Hello queen_jezabel,
The two characters from your question appear in a fictional book
called “The Wizard’s Daughter”, which was written by Vera Ivanovna
Kryzhanovskaia, a Russian medium. It was supposedly dictated to her by
the spirit of John Wilmot Rochester.
Rochester is given as a nom de plume of Kryzhanovskaia on the
“Celebration of Women Writers” listings by by Mary Mark on the
“Writers from Russia” page
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_generate/RUSSIA.html
The entry also gives the birth and death dates:
“Rochester, J. W. [aka Vera Ivanovna Kryzhanovskaia] (1861-1924)”
Most of the information that I have been able to find is in Portuguese
on web sites from Brazil, where many people are involved with
spiritualism.
Ten titles by Rochester/Kryzhanovskaia have been published recently in
Portuguese by a Brazillian publisher:
http://www.edconhecimento.com.br/Titulos_Editados/Rochester.htm The
one about Ludmila and Krassinsky is on the bottom left of the page,
and was published this year (2003).
There also appears to be another edition in Portuguese, which is
available for purchase. An advertisement for this provides a summary
of the story:
Ludmila faces a great problem in her life: how to win the love of
Mikhail, since he is already engaged to Nadia? In order to attain her
objective, she turns to her father, the wizard Krassinsky, who knows
how to master occult and supernatural forces. She enters into a world
of mystery and peril. However, such activities alert the forces of
Good to act in order to free an imprisoned soul. Will Ludmila attain
her objectives? What will be the fate of Krassinsky and his satanic
powers?
http://www.novavisao.org.br/clube.php (site in Portuguese)
I checked the catalogs of the Library of Congress and the British
Library, but neither had any information about an English edition of
this book.
Vera was born on July 14, 1861 in Warsaw, Poland, where her father
Major General Ivan Antonovich Kryzhanovsky was in charge of a Russian
artillery brigade. She developed an interest in ancient history and
occultism. Her father died when she was 10. She was sent to school in
St Petersburg, but the family’s poor financial situation and her own
ill health forced her to leave in 1877 and finish her education at
home.
Vera started her mediumistic work when she was 18. Her first contact
with the spirit of Rochester came when she was recovering from an
attack of tuberculosis. She produced automatic writing, always in
French, for 20-30 minutes at a time, after which she would often
faint. The writing always started with the word, “Rochester”.
She lived in France from 1880 to 1890, where she wrote several
historical romances. She also started to write a set of books with, as
she called them, “occulto-cosmological” themes. They were concerned
with the battle between the forces of light and darkness. Apparently,
she was the first fiction author to describe teleportation as a method
of transport.
Vera’s husband, S.V Semenov, was a secretary to Tsar Nicholas II. He
was a well known spiriualist and leader of a psychic group in St
Petersburg. He was killed during the Revolution, and Vera fled to
Estonia, where she led a life of poverty. In order to gain a living,
she had to work in a factory, which further affected her fragile
health. She died on December 29, 1924 in Tallin.
After her death, her books were published in Russian by occult
publishers in Berlin and Riga in the 1930s and were translated into a
number of languages. In total, Vera produced about 80 works under the
name of Rochester, although most of these were lost in the Russian
Revolution.
Information from: http://www.geae.inf.br/pt/boletins/geae432.html (in
Portuguese, web site of the Group for Advanced Studies in
Spiritualism).
The historical Rochester was John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, born
April 1, 1647 and died July 26, 1680. At 12, he went to Wadham
College, Oxford, where, it is said, he “grew debauched”. He received
an MA at the age of 14. He toured France and Italy and returned to
become part of the royal court in London. He was acknowledged a
military hero for his part in sea battles against the Dutch.
In 1665, he attempted to abduct Elizabeth Malet, whom he later married
in 1667. At court, he was part of what was called “The Merry Gang”, a
group of debauchers active from about 1665 to 1680. Rochester became
well known for his witty conversation, drunkeness and “extravagant
frolics”. After mocking Charles II, he was banished from court and set
up as “Doctor Bendo”, specialising in the treatment (!) of infertile
women. He was also involved with the theatre and acted as coach to
the actress Elizabeth Barry, who became his mistress.
He died of syphilis at the age of 33, supposedly renouncing his
atheism on his deathbed. An account of this conversion was widely
published.
Samuel Johnson commented on Rochester’s life: "in a course of drunken
gaiety and gross sensuality, with intervals of study perhaps yet more
criminal, with an avowed contempt of decency and order, a total
disregard to every moral, and a resolute denial of every religious
observation, he lived worthless and useless, and blazed out his youth
and health in lavish voluptuousness".
Rochester wrote songs, satires, poetry and plays. His poems were not
published in his name until after his death. He was admired by
Votaire, Tennyson, Defoe and Goethe.
Information from a web site dedicated to John Wilmot Rochester, which
also features some of his poetry:
http://www.druidic.isles.net/rocpoet.htm
Search strategy: 1. Krassinsky Ludmila 2. “Vera Ivanovna
Kryzhanovskaia” 3. “John Wilmot Rochester” 4. John Earl rochester |
