PUZYNINA Gabriela née Günther - In Vilnius and Lithuanian manors. A memoir of the years 1815-1843 [Vilnius 1928].

Vilnius [1928]. Circulated and printed by Jozef Zawadzki. 16x24 cm, pp. XVIII, 389, black and white illustrations in the text and on separate pages, publisher's softcover. Good condition (soiling and minor cover tears, minimal cover loss at spine, dry ownership stamp).

Published by Adam Czartkowski and Henryk Mościcki. The cover was designed by Edmund Bartłomiejczyk.

"Daughter of a wealthy landowning house, related by her father to almost all the nobility, settled from the Niemen to the Berezina, and by her mother connected by ties of kinship with almost all Polish magnate families, brought up in the atmosphere of the most cultured environment of the time; befriended by that part of the Polish literary elite, which was then concentrated in Vilnius; an intelligent, observant, witty, but at the same time good-hearted and sensitive-souled woman, painted in her diary a faithful picture of the life of Lithuanian courts and palaces and urban society in Vilnius - from the glamorous and lush years of 1815-1830, through the much sadder Nikolaev epoch to the gloomy reign of Muraviev and his immediate successors. (...) With chronicler's accuracy and fidelity, he moves before us silhouettes of prominent citizens and citizens, beautiful ladies and boisterous young men, professors of Vilnius University and its students, doctors and actors, novelists and artists, dignitaries of the Church and grandees of Vilnius, - leads us to the magnate residences, to the manors and mansions of the nobility, - paints in vivid colors the street life of Vilnius, its games, celebrations, weddings and funerals, rural entertainments and the life of the Lithuanian-Byelorussian people - in a word, gives us an insight into all strata of society and the different sides of their lives. He describes the year 1831 in Oshmansky and Swieciansky, mentions the political trials of the time that took place in Vilnius, and finally spreads before us a picture of the persecution of Polishness by Wieszatiel and his comrades. Finally, there is no lack of interesting pictures of Warsaw from various years and impressions from abroad." [from the preface]