The Vagrant Duke

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About this book

At his Russian estate, Grand Duke Peter Nicholaevitch finishes playing Chopin and learns that unrest has reached the nearby village of Zukovo. His servant Vasili brings news of burned stables and a looted castle. Peter believes he has earned the villagers' trust through advice and practical help, and he resolves to speak with them despite the danger. This opening gives George Gibbs's adventure novel a personal conflict between inherited authority and a changing political world.

The book also follows Russian exile life in the United States. In a later scene, Peter questions Mrs. Bergen about a shadowy visitor who claimed that Ben Cameron had returned. Her alarm centres on Beth, Cameron's daughter, while Peter tests the stranger's identity against uncertain memories and small physical details. Readers interested in displaced aristocrats and mysteries of identity will find both public upheaval and private fears driving the action.