Secret Memoirs of the Court of St. Petersburg

What it is

This is a book in English translation, published in 1895, of memoirs first written in French and printed in 1800. The author, Charles François Philibert Masson (1762-1807), was a French tutor at the Russian court. The copy here is a scanned book from the Internet Archive, digitized with funding from the University of Toronto. The edition was strictly limited to 500 copies.

Why it matters

Masson wrote about the court during the late part of Catherine II's reign and the beginning of Paul I's reign. Because he lived near the court and wrote as a contemporary, his observations give students a close view of court life and gossip. Readers should remember that a court insider's memoir shows one person's views, which may be biased, and that it was not an official record.

Look closer

• What does Masson choose to describe about court life, and what does he seem to think is worth noticing?
• Why might a French tutor have written about the Russian court, and for whom might the book have been intended?
• Which people or events does the book leave out, and whose voices are missing?