House By The Dvina

Product Description

The House by the Dvina is the riveting story of two families separated in culture & geography but bound together by a Russian-Scottish marriage. It

Includes:: episodes as romantic & dramatic as any in fiction: the purchase by the authors great-grandfather of a peasant girl with whom he had fallen in love; the desperate sledge journey in the depths of winter made by her grandmother to intercede with Tsar Aleksandr II for her husband; the extraordinary courtship of her parents; & her Scottish granny being caught up in the abortive revolution of 1905. Eugenie Fraser herself was brought up in Russia but was taken on visits to Scotl&. She marvellously evokes a childs reactions to two totally different environments sets of customs & family backgrounds while the characters are beautifully drawn & splendidly memorable. With the events of 1914 to 1920
- the war with Germany the Revolution the murder of the Tsar & the withdrawal of the Allied Intervention in the north
- came the disintegration of Russia & of family life. The stark realities of hunger deprivation & fear are sharply contrasted with the adventures of childhood. The reader shares the familys suspense & concern about the fates of its members & relives with Eugenie her final escape to Scotl&. In The House by the Dvina Eugenie Fraser has vividly & poignantly portrayed a way of life that finally disappeared in violence & tragedy.