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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Barbara von Krüdener (1764–1824)
Krüdener, Barbara Juliane von, Baroness (krü’de-ner). A Russian novelist and mystic; born at Riga, Nov. 21, 1764; died at Karassu-Bazar, Dec. 24, 1824. After a period of Parisian dissipation, she became a Swedenborgian, and surrounded by a retinue of clergy, she traversed Europe, preaching eloquently to the people a return to primitive Christianity. She was the friend of Queen Louise of Prussia and of Alexander I. of Russia. Her death was the result of ascetic practices. Her literary reputation rests upon the romance ‘Valéria, or Letters of Gustave de Linar to Ernest de G——’ (1803), containing the history of her marital relations.