RUSSIA. Catherine RADZIWILL (1858-1941) daughter of Polish C - Lot 573

RUSSIA. Catherine RADZIWILL (1858-1941) daughter of Polish Count Adam Rzewuski and niece of Madame Hanska, adventurer and forger (including letters from Madame Hanska confiding about Balzac). 4 L.A.S., 1886-1891, to the Marquis de Saint-Vallier; 12 pages in-8, envelopes. Berlin, June 4, 1886. Her husband is ill: "the doctors have decided that we must spend next winter in Cairo". She does not want "to leave Europe without saying goodbye to all our friends in France"... October 18, 1886, leaving Paris: "We are going first to Moscow, where I will let my husband and children rest while I myself go for two days to Petersburg, where I will take leave of my father, whose health unfortunately leaves much to be desired. - On October 10 we shall embark for Odessa, and if God pleases we shall be in Alexandria on November 6"... Cairo January 3, 1887. St. Petersburg December 29, 1891 ("last letter from the Princess"), on the dramatic situation and famine in Russia: "Entire villages are literally dying of hunger despite all the efforts of public charity, which is finally beginning to wear out with perpetual requests. Everyone is begging everyone for the starving. At home, where the misery is black, I've set up a free kitchen where soup is distributed to the needy, and it's not doing too badly, but we're absolutely short of bread"...