Description
Profile Books Ltd The Aristocrat by WEISS E.
The time: the summer of 1913. The place: House Onderkuhle an exclusive boarding school for the sons of the aristocracy in eastern Belgium. The old order may be crumbling but at Onderkuhle training for a life of command goes unchallenged. The most important lessons: fencing riding and above all the forms of etiquette - ?the refinements of aristocratic intercourse?. Bo?tius von Orlam?nde distinguishes himself at all of these. He subdues his doubts by undertaking ever more extreme physical tests climaxing in the breaking-in of the stallion Cyrus. On the night the school burns down Bo?tius displays cowardice and forfeits his nobility. Immediately recognised as a masterpiece on its first publication in 1928 The Aristocrat dissects the collapse of a world of rigid hierarchy and exposes the murderous perversity of those who persist in living by the old rules.show more