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I'm not quite finished with the book - about 80% of the way through, but I think this book is FANTASTIC. The relation between sensuality and agape (def #2) has long puzzled and intrigued me. Sensuality "was a natural function, neither something to be ashamed of nor something to boast about." And she accepted that ardor usually wears off with time and reblossoms with new flowers. I have infinite admiration for the author and plan to read his other books. Because I don't like long reviews, I won't go into the other aspects. He researched his subject to the nth degree, it seems and he writes so well (even in translation). I don't want it to end despite the fact that I am devouring it, ravenously. Catherine II had found an answer by which she lived her life without compunction.
Also Catherine was a fascinatingly interesting character. Her relationship with Potemkin is the highlight of this book for me so far and may remain so. However, this is not the only aspect of the book and of her character which I found so interesting. I am planning to recommend this book to everyone I talk to and I shall remember it with pleasure the rest of my life.
i hard to believe a little german priness would become the most powerful woman in europe.but that catherine story.married to a stupid czravish who had no sense. he was determine to stay greman in russian,but katherina made show she learn langauge ,religion and people.she learn the art of policital when the time was right she took over.brought a new age not seen since peter the great.i would had like more about here early life in german but this book was well done.
This is one of the very best biographies I have ever read. Troyat has taken a very interesting but not particularly palatable historical figure ( My mother-in law referred to Catherine as "that awful person")and brought her to life with all of her fascinatingly complex character in a well wrought historical background.
Bad translation of a mediocre and sappy history. I couldn't stand it and have gone looking for a different biography of Catherine the Great.
All in all, I was not dissatified with the writing or the content. Certainly, writing style of non-fiction historical biographies differs from that seen in fictionalized accounts.
While the author disputes my clinical characterization of Catherine's sexual prowess, he certainly does take great pains to point out her long list of conquests, right up until her death at a then advanced age.This book is very informative and quite enlightening as it relates to the political and social mores of Eastern European and Asian aristocracy during the period of Catherine's reign. The tangled webs of shifting alliances during the roughly 50 years covered by the book are many times fascinating and at times hung by the thread of whether a 16 year old heir to a throne was enchanted at first site by a 13 year old princess.
Prior to reading this book, the only information that I had on Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, was that she was an 18th century Czarina of some repute and that she was essentially a nymphomaniac. The personalities involved make for a highly entertaining read.I've seen some of the comments labeling the prose as dry or tedious and tend to disagree.
Entire nations hung in the balance.Especially interesting was the author's repeated juxtaposition between Catherine's espoused liberal "enlightened monarch" ideals and her actual rule over, and disposal of millions of enslaved serfs. Her fascination and financial support of many liberal French and Swiss political reformers and philosophers and then her horror when such philosophies actual came to fruition in the French Revolution.Ultimately, Catherine was a woman of her times and indisputably proved to be a most able successor to the earlier Peter the Great inasmuch as she made Russia a major player on the European stage and greatly expanded the territory under her control.
In addition, this is a translation which perhaps hinders certain elements of style that others might prefer. I recommend this book to any seeking an understanding of Russian or Eastern European history and/or culture during the mid to late 18th century.
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