alexandraidonea's review against another edition
4.0
I really, really enjoyed this book and recommend it to absolutely everyone. My only reservation in giving it five stars is that a few points dragged because of editing issues; Massie and his editor(s) should have recognized that there was a good deal of repetition - I would have cut many paragraphs from about the middle of the book on. Still, it was extremely educational and enlightening, particularly I think to a Westerner because we so seldom learn about Russia.
libraryofdreaming's review against another edition
5.0
Ever since I watched the Russian tv show Ekaterina I've been motivated to discover more about Catherine the Great. This enormous biography was just what I needed! I don't know anything about Catherine so I couldn't judge what was correct or not, but the fact that the author won a Pulitzer gives me faith that he knows what he's talking about. ;) Not only was this book enormous (845 pages to be exact), it was also really detailed and interesting. Catherine is such a fascinating figure! I loved reading every detail about her: her reading habits, her personality, and her correspondence with philosophers. I liked how Massie used excerpts from Catherine's own memoirs to describe the majority of her younger years. I just wish he hadn't let her words stand alone so much of the time, especially when a lot of it was opinions that may or may not be accurate.
It was also very interesting to track Catherine's transformation from young, neglected girl to idealistic young woman to fearsome autocrat. At the beginning of her reign, she had big dreams about turning Russia into a modern nation and ending serfdom, but by the time she died the "institution" was still firmly entrenched in Russia and she had violently put down several rebellions. Massie portrays this change sympathetically, perhaps even too sympathetically, but it was a relief to find a male biographer who seemed to actually like the empress he wrote about.
It was also very interesting to track Catherine's transformation from young, neglected girl to idealistic young woman to fearsome autocrat. At the beginning of her reign, she had big dreams about turning Russia into a modern nation and ending serfdom, but by the time she died the "institution" was still firmly entrenched in Russia and she had violently put down several rebellions. Massie portrays this change sympathetically, perhaps even too sympathetically, but it was a relief to find a male biographer who seemed to actually like the empress he wrote about.
andrea_rebekah42's review against another edition
4.0
This is a wonderful biography of a fascinating woman. Robert K. Massie is as good of a writer as he is a historian. His writing is lively, engaging, and worthy of its remarkable subject.
hooksbookswanderlust's review against another edition
5.0
If you love history, but find many books to be boring or dry, you're in for a surprise with this bio. It is amazingly well written and reads like a novel instead of a work of non-fiction. It gives amazing insight into the life of Catherine II using her own words from her personal journal and letters, as well as those of others close to her. I can't wait to read about Nicholas and Alexandra.
lazygal's review against another edition
4.0
Massie's research into the life of Catherine II is extensive (for example, he used three different translations of her Memoirs) and wide-ranging and the writing style is engaging enough to almost make one forget this is a nearly 600 page book (it's the weight that gives it away).
While I knew something about her life, there was much I hadn't and was fascinated to learn. I knew she was a German princess, but not that it was of some small, unimportant state. I knew she and her mother didn't get along, but not the extent of the difficulties. Etc. Intertwined with her story is that of those around her, so we meet people like Empress Elizabeth and Voltaire and Potemkin fully-fleshed out rather than as sketches.
Several rumors are debunked here, like the one about the Potemkin Village (Massie states that those that talked about them weren't on her trip down the Dnieper, and those that were on the trip never mentioned anything amiss - even those representatives of foreign governments who would certainly have done so had there been fakery). Nothing about horses, however, except that she didn't like to ride sidesaddle.
I really wanted this to be a solid 5, but... I just couldn't do it. The missing star is due to four factors: one, there were phrases that were used again and again to describe people (eg, virtually every time an Orlov is mentioned, we hear again that she owes her throne to them); two, there's an entirely unnecessary chapter devoted to the intricacies of the French Revolution (which is interesting in itself, but goes into detail not needed for a book about Catherine); three, there were pieces that I felt were missing, as when she is persuaded that Lutheranism and Russian Orthodoxy are "virtually the same", yet many readers may not understand the depth of the differences between the two; and four, while mentioning many times that Gregory Orlov was "the father of her son, Bobrinskoy" we never actually learn what happened to his child.
Having read his Nicholas and Alexandra, I now think I'll try to find Peter the Great!
While I knew something about her life, there was much I hadn't and was fascinated to learn. I knew she was a German princess, but not that it was of some small, unimportant state. I knew she and her mother didn't get along, but not the extent of the difficulties. Etc. Intertwined with her story is that of those around her, so we meet people like Empress Elizabeth and Voltaire and Potemkin fully-fleshed out rather than as sketches.
Several rumors are debunked here, like the one about the Potemkin Village (Massie states that those that talked about them weren't on her trip down the Dnieper, and those that were on the trip never mentioned anything amiss - even those representatives of foreign governments who would certainly have done so had there been fakery). Nothing about horses, however, except that she didn't like to ride sidesaddle.
I really wanted this to be a solid 5, but... I just couldn't do it. The missing star is due to four factors: one, there were phrases that were used again and again to describe people (eg, virtually every time an Orlov is mentioned, we hear again that she owes her throne to them); two, there's an entirely unnecessary chapter devoted to the intricacies of the French Revolution (which is interesting in itself, but goes into detail not needed for a book about Catherine); three, there were pieces that I felt were missing, as when she is persuaded that Lutheranism and Russian Orthodoxy are "virtually the same", yet many readers may not understand the depth of the differences between the two; and four, while mentioning many times that Gregory Orlov was "the father of her son, Bobrinskoy" we never actually learn what happened to his child.
Having read his Nicholas and Alexandra, I now think I'll try to find Peter the Great!
jpartlan's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book. A good show of all the history of Catherine the Great.
lisalark's review against another edition
5.0
I actually listened to this one, as read by Mark Deakins. I thought he did a superb job of narration, very easy and interesting to listen to, didn't get in the way of the story, and he did voices and accents for characters which were actually quite nice and very consistent.
The audiobook format can be hard for me as it's so so much slower than my reading speed, but this was useful as I could do chores or workout or whatever and still have it going. I actually might read the hard copy at some point to see what I missed - I'm about 50/50 audio/visual so always get something new when I switch mediums.
The book itself is brilliantly written, charming, thorough, fascinating, and humanizing while relying on primary sources and actual fact. Loved it.
The audiobook format can be hard for me as it's so so much slower than my reading speed, but this was useful as I could do chores or workout or whatever and still have it going. I actually might read the hard copy at some point to see what I missed - I'm about 50/50 audio/visual so always get something new when I switch mediums.
The book itself is brilliantly written, charming, thorough, fascinating, and humanizing while relying on primary sources and actual fact. Loved it.
sarareadseverything's review against another edition
2.0
I actually learned a lot of new things about Catherine the Great and Russia at the time of her reign but holy god was this long! A lot of it was detail not necessarily super relevant to the overarching themes of the book, but I'm not sorry that I read it. I just wish it had been edited down to 300 pages instead of 600.