The Irrational Journey, Signed by Pauline de Rothschild to Ingrid Bergman
[Signed by Pauline de Rothschild to Ingrid Bergman] Rothschild, Pauline de. The Irrational Journey. First English Edition. 1967. Book is in very good minus condition; dust jacket is in good plus condition—the blank page following the dedication has been neatly clipped from the book; jacket shows rubbing and minor edge tears. Book is inscribed on the half title, "To the beautiful Ingrid and Lars [Schmidt], this winter book for this summer island, with the love of Pauline."
“Perhaps the most important part of a journey is what it discovers in you,” writes Pauline de Rothschild in this travel memoir of the three months she and her husband, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, spent exploring Russia in the dead of winter during the mid-1960s. De Rothschild is less interested in monuments and official histories than in the character of the country itself. She muses on the contradictions of the Russian soul, the persistence of religion in a supposedly atheist society, the beauty and brutality of the climate, and the resilience of great writers working under censorship and political constraint. What makes the book memorable, however, is not so much Russia as the author herself. Elegant and curious, de Rothschild approaches the country neither as a political commentator nor as a tourist, but as a keen observer of people, manners, and culture. More than a travel memoir, it is also a revealing portrait of one of the 20th Century’s most admired tastemakers.
“Russian servants do not differ from any other servants except by the amount they leave undone. Once you accept the fact that it is boring to give the same service every day, and, worse still, to the same people, relationships are most pleasant, even affectionate.”
-- Pauline de Rothschild