The dynasty that rode high to the crest of power-only to reach the brink of a rebel-torn New Age. Prince Peter: the unbending heir to the tempest of change. Ilona: the heartstrong Princess, slave to a renegade passion. George: the roving American journalist, tied to the great family's fortunes. Tatiana: the wildest young beauty in a restless hour. Bound by pride , the Borodins must stand against the fated forces that threaten their priceless birthright and the dark-eyed monk who holds their monarch in thrall. A story of the longings of a people stirred by the false promises of unscrupulous men, and struggle to uplift the silken banner of their fragile world.

    More subtle is Paul's war with the three beautiful Russian Women around him:*Irina Swarovsky, young wife of the colonel; sensitive, compassionate, and unfulfilled;*Olga Swarovsky, the colonel's headstrong younger sister who wants Paul desperately; and*Lyudmilla Zapalova, a gorgeous, tempestuous ballerina embodying all the romance and decadence of Imperial Russia.Through his growing friendship with Valodya Swarovsky, the colonel's younger brother, Paul comes to respect the White Russian cause, a cause the is threatened when Paul realizes that there is a saboteur working in their midst-and that he is falling inexorably in love with Irina.The Gathering Wolves, rich with all the fire and color of a Russia caught between two eras, is the unforgettable story of a spirit that survived an empire.

    Benjamin's intellectual odyssey culminated in his death by suicide on the Franco-Spanish border, pursued by the Nazis, but long before he had traveled to the Soviet Union. His stunning account of that journey is unique among Benjamin's writings for the frank, merciless way he struggles with his motives and conscience.Perhaps the primary reason for his trip was his affection for Asja Lācis, a Latvian Bolshevik whom he had first met in Capri in 1924 and who would remain an important intellectual and erotic influence on him throughout the twenties and thirties. Asja Lācis resided in Moscow, eking out a living as a journalist, and Benjamin's diary is, on one level, the account of his masochistic love affair with this elusive--and rather unsympathetic--object of desire. On another level, it is the story of a failed romance with the Russian Revolution; for Benjamin had journeyed to Russia not only to inform himself firsthand about Soviet society, but also to arrive at an eventual decision about joining the Communist Party. Benjamin's diary paints the dilemma of a writer seduced by the promises of the Revolution yet unwilling to blinker himself to its human and institutional failings.Moscow Diary is more than a record of ideological ambivalence; its literary value is considerable. Benjamin is one of the great twentieth-century physiognomists of the city, and his portrait of hibernal Moscow stands beside his brilliant evocations of Berlin, Naples, Marseilles, and Paris. Students of this particularly interesting period will find Benjamin's eyewitness account of Moscow extraordinarily illuminating.