The Cavalry Maiden

"In December 1807, Alexander I granted a commission ot Nadezhada Durova who, in male guise, served nearly ten years in the Russian light cavalry during the Napoleonic wars. The cavalry maiden, a selection of the edited journals of her military service, first published in 1836 with Pushkin's encouragement, is a lively narrative of Russian life on and off the battlefield in the Alexandrine era. Durova's story appeals in our own time as a unique and gripping contribution to the literature of female experience"--