Astolphe de Custine (Niderviller, 1790 - Paris, 1857) was born during the French Revolution and died under Napoleon III. After his father's death on the guillotine, he and his mother managed to survive the Terror. Poet and novelist of some renown, Custine gained recognition after the publication of L’Espagne sous Ferdinand VII (1838) and La Russie in 1839 (1843), from which Cartas de Russia (2019, Cliff) comes.