The British diplomat and writer Laurence Oliphant (1829 88) was the author of travel diaries and novels, including the very successful Piccadilly (1870). A keen traveller, he worked as a correspondent for The Times during the Franco-Prussian War (1870 1) and served as Secretary to British Diplomat Lord Elgin in Canada, China and Japan. This book is a narrative of the journey Oliphant made to Russia as a young man, with his friend Oswald Smith. Its publication in 1853 coincided with the beginning of the Crimean War, turning the book into an immediate success. From the splendour of...