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Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (The Romanovs #2)

Robert K. Massie

Hardcover | Pages: 625 pages

Rating: 3.91 | 91372 Users | 3833 Reviews

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Original Title:	Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
ISBN:	0679456724 (ISBN13: 9780679456728)
Edition Language:	English
Series:	The Romanovs #2
Literary Awards:	PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography (2012), Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction (2012), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for History & Biography (2011)

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Pulitzer Prize winner Massie offers the tale of a princess who went to Russia at 14 and became one of the most powerful women in history. Born into minor German nobility, she transformed herself into an empress by sheer determination. Possessing a brilliant, curious mind, she devoured the works of Enlightenment philosophers, and reaching the throne, tried using their principles to rule the vast, backward empire. She knew or corresponded with notable figures of her time: Voltaire, Diderot, Frederick the Great, Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette & John Paul Jones. Wanting to be the “benevolent despot” Montesquieu idealized, she contended with the deeply ingrained realities of Russian life, including serfdom. She persevered, and for 34 years the government, foreign policy, cultural development and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, wars & the tides of political change and violence inspired by the French Revolution. Her reputation depended on the perspective of the speaker. She was praised by Voltaire as like the classical philosophers. She was condemned by enemies, mostly foreign, as “the Messalina of the north.” Her family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers and enemies are vividly described. These included her ambitious, scheming mother; her weak, bullying husband, Peter (who left her sexually untouched for nine years after their marriage); her unhappy son & heir, Paul; her beloved grandchildren; and her favorites—the young men from whom she sought companionship and the recapture of youth as well as sex. Here, too, is Gregory Potemkin, her most significant lover & possible husband, with whom she shared a correspondence of love & separation, followed by 17 years of unparalleled mutual achievement. All the qualities that Massie brought to Nicholas & Alexandra and Peter the Great are present: historical accuracy, deep understanding, felicity of style, mastery of detail, ability to shatter myth & a genius for finding and expressing a human drama.

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Title	:	Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (The Romanovs #2)
Author	:	Robert K. Massie
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	First edition
Pages	:	Pages: 625 pages
Published	:	November 8th 2011 by Random House, Inc. (NY)
Categories	:	History. Biography. Nonfiction. Cultural. Russia. Historical. Biography Memoir. Russian History

Rating Of Books Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (The Romanovs #2)

Ratings: 3.91 From 91372 Users | 3833 Reviews

Write Up Of Books Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (The Romanovs #2)

I raved about Robert Massie's biography on last Russian tsar and tsarina, Nicholas and Alexandra, and it was one of my favourite reads last year. In it, Massie briefly mentioned that Peter the Great had abolished the law of primogeniture, which required succession of the throne to be male only, starting with the first-born son. As a result, Russia had three empresses in succession: Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth Petrovna, and Catherine II. The latter two rose to become autocrat through seizing power

Historical Fictionistas Group Read starting 1Feb15!Started reading this in February, got roughly 30 pages in and put it down... Found the audio through my library and I'm SO GLAD I did, otherwise I might never have finished this. Not because it's boring, but because the research is simply EXHAUSTIVE. If you're interested in Russian history, I highly recommend this book. It's my first Massie book but I have two more waiting at home (thankfully shorter than this one). He presents history from all

This book is hard to place on a scale. At times, its a 5 and other times its a 2 or even a 1. After some debating in my head Im going to give it a 3.5, but its not enough to round it up to a 4. This book started off as a 5 and I loved it. The story of Catherine (then Sophia) growing up, being picked as the bride for the heir to the Russian Empire, and her years spent in Russia was great. Massie interspaced entries from her own memoirs into these years and it really added a great personal flavor

Whew. What a densely loaded book about a fascinating woman. If you have an interest in Catherine the Great, this is most definitely a biography to add to your repertoire. When the audiobook has 19 "chapters" which are just over an hour in length... you know you are getting your book's worth of material. My interest is still piqued in Russian history and this woman. I also appreciated the time devoted to her predecessor Elizabeth, her sort of technically uncoronated predecessor Peter, as well as

I am impressed. Catherine the Great lived from 1729-1796. She was 14 when she first came to Russia, This book covers this entire time period meticulously. I understand how her childhood experiences came to shape her as an adult. I understand her need for love and why she came to have twelve lovers. At the same time she was motivated to seek power. She played a huge role in European history. All of this history is detailed in the book. You meet her as a person and as a leader. Everything one

Like probably every woman of note in history, open about and unashamed of her sexuality, Catherine the Great is primarily remembered as a power- and man-hungry, salacious, perverted woman. Try googling her name and see how high on the list of the results is the ever-pressing question - Did she really sleep with a horse? Does anyone care about her accomplishments in politics, art and science? Not really. But her sexual exploits? Oh, YES!That's why I appreciate Robert K. Massie's Catherine the

This was a thorough, well-written biography of a very interesting woman. I listened to the audio book, and enjoyed both the narrators and the authors style.Catherine (born Sophia) received very little love from her mother, who was very young and very disappointed to have birthed a daughter instead of a son. But her mother was excited to marry her off to the Empress of Russias nephew and heir, Peter. Peter had an even worse childhood than Sophia/Catherine did. He and his future wife were friends