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Loading... Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Womanby Robert K. Massie
None. No current Talk conversations about this book.  MlleEhreen | Sep 20, 2013 |  published-2011, summer-2013, tbr-busting-2013, biography, slavic, nonfiction, lifestyles-deathstyles, history, epic-proportions, families Read from August 26 to 27, 2013 fraudio>rosado>mp3 non fic> hist> russian summer 2013> tbr busting 2013 Slightly prefer this more erudite approach of Massie over Rounding's tome on the same subject. I overdosed marathoned on this for nigh on a day. Excellent, yet the history it describes is so cruel. 4* Nicholas and Alexandra 5* Catherine the Great 5* Peter the Great (  ) mimal | Aug 30, 2013 | Brilliant book, easy to read and captivating from the very first page. I really enjoyed the great research done for this book as well as the quotations from empress’s original memoirs and personal letters. I believe this helped to paint an impressive portrait of a woman, politician and a mother. In addition to this, Massie details and explains this very interesting period in Europe’s history (e.g. the French Revolution and changes to the map of Europe) and does it in a clear and easy to understand way. I’m really delighted with this read and hoping to get my hands on more of Massie’s books soon. The only thing missing for me would be a one or two-page summary of events at the end of the book so that it is easier to understand the background to all events. (  ) justine28 | Aug 29, 2013 | I LOVED this book. I've always been interested in the history of European monarchies and have read several books on the subject, but never anything about Imperial Russian. Robert Massie is a story-teller for sure. This book flowed like a fictional novel, weaving in details and quotes from journals and letters from contemporaries and Catherine herself. At the end I felt like I had an accurate picture of not only Catherine the person, but also Catherine, the mother, the ruler, and the woman. I enjoyed this so much I purchased Nicholas and Alexandra and picked up a few other Massie books from the library. ( ) Pretear | Aug 3, 2013 | strong on the personal side, especially her clear sightedness and her emotional needs. Easy to read. (  ) pnorman4345 | Jun 24, 2013 |
 Imperial biographer Robert K. Massie paints a satisfying portrait of Catherine the woman and Catherine the ruler, and her attempts to modernize and westernize Russia.
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This narrative biography tells 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.… (more)
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It might seem strange that the first half of the book focuses on the first half of Catherine's life--the years before she became Empress of Russia. There's a cost to this choice, because later on Massie can't dwell at length on the minutiae of her politics, but I found these chapters revelatory. Catherine is easiest to root for during her underdog years, when she was oppressed, surrounded by enemies, struggling just to stay afloat. Her courage and idealism contrast so sharply with the example set by Empress Elizabeth, the woman who plucked Catherine out of obscurity and brought her to Russia as a broodmare.
But once Elizabeth is gone, once Catherine stands alone on the throne, Elizabeth's influence is everywhere. Catherine manifests the same indulgences, acts out the same fears, that drove her predecessor. For example: Catherine is perhaps most famous for her many lovers, a fair number of whom fall into the 'handsome but not so smart' category. Elizabeth, too, saw sexual liberty as a perk of her rank. Elizabeth took multiple lovers, never married, and as Empress kept a loyal, gorgeous, not terribly bright man at her side. Another, less awesome similarity: Elizabeth saw her heirs as threats and worked hard to keep Catherine (and her husband Peter) powerless & often victimized by a series of smug, insolent minders. Ultimately, Catherine did the same to her own son, Paul, who resented it just as bitterly as she had.
Massie never sits down and writes about what made it possible for Catherine, a woman, to rise to power. He never frames his biography against the progress of feminism in the 20th century. But that's what I thought about, as I read. Catherine didn't come from nowhere. She didn't break out of Zeus' head, fully formed. She had a role model, and not just one: before Elizabeth, the ruler of Russia had been another woman, Anne. Catherine never had to wonder if a woman was capable of ruling. She spent almost twenty years subject to an Empress, a woman whose example she could adapt and then work to outshine. Catherine's 'greatness' isn't just her own. It belongs to the women who paved the way, too.
During the early years of Catherine's rule, Massie leads us through the highlights. Catherine's Enlightenment ideals, her desire to abolish serfdom, her correspondence with Voltaire and Diderot. It's so exciting: a young, brilliant, well-read philosopher assumes the throne! What will she do? Some great stuff, for sure. She's one of the first in Russia to take the smallpox vaccine, using her own body as an example for the realm. She builds hospitals, orphanages. She buys cool art...and...um...actually, aside from that, she mostly spends the rest of her reign slowly repudiating every ideal that she cherished as a young woman.
This is the truly bittersweet element to the book. The slow evolution of an untried idealist into a confident, capable, savvy, but utterly conservative Empress. Massie spends a fair bit of time towards the very end of the book recapping the French Revolution and at first I was irritated: isn't this a book about Russia? About Catherine the Great? And then I understood--because the Revolution, an actual organic revolt seeded by the philosophers she'd admired as a young woman, made a tyrant of her. In the wake of it--among other things--she started an official censorship bureau. She forbade the same books that had been so integral to her own education, including Voltaire.
Catherine's reign was full of successes. She had energy, intelligence, a positive attitude and a generous nature. But all her good qualities, her competence and ability, made the disillusion I felt reading the final chapters of this biography all the sharper. If Catherine is as good as it gets...well, the system really did need to change.
I really recommend this book. All these heavy ideas are packed in with bedroom politics and crazy affairs and passionate letters and midnight coups. The personalities are larger-than-life, the setting extraordinary. It's a fun read that turned out to be, also, a moving one.
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