Catriona Kelly
Refining Russia: Advice Literature, Polite Culture, and Gender from Catherine to Yeltsin.
Oxford University Press, 2001. 0198159870 xliv/438 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.75" x 9.75", is bound in black cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book and dust jacket exhibit very light shelfwear. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover. This work has a number of b&w textual illustrations.
""Refining Russia" is a pioneering study of the development of advice literature ("how-to" books such as etiquette manuals and brochures on hygiene) in Russia, and of its reception and wider cultural meaning. An absorbing and original exercise in "history of the book," it is also a major contribution to the understanding of Russia's relationship with the West, and of the cultural world inhabited by the Russian intelligentsia."