresses feelings of deep affection and nostalgy but his words also unveil a sense of sadness related to a recent event.