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A review by debo03
Love and Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin by Catherine the Great, Douglas Smith
3.0
Given that this bind up of letters exchanged between Catherine the Great and Grigori Potemkin and I had a rocky start, I ended up enjoying this quite a lot.
Rocky how, you ask? Well, however my teacher may see it, this is sure as hell not the feminist outlook on Catherine I asked him for...
Nevertheless, it turned out to be interesting. The translation is accessible, the introductions to the chapters are well researched and surprisingly enough I thought the content of their letters was as emotionally meaningful as it was politically.
However, I would not recommend reading this if you are unfamiliar with Catherine, her politics and basic historical developments in Europe in the 1770s and 1780s since footnotes can only explain so much. Without broader context I would think this loses half its charms.
Lastly, and I don’t mean any offence, but it needs to be said (and recensions have indeed said it) — the cover is hideous.
Rocky how, you ask? Well, however my teacher may see it, this is sure as hell not the feminist outlook on Catherine I asked him for...
Nevertheless, it turned out to be interesting. The translation is accessible, the introductions to the chapters are well researched and surprisingly enough I thought the content of their letters was as emotionally meaningful as it was politically.
However, I would not recommend reading this if you are unfamiliar with Catherine, her politics and basic historical developments in Europe in the 1770s and 1780s since footnotes can only explain so much. Without broader context I would think this loses half its charms.
Lastly, and I don’t mean any offence, but it needs to be said (and recensions have indeed said it) — the cover is hideous.