One Year at the Russian Court: 1904-1905

"One Year at the Russian Court: 1904-1905" by Renée Elton Maud is a memoir about the author's year among the Russian elite, sharing a rare look at the inner workings of the royal court as the nation approached and entered the Russo-Japanese War. The story jumps right into excitement of the narrator’s preparation to visit Russia, a dream tied deeply to her family’s history with the Russian court. When she gets to Petrograd, she immediately goes into the shiny but complicated lives of the Russian nobles. Seeing the city, meeting her family, and taking in all the Russian court traditions, the narrator sets a scene full of rich detail, alluding to both the grand life and the growing conflicts of the time, and hinting at the big happenings to come.