A History of Royals discussion

For January our OPEN READING category is the Romanov dynasty. So Read up on the Romanovs and post your reviews here! Beginning in February the category will be chosen by one of our members! Se the updated guidelines to find out how it can be you!

So we can read any book on the Romanovs?

Brett wrote: "So we can read any book on the Romanovs?"

Yes you can, Brett. Feel free to post your list of what you think you will read in the "What will you read" folder and then post your review here!

Just got a copy of The White Night of St. Petersburg. Has anyone else read it?

Yep. I read that one; it was interesting, as it is a pretty unknown story, but either the author wasn't very good, or the translation really stunk.

Rebecca wrote: "Yep. I read that one; it was interesting, as it is a pretty unknown story, but either the author wasn't very good, or the translation really stunk."
Thanks for the comment. I'm going to give it a try. I noticed on Amazon that there are several new books on the Romanovs; but my library doesn't have them on order yet.

My Review of Catherine the Great by Henri Troyat

Very rarely have I watched a movie based on a true story is the true story more exciting than the movie is, but this is the case with Catherine the Great. I watched the Catherine Zeta-Jones "Catherine the Great" a few weeks ago and wanted to read the biography. Catherine the Great was quite the interesting lady. She was a series of contradictions: one of the greatest rulers Russia had without a drop of Russian blood, had a self-professed "republican heart" who was the autocratic ruler of a country where most of the population was practically enslaved and she was violently opposed to the revolutions happening in other countries. Catherine the Great started life as a minor German princess. She married the heir to the throne of Russia at the age of 15 and threw herself into becoming Russian. When her husband inherited the throne she staged a coup and took the throne for herself without bothering with the pretense of being regent for her son. For the next 34 years she set about making Russia into a European country and vastly increasing territory. All while going through a long succession of young lovers.

I found this book quite interesting. I hadn't read anything about Catherine the Great before really, just the small blurb she got in Terrible Tsarinas: Five Russian Women in Power by the same author. I love Henri Troyat's familiar style of writing. I like it though I know some people don't, it makes biographies read more like a novel than as a long list of facts. It was a fascinating read about a fascinating lady.

There was one big problem I had with this book and that was the organization. The book went more or less in a linear, chronological order which is ok but the chapter titles would hint at something that was going to the focus of the chapter, when in reality it would barely get a mention because of the author's insistence on sticking to a chronological order when it would make more sense to jump around a bit. Also the chapter breaks seemed sort of random. It was a small problem and I still loved the book.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Kit wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "Yep. I read that one; it was interesting, as it is a pretty unknown story, but either the author wasn't very good, or the translation really stunk."
Thanks for the comment. I'm goi..."

Just finished! I agree with you. It was interesting, but seemed to drag on. Not the best of books, but worth reading.

I am reading Robert K. Massie's The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, which is about the Soviet cover-up of the executions and the resulting efforts to piece together what actually happened. It is really illuminating. I remember being fascinated by the whole story when I was younger, but I never realized that positive identification of the bodies did not occur until the 90s. That was when my youngest son was born, and I had always thought that the identification was much earlier. I was also unaware of the extent of the cover-up. I am only 1/3 of the way through the book, but I am finding it fascinating reading.

I finished up Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarina and found it to be quite a disappointment. I really don't recommend this one to anyone other than someone who is really interested in the Romanovs. For the rest of the reasons why I didn't like this one, you can find the long review here:

http://www.epinions.com/review/Virgin...

I finished the Final Chapter book (See post 9 above) and it was fascinating. About 1/3 of the book was dedicated to a discussion of what transpired after the bones were found in the late 80s, early 90s. It was a very political endeavor, as you can imagine and it was fascinating to read how they determined who the bones belonged to, and how they determined who was going to work with the bones.
The next part dealt with imposters and after a few pages about some of the celelbrated cases, Massie spent the majority of this section on the Anna Anderson case, how is transpired and what the tried to do to verify who she was. This particular story has always fascinated me, so I liked this part of the book the best.
The final two sections were pretty small, and Massie spent that time talking about who the remaining Romanovs are that were alive in the 90s and where they lived. This was followed by another small section with some highlights from diaries and journals illustrating what life was like while the Tsar and his family were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinberg before the massacre.
As usual, Massie did and excellent job of writing and researching and I found this book easily readable and fascinating.

If you find the Anna Anderson case interesting, check out The Resurrection of the Romanovs: The Life of Anastasia, the Birth of Anna Anderson, and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery by Greg King -- it looks at all of the evidence both pro and con, and gives some sensible results.

While trying to find a new Romanov book for the challenge (on Amazon), I discovered two new books (new to me):
The Memoirs of Princess Dashkova
Five Sisters: Women Against the Tsar

Has any one else read either book? My library doesn't have copies-I'll need to order. Was hoping for feedback from the Romanov group.