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A review by danaisreading
The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak
3.0
Received this as a Goodreads Giveaway.
While the book is subtitled "A novel of Catherine the Great", it's really not about her. The novel is about life in the court of the Empress Elizabeth as seen through the eyes of a court spy, Varvara Nikolayevna. Varvara is one of Catherine's servants, who was ordered by the Empress to befriend Catherine when she first arrives in St. Petersburg. Varvara reports to the Empress everything about Catherine's life. During this time, Varvara believes she and Catherine become good friends, and Varvara becomes a devoted supporter of Catherine in the game of court intrigues. The book goes through the Empress's death, the Grand Duke Peter's ascension to the throne, and the first couple of years after Catherine's coup to become Empress herself.
The book itself is well written, and that period of Russian history is fascinating, so it's worth the read. However, the fact that Catherine is essentially a secondary character in what is supposed to be a novel about her is disappointing and a bit of false advertising, so it loses a star for that. The second loss of a star is because the story drags a bit in the first half. It took about two weeks to read about 200 of the 400 pages in the novel. It didn't hold my interest enough to read more than a few pages at a time, and it was easy to put down and do or read something else. However, the second half of the novel does pick up, and I finished the rest of the book in about a day.
While the book is subtitled "A novel of Catherine the Great", it's really not about her. The novel is about life in the court of the Empress Elizabeth as seen through the eyes of a court spy, Varvara Nikolayevna. Varvara is one of Catherine's servants, who was ordered by the Empress to befriend Catherine when she first arrives in St. Petersburg. Varvara reports to the Empress everything about Catherine's life. During this time, Varvara believes she and Catherine become good friends, and Varvara becomes a devoted supporter of Catherine in the game of court intrigues. The book goes through the Empress's death, the Grand Duke Peter's ascension to the throne, and the first couple of years after Catherine's coup to become Empress herself.
The book itself is well written, and that period of Russian history is fascinating, so it's worth the read. However, the fact that Catherine is essentially a secondary character in what is supposed to be a novel about her is disappointing and a bit of false advertising, so it loses a star for that. The second loss of a star is because the story drags a bit in the first half. It took about two weeks to read about 200 of the 400 pages in the novel. It didn't hold my interest enough to read more than a few pages at a time, and it was easy to put down and do or read something else. However, the second half of the novel does pick up, and I finished the rest of the book in about a day.