Random House
November 2011
On Sale: November 8, 2011
Featuring: Catherine the Great
544 pages ISBN: 0679456724 EAN: 9780679456728 Kindle: B004J4X9L0 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
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.
Born into a minor noble family, Catherine
transformed herself into Empress of Russia by sheer
determination. 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. 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.
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 persevered, and for thirty-four years the
government, foreign policy, cultural development, and
welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. 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. Her reputation depended
entirely on the perspective of the speaker. 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.”
Catherine’s
family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers, and
enemies—all are here, vividly described. These included her
ambitious, perpetually scheming mother; her weak, bullying
husband, Peter (who left her lying untouched beside him for
nine years after their marriage); her unhappy son and heir,
Paul; her beloved grandchildren; and her “favorites”—the
parade of young men from whom she sought companionship and
the recapture of youth as well as sex. Here, too, is the
giant figure of Gregory Potemkin, her most significant lover
and possible husband, with whom she shared a passionate
correspondence of love and separation, followed by seventeen
years of unparalleled mutual achievement.
The story
is superbly told. All the special qualities that Robert K.
Massie brought to Nicholas and Alexandra and Peter
the Great are present here: historical accuracy, depth
of understanding, felicity of style, mastery of detail,
ability to shatter myth, and a rare genius for finding and
expressing the human drama in extraordinary
lives.
History offers few stories richer in drama
than that of Catherine the Great. In this book, this
eternally fascinating woman is returned to life.
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