It does not dig very deep into the history of the period, the mind of the protagonist or the culture of the period. This is a well paced and lively telling of a great story. There are genuinely amusing, genuinely moving and genuinely horrifying moments.

This may seem like a trivial point, but a good reading is one where one feels like the narrator knows what he/she is talking about and that is not the case here.ĭid you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Constant and consistent mispronunciation of Russian German and French words and names (and not just the difficult ones) are distracting and make one think he did no preparation. It is clear that the narrator is simply reading words (which he does quite well) but has no deeper connection to the subject. What do you think the narrator could have done better? Nobody but Catherine herself could have invented her. In any telling of the life of Catherine the Great, Catherine must be the central character. If you could sum up Catherine the Great in three words, what would they be? She was praised by Voltaire as the equal of the greatest of classical philosophers she was condemned by her enemies, mostly foreign, as “the Messalina of the north.” Her reputation depended entirely on the perspective of the speaker. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution that swept across Europe. She persevered, and for thirty-four years the government, foreign policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. Reaching the throne fired by Enlightenment philosophy and determined to become the embodiment of the “benevolent despot” idealized by Montesquieu, she found herself always contending with the deeply ingrained realities of Russian life, including serfdom. She knew or corresponded with the preeminent historical figures of her time: Voltaire, Diderot, Frederick the Great, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette, and, surprisingly, the American naval hero, John Paul Jones. Possessing a brilliant mind and an insatiable curiosity as a young woman, she devoured the works of Enlightenment philosophers and, when she reached the throne, attempted to use their principles to guide her rule of the vast and backward Russian empire. The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history.īorn into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into Empress of Russia by sheer determination.

Catherine the great by robert k massie