The book contains for the first time the memories of the last chamberlain of the imperial court, Elizaveta Alekseevna Naryshkina (1838–1928), almost unfamiliar to the Russian reader. They depict Russian life (especially court life) of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, and provide information about a number of important events of that time (the assassination of Alexander II, the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, etc.). The personality of the author is also clearly expressed in them - a philanthropist, a person with literary abilities (the text contains her correspondence with I. A. Goncharov).