This
historical dramatic romance is interspersed with tragedy that dodged the life of the feminine
protagonist Russian
Countess Valentina Korolenko nee Nikolayeva as the story is set in the late nineteenth century and ended in the early twentieth century. The story traversed the length and breath of four countries France (Paris), Russia (Petersburg), America (Kentucky), and Spain and, back to Paris as the life of the
protagonist is explained in simple language by the writer Helene Mansfield. Ideally, the lifestyles of the local people in all of these countries are used to dwell on their rich culture and the mentality of the aristocrats and those of the servants and the huge gap between the rich and the poor, which brought about the Russian revolution and the one in Spain.
An American, Alex Masters, Countess’ second lover and husband who said he prefers Contessa to Countess, as it sounds better to his ears, is where the title of the book Contessa is derived from the corrupt pronunciation of the protagonist’s title as a member of the Russian aristocratic class during the twilight years of the end of the Tsar’s rule.
Contessa is the story of a young Russian-born Parisian brought-up girl whose family is in debt as a result of her father’s gambling habit where he lost the family fortune. Valentina is left with her dying grand mother who did her best to launch her into the high Parisian social circle.
Young girl Valentina is taken out to have a feel of the Parisian ball where he met the Prince of Wales who showed his friendship. Against her own wild thoughts of love and her power to make her choice of a husband as a result of attention received at the ball from men, on the following day, she was bundled out of France to Russia into the arms of one of the richest men in Petersburg who is only interested in having an heir to his vast family fortune and not in her as a wife in a country she doesn’t love anymore. But when he met Valentina after keeping her miserable while she waited to meet him, he was smitten by love for the fifteen-year-old virgin though his pride wouldn’t let him acknowledge this on time.
Count Korolenko couldn’t fulfill his marital obligation of sex by his wife because he is living a wild life by keeping a mistress who only knows how to wake up his manhood. This predicament of the Count led to Valentina falling in love with a fine Russian soldier Yanin who eventually became the father of her two sons. This became a burden for the Count to carry even to his early grave through suicide after they had escaped from Russia to Paris when he couldn’t bear the presence of American Masters in his wife’s life as he clung to Russian old ways and languishes in nostalgia for Russian homeland and lost fortune.
When Yanin died in the defense of the Tsar’s life and rule in the hands of fellow soldiers during the revolutionary war and the war with Germany in 1914, Valentina ended up falling in love with another man. This time again with Alex Masters an American diplomat (spy) who bought her a château and helped her set up a home for the Russian orphans who survived the extermination of their parents and relations during the revolution led by Stalin and Lenin to show the philanthropic side of this strong-willed very beautiful Countess Valentina.
The writer used her protagonist’s life to tell the
historical stories of Valentina’s bravery during the WW1 and WW2 from Petersburg to Paris in 1914 and 1940-45 respectively in her château harbouring her large family. Her close shave with death in the hands of the German Gestapo who locked her up twice and tortured her for her patriotism and her unbelievable luck in being rescued by a German soldier Schuller who fell in love with her at first sight gave the word romance a new meaning. True love without romantic attachment and sex as against her other romantic escapades.