Memoirs of a Lost World (Hoover Institution Press Publication)

The lost world luminously recalled here by Lascelle de Basily encompasses a charmed past in which she traveled and resided in countries on four continents—a past studded with piquant adventures, with countless moments of sheer joy, with terror-filled days and nights during the Russian Revolution, with meetings and friendships with notables of many nationalities. Whether she is describing the tulmutuous events or quiet pleasures, the lyricism of her prose matches that of her poetry. Among her kaleidoscopic impressions is an evocation of an enchanted childhood that is in refreshing contrast to the horrendous early days recorded by so many contemporary writers. Particularly delightful and unusual are Lascelle de Basily's recollections of days of youth spent in a remote northern province of Korea. In a book filled with a love of people and places, it is Lascelle de Basily's measureless love for her husband, Nicolas, a Diplomat of Imperial Russia, that suffuses the whole. She has led a life and been enfolded in a love that for most of us could be but a dream. In fact, she herself ponders whether the life she so poignantly described here is truly a lost world. Yet, as these pages reveal, Lascelle de Basily, unlike so many of us, whatever our circumstances, has never lost one of the most precious things in life—a sense of wonder.