| Summary: | “A Meeting Between Two Medieval Men on the Doorstep of the Enlightened Age: Prince Kurakin and the Duc de Saint-Simon”
This article reconstructs the cultural context surrounding the meeting between a well-born Russian servitor (Prince B. I. Kurakin) and a French aristocrat (Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon). As the author demonstrates, notwithstanding their different backgrounds and experiences, these two representatives of the ancien régime shared many things in common, including an avid interest in noble genealogy, honor, and life-writing. These commonly-shared interests formed the basis of a mutually-beneficial relationship, and may even have informed their political and literary activity.
|
|---|