1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910457159503321

Autore

Smith Douglas <1962->

Titolo

The Pearl [[electronic resource] ] : a true tale of forbidden love in Catherine the Great's Russia / / Douglas Smith

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2008

ISBN

1-282-35237-7

9786612352379

0-300-15055-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (352 p.)

Disciplina

782.1092

B

Soggetti

Singers - Russia

Opera - Russia - 18th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Style -- Prelude -- I KUSKOVO -- II OSTANKINO -- III THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE -- Coda -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Filled with a remarkable cast of characters and set against the backdrop of imperial Russia, this tale of forbidden romance could be the stuff of a great historical novel. But in fact The Pearl tells a true tale, reconstructed in part from archival documents that have lain untouched for centuries. Douglas Smith presents the most complete and accurate account ever written of the illicit love between Count Nicholas Sheremetev (1751-1809), Russia's richest aristocrat, and Praskovia Kovalyova (1768-1803), his serf and the greatest opera diva of her time. Blessed with a beautiful voice, Praskovia began her training in Nicholas's operatic company as a young girl. Like all the members of Nicholas's troupe, Praskovia was one of his own serfs. But unlike the others, she utterly captured her master's heart. The book reconstructs Praskovia's stage career as "The Pearl" and the heartbreaking details of her romance with Nicholas-years of torment before their secret marriage, the outrage of the aristocracy when news of the marriage



emerged, Praskovia's death only days after delivering a son, and the unyielding despair that followed Nicholas to the end of his life. Written with grace and style, The Pearl sheds light on the world of the Russian aristocracy, music history, and Russian attitudes toward serfdom. But above all, the book tells a haunting story of love against all odds.

2.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910459270403321

Autore

Baumgold Deborah

Titolo

Contract theory in historical context [[electronic resource] ] : essays on Grotius, Hobbes, and Locke / / by Deborah Baumgold

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden ; ; Boston, : Brill, 2010

ISBN

1-282-78700-4

9786612787003

90-04-18426-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (208 p.)

Collana

Brill's studies in intellectual history ; ; v. 187

Disciplina

320.1/1

Soggetti

Social contract

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Preliminary Material / D. Baumgold -- Chapter One. Hobbes’s And Locke’s Contract Theories: Political Not Metaphysical / D. Baumgold -- Chapter Two. Pacifying Politics: Resistance, Violence, And Accountability In Seventeenth-Century Contract Theory / D. Baumgold -- Chapter Three. When Hobbes Needed History / D. Baumgold -- Chapter Four. Hobbesian Absolutism And The Paradox In Modern Contractarianism / D. Baumgold -- Chapter Five. The Composition Of Hobbes’s Elements Of Law / D. Baumgold -- Chapter Six. The Difficulties Of Hobbes Interpretation / D. Baumgold -- Chapter Seven. Afterword: Theorists Of The Absolutist State / D. Baumgold -- Bibliography / D. Baumgold -- Index / D. Baumgold.

Sommario/riassunto

These essays contest the truism that the social contract is a modern political idea. Just as Rawls came to acknowledge that his political



theory built in the parochial horizon of his time, Hobbes’s, Grotius’s, and Locke’s theories presuppose their ancien regime world. Despite their universalizing language, Hobbes’s and Locke’s theories addressed the age-old issue of resistance to tyrants and assumed the framework of hereditary monarchy. Essays in the volume also relate the logic of their contract claims back to Bodin’s and Grotius’s defenses of absolute sovereignty and direct attention to the affinity between an ‘absolutism of fear’ and Hume’s sensibility. For politically-inclined readers, these theories come to life by being read as treatises on politics in the early-modern state.