War And Peace - Book One

It was in July, 1805, and t July, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pávlovna Schérer, maid of honor and favorite of the Emp­ress Márya Fëdorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasì­li Kurágin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pávlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite.