Laird M. Easton is chair of the Department of History at California State University, Chico. His book The Red Count- The Life and Times of Harry Kessler was named one of the best biographies of 2002 by The Economist.
“Meticulously translated and edtied by Laird M. Easton . . . a
900-page marvel. . . . An important, underappreciated,
unforgettable book.” —Robert Harris, The Guardian, Writers and
Critics on the Best Books of 2013
“A document of novelistic breadth and depth, showing the spiritual
development of a lavishly cultured man who grapples with the
violent energies of the twentieth century . . . also a staggering
feat of reportage. The war fever infected Kessler . . . [he] does
not hide the grimness of the scene. For the reader, it is a shock
to be deposited in such hellish landscapes several pages after
watching the antics of Diaghilev and company; few books capture so
acutely the world-historical whiplash of the summer of 1914. . . .
The supreme memoir of the grand European fin de siècle.” —Alex
Ross, The New Yorker
“Kessler’s diaries are a trove of insightful . . . information
about an absolutely amazing number of artists and writers.” —John
Rockwell, The Threepenny Review
“What makes [Kessler] such an appealing figure is his struggle with
the received ideas of his age. . . . His diaries fascinate on
various levels, first of all as an observant, witty, frequently
catty chronicle of European culture and high society between the
fin-de-siecle, and following that [though not this volume] between
1918 and the Nazi regime.” —Ian Buruma, The New York Review of
Books
“An unusual guided tour of belle époque and early-20th-century
artistic and high life in Berlin, Paris and London . . . with great
sensitivity and occasional flashes of humor.” —Louis Begley,
The New York Times
“The well-connected diplomat’s gimlet-eyed view of a teetering
Belle Epoque Europe.” —Megan O’Grady, Vogue
“A Henry James figure come to real life: a fusion of high society
and high intellect, his diaries dramatize with the most stellar
possible international cast the twilight settling on a
peak.” —Frederic Morton, author of A Nervous Splendor: Vienna
1888-1889
“Harry Kessler was an extraordinary exemplar of the crisis that
overwhelmed Europe in the 20th century. He captured, in his
person and in his thoroughly engrossing diaries, all the
dichotomies of his era: the ideals and the devastation, the
passion and the despondency, the frisson and the horror. . . .
Absolutely riveting. In its literary brilliance and evocative
power, the diary is the equal of those of Virginia Woolf, Harold
Nicolson and André Gide. Mr. Easton ranks it one of the
greatest diaries ever. Many will agree.” —Modris
Eksteins, The Wall Street Journal
“At last a diary as penetrating on Berlin as the Goncourt brothers’
on Paris has been translated into English. . . . Laird Easton is to
be congratulated on leading English-speaking readers, via Kessler's
masterpiece, into the heart of Germany before its
catastrophe.” —The Spectator
“Count Harry Kessler became, through his experiences and through
the anguished searching of his spirit, something close to a
representative man. He seeks out great artists and gives us
memorable portraits of Verlaine in old age, of Degas and Renoir, of
Rodin and Maillol, of Rilke and Hofmannsthal, of Cosima Wagner, of
Richard Strauss, of Diaghilev and Nijinsky, and of other great
dancers and theatrical figures of the age. He tells us of the
intrigues of the German Imperial Court. The cast list alone makes
this an amazing diary. This is such an important book. It is a
great act of historical witness, and a great source of scandalous
insight and gossip.” —James Fenton, The Atlantic
“Kessler was a sophisticated aristocrat who knew everyone and
understood everything. He rode with Nijinsky in a Paris cab the
night that The Rite of Spring changed artistic history. He could
size up a German princess with level-eyed candor. He was passionate
about the arts and politics—and is one of the best observers of his
epoch.” —Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story and
Genet: A Biography
“Take a grand tour through the Belle Époque without leaving your
chair. . . . This is a classic book for the ages to keep and
reread.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“I have been a huge fan of Harry Kessler since my early youth
because of my mother. Even the way I dress is in a way inspired by
him. The eight volumes of his diaries are always near my bedside in
my houses. Kessler represents for me Germany at its best, a Germany
now gone forever.” —Karl Lagerfeld
“Harry Graf Kessler was a central figure in German cultural life in
the early twentieth century and during the Weimar Republic. A man
of many parts, highly educated, a democrat when this was not at all
fashionable—he knew everyone, and everyone knew him. His massive
diaries are of absorbing interest, essential reading for all those
interested in European cultural history of the
period.” —Walter Laqueur, author of Weimar: A Cultural
History
“What a life! To read Journey to the Abyss: The Diaries of Count
Harry Kessler, 1880-1918 is to revisit, at least in revery, a lost
world of European civilization, to experience for a while all the
cultivated douceur de vivre that disappeared forever in the
blood-soaked trenches of World War I.” —Michael Dirda, The
Barnes & Noble Review
“An enlightening view of European high society, notable for its
erudition and density of anecdote, for readers strongly interested
in European history and culture.” —Publishers Weekly
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