In London in 1827 Charles Sealsfield (Karl Postl) published this travel novel employing eye-witness accounts, history, and anecdote to expose the oppressive Austrian regime under Emperor Francis I and his Prime Minister Metternich. His political observations are supplemented and embellished by his many detailed descriptions of the fads and fancies of the age, anecdotes and court gossip surrounding major historical figures, as well as by his dry wit which all combine to produce an eminently readable and informative book. During his lifetime Charles Sealsfield was a mystery, an unknown in so far as his identity was concerned. As a young Austrian émigré, his first publications were colorful descriptions of the fledgling United States on the one hand and of the moribund Austrian Empire on the other. Within a few years he became widely celebrated as the author of popular fiction about the American West, considered by many to be superior to American-born authors such as James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving.