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Catherine the Great and Russian queens

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Helen_Davis

Catherine the Great and Russian queens

Post by Helen_Davis » Fri March 21st, 2014, 2:32 am

If Divia's already done this one I'm sorry but anyone got any booksabout Catherine the Great? I've read The Winter Palace

annis
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Post by annis » Fri March 21st, 2014, 3:50 am

The sequel to Winter Palace is now out - Empress of the Night.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Fri March 21st, 2014, 2:59 pm

I was pretty underwhelmed with The Winter Palace. I did love Annette Motley's Men in White Horses, her early years. Worth hunting down in the used prices have dropped, I don't think there are copies in US libraries.
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Susan
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Post by Susan » Sat March 22nd, 2014, 12:12 am

I also had issues about The Winter Palace. It really was not about Catherine, but a fictional character. I'll read the sequel though. Robert Massie published a biography of Catherine the Great in 2011. He first got interested in the Romanovs when his son was born with hemophilia and his classic biography of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra, whose son also had hemophilia, was published in 1967. He's written a few other books about the Romanovs. I think Nicholas and Alexandra was the first (of many, many) royal biographies I ever read.
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Post by Misfit » Sat March 22nd, 2014, 12:37 am

I would second the Massie bio, very well done.
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Elizabeth
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Post by Elizabeth » Sat March 22nd, 2014, 1:56 am

Zoe Oldenbourg, who was a Russian-born historical novelist (The World is Not Enough, one of my personal favorites), wrote an excellent (in my opinion, anyway) biography of Catherine called (not surprisingly) Catherine the Great. It was published in the sixties and appears to be out of print, but used copies are available and ILL might be able to get hold of it.

There's also a book called Elizabeth and Catherine, by Robert Coughlin, which is a combined biography of Catherine and Elizabeth, another Russian empress, the daughter of Peter the Great, who was, I think, Catherine's aunt-in-law.
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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Sat March 22nd, 2014, 8:34 am

Evelyn Anthony wrote a trilogy starting with "Imperial Highness" that I know several have recommended. I have the first book but not got round to reading it yet.

I was also underwhelmed by The Winter Palace and won't be rushing to read the sequel........

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Post by DanielAWillis » Sat March 22nd, 2014, 1:11 pm

I've read the Coughlin book (yes, Elizabeth was Catherine's aunt-in-law, as well as her tutor in all things royal.) It was pretty good.

If you are interested more generally in the Romanovs and specifically the post-Revolution members of the family, I wrote Romanovs in the 21st Century a few years ago. It is available only as an e-book, but for all e-readers.
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princess garnet
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Post by princess garnet » Sat March 22nd, 2014, 7:11 pm

If you're able to get it from the library, I've read A Forgotten Empress by Mina K. Curtiss which is a biography about the Empress Anne, published in 1974.
Last edited by princess garnet on Sun March 23rd, 2014, 7:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Sun March 23rd, 2014, 5:08 pm

I used to like Robert Alexander's stuff, but he hasn't written anything in a long long time. I wish he would.
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