From Publishers Weekly
The plot of Kross's first novel to appear in English may indeed "most resemble the quick scene changes of Italian operas," as the narrator says, but this Estonian author's approach is provocative, original and highly political. Timo von Bock, a 19th-century Estonian baron possessed of romantic ideals, falls in love with and marries a peasant girl, the chambermaid of the young lady he had been expected to wed. He then frees the serfs on his estate and criticizes the czar in a letter--for which he is imprisoned. After nine years, he is declared mad and placed under house arrest at his estate, where his every movement is monitored by relatives and retainers loyal to the czar before the baron finally dies under mysterious circumstances. Timo's peasant brother-in-law, who has been educated by the von Bock family, narrates the proceedings in a deceptively measured, almost dry style that offsets the powerful emotions gripping all the characters. Kross (b. 1920his nationality is not given, nor is original language supplied/ fred jordan at pantheon says kross is estonian, wrote novel in estonian; see above/pre ), who spent nine years in Soviet labor camps, uses the cat-and-mouse games of Timo and his enemies to critique imperial Russia's relationship with its Baltic province and, by extension, the authoritarian regimes of our own times. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As the Iron Curtain continues to melt, more and more novels by writers from Central European and Baltic countries arrive in America. Written in the form of a diary, this historical-political novel from Estonia addresses the issues of madness and the subjugation of citizens by the Russian czars during the 19th century. The diary of Jakob Mattik spans the years 1827-59 and devotes itself almost entirely to the story of his sister Eeva and her husband, Baron Timotheus von Bock. Von Bock breaks societal covenants by marrying the young peasant girl and then alienates the czar, who had been a personal friend, with a critical missive. The result is a nine-year prison term from which von Bock is released only after he is deemed harmlessly mad. Although numerous diary entries ponder whether von Bock is truly mad, scant exploration is made of what constitutes madness. Loosely based on historical fact, this verbose work is interesting but not enlightening and requires a tenacious reader.- Olivia Opello, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Estonian

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Even in the Baltic province of Estonia, ruled with an iron hand by Russia's Czar Alexander I, the new notions of liberty and freedom wafting across Europe had not been silenced by Napoleon's defeat. It was the fall of 1813, and Colonel Timotheus von Bock, a Baltic nobleman and favorite of the czar, had returned from the battlefields of Europe a hero, convinced that new and better ways were coming, and determined to play his part in bringing them about. He first scandalized his fellow aristocrats by spurning a far more appropriate marriage in order to wed a peasant's daughter. Then he committed an even more grievous infraction. Having sworn an oath to his sovereign always to tell him the truth, von Bock sent the czar a memorandum condemning his tyrannical rule. The reaction was prompt. Von Bock was banished from his estate and imprisoned for nine years in the Schlusselburg fortress. When Czar Alexander was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I, von Bock was released at last, and he returned to his impoverished estate and destitute wife. His physical health had been shattered by his imprisonment no less than his mental stability. Was he indeed the madman the czar certified him to be whose unstable mind had led him to his subversive ideas? Or was he really a utopian revolutionary, a man of the highest moral principles? Timo von Bock's story is the main thread in a richly worked tapestry evoking the world of nineteenth-century Russia and its Baltic provinces—a time of great turmoil that saw the birth of a new national awareness among the many peoples unwillingly held under the rule of the Russian crown. Recounting this tale from the pages of history, Jaan Kross takes the reader intothe passions of a time and a country that foreshadow the tragedies of our own century, creating at the same time a powerful vision of human emotion: honor and knavery, greed and sacrifice, love and desire.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Fyodor Martens is an outsider at an inside job. A low-born orphan from the subject Baltic nation of Estonia, he has stood shoulder to disdainful shoulder with the Russian nobility, representing the Czar at crucial negotiations, including the Portsmouth Treaty with Japan and the Peace Conference at The Hague. In 1909, with ``Nicky'' (Czar Nicholas) and ``Willy'' (Kaiser Wilhelm) meeting, Martens takes a train from his home in Parnu, Estonia, to St. Petersburg. During the ride Martens, like some political Scrooge, is confronted by ghosts of the past, present and future: a nationalist revolutionary nephew en route to his trial; a young socialist journalist; a bohemian lover; the son he has never seen; and the unrelated 18th-century diplomat Georg Friedrich von Martens, who, like Fyodor Martens, compiled volumes of treaties and also, in the name of professional detachment, helped the Napoleonic invaders rule his native Westphalia. Like his namesake, Martens helped organize peace abroad and enormous loans from the French at home. ``One might say that I'm the one who has helped the machinery of state to survive, that I have generated a rather essential portion of the energy it has needed to go on functioning during these years of massacres!'' Kross ( The Czar's Madman ) has created a touching novel that works on two levels: as a smart, somewhat old-fashioned tale of politics, philosophy and ethics and as the tender, melancholy story of a man waking up to life just as he nears its end. (Mar.)

Library Journal