Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 25, 2011 Sera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, own, biography-memoir, first-reads

Massie is clearly the master of all things Romanov. I hope that he continues to write these wonderful, comprehensive biographies of various members of this interesting family.

I read

Catherine the Great Love, Sex, and Power by Virginia Rounding

by Virginia Rounding a couple of years ago and found the book to be very good - 5 stars to be exact. However, what I really like about reading Massie is that he provides much detail around the subject matter while keeping the book immensely readable. Rounding's book was more dense than Massie's, which may make i Massie is clearly the master of all things Romanov. I hope that he continues to write these wonderful, comprehensive biographies of various members of this interesting family.

I read

by Virginia Rounding a couple of years ago and found the book to be very good - 5 stars to be exact. However, what I really like about reading Massie is that he provides much detail around the subject matter while keeping the book immensely readable. Rounding's book was more dense than Massie's, which may make it difficult for some readers to hang in there and to finish the book. I don't think that readers would have this issue when reading Massie.

Massie's depiction of Catherine is both objective and well-researched. Massie lets this research speak for itself rather then putting his spin on who Catherine was or wasn't. If the research is unclear, Massie tries to provide clarity by interweaving facts to support what is more likely to have happened or to have been the reason behind some act or omission.

I find Catherine to be a fascinating character because next to Queen Elizabeth I, she is the greatest woman to ever rule a European country - and she wasn't even Russian! Yet, she took Peter the Great's achievements a step further toward advancing the status of the nation from military, economic, political and cultural perpectives. Massie also gives excellent insight into how Catherine's knowledge of the principals developed from and during the Enlightenment formulated her views on how she governed Russia. She wasn't afraid to experiment with new ideas and realized, even then, that torture is a useless tool in gathering information from prisoners or other persons of interest. She was tough but fair and very popular with the Russian people.

Often much is made over Catherine's serial love affairs with her "favorites". Yet, Massie does an excellent job of explaining how Catherine's marraige to Peter III (or lack thereof) affected her need to have constant companionship and love. Therefore, we see how Catherine has been damaged by this relationship and how it set the stage for all of her future relationships with men. I found that this insecurity in Catherine made her more likeable to me as a reader.

The book was an ARC so I'm very fortunate to have been able to see an early preview of this work. The only feedback that I would give is for Massie to include some maps in the book. Nevertheless, overall, I highly recommend this book.

And, a special message to Massie, please write more books about the Romanovs - STAT!

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Jul 20, 2014 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, nonfiction, history

I owe Massie a huge debt as reading Nicholas and Alexandra was what caused me to fall in love with history. Here he has repeated the excellent and well-researched process for another of Russia's rulers, this time Catherine the Great (who wished to be called Catherine the Second while she was alive).

I was struck by how unfortunate it was that the French Revolution happened in her reign, which caused her to reverse her course of enlightened ruling out of fear that the revolution would endanger her ...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Erin (NY) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, books-i-own, read-in-2012

I enjoyed this book. I studied Russian history in school (obviously), but I don't remember much of it. This book did a great job describing the like of Catherine the Great in the context of European and Russian history. It did a great job explaining her motivations for the life she lead based on her childhood and young-adulthood. I did think that the book was more exciting in the beginning, and less so in the middle/end, where there is a lot of politics talk going on. ...more

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