Release date is 2026-01-26

Tuula Temonen

"Ruhtinattaria" by Eduard von Keyserling is a novel written in the early 20th century. It portrays a widowed princess on a provincial estate raising three very different daughters—composed Roxane, tender Eleonore, and restless Marie—while balancing dwindling finances, marriage expectations, and the quiet, constraining codes of aristocratic life under the steady counsel of Count Streith.

The opening of the novel centers on Princess Adelheid’s weary money talk with her steward, relieved by Count Streith’s practical guidance, and shifts to the daughters in the orchard where Roxane’s Russian engagement, Eleonore’s sensitivity, and Marie’s impatience come into view. Daily drives and a formal dinner sketch the local nobility and their manners, while an evening in the garden leaves Marie feeling excluded as her mother and Roxane depart for court festivities without her. Left behind, Marie impulsively slips out with the neighboring Dühnen boys, tumbles into a marsh, hides the mishap with borrowed clothes, and forges a secret, breathless bond with the cadet Felix that culminates in a stolen kiss among the currant bushes; a visit from the forthright Hilda Üchtlitz adds a worldly counterpoint. As the mother returns and calm resumes, quiet hints point to Eleonore’s impending match, while Marie’s private awakening becomes the vivid pulse beneath the household’s composed surface. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Ahjo, 1919