They are angelic beings, graceful, elegant, gentle. Princesses know what is expected of them and mature in languid pathos towards their exclusive destiny: a suitable marriage. Alas, an aristocratic young lady thinks she must rebel against this. Marie von Neustatt-Birkenstein is such a sad case. She is unwilling, like her sisters Roxane and Eleonore, to wait for the prince on the white horse. Instead, her fixed idea is to "develop herself." With enchanting melancholy, Eduard von Keyserling paints once again nuanced portraits of an aristocracy doomed to decline, fortifying itself against the dictates of the new era with moral rigidity. "Princesses" is yet another of those delightful little novels in which Keyserling describes his lost world: he depicts its downfall, its great beauty, and he captures it in tone.