Lively biography of a much misunderstood, most gifted ruler of
Russia."That this most civilized of women should be known by most
people only in relation to the infamous and entirely untrue 'horse
story' is one of the greatest injustices of history," grumbles
London-based translator and writer Rounding. In fairness to that
misperception, Sophia Frederica Auguste of Anhalt-Zerbst, having
climbed to the top of the "feudal anthill," was renowned for
affairs with the courtiers and retainers who surrounded her; what
with all the amorous hustle and bustle, it's easy to see how a
steed could steal into the narrative. Catherine, Rounding makes
clear, understood that sex was an element of power. She had come to
a St. Petersburg that was still mostly a metropolis of log cabins
to be married off to young Peter III, who, it emerged, was a bit of
a dimwit and rather easily controlled. "Instead of being able to be
a wise consort to his young wife-to-be," Rounding writes, "Peter
found it was the other way round, and he did not, on the whole,
welcome this." Catherine was, after all, well-read, fluent in
several languages and given to philosophy and literature, though in
later life her philosophy was of a practical and even Machiavellian
nature; writing that children cried either to complain or out of
stubbornness, for instance, she urged that "neither sort of tears
should be allowed, all crying should be forbidden." Moscow does not
believe in tears, indeed, but Catherine had shed many as Peter kept
his distance from her, pushing her into the willing arms of a
succession of dashing cavaliers and counselors who helped her build
St. Petersburg into a mighty city and Russia into a mighty empire;
in this regard, Rounding ranks the empress as equal to or greater
than her predecessor Peter the Great, who was certainly more
murderous than she.A welcome study of a "multifaceted, very
eighteenth-century woman. (Kirkus Reviews)
'THE MOST ACCESSIBLE AND ENJOYABLE PORTRAIT YET.' DAILY MAIL
______________________________________________________ Power, sex,
and politics: the fascinating rule of one of Russia's most
significant monarchs Catherine the Great ruled Russia from 1762
until 1796. Famous for the legends circulated by political rivals
about her sexual rapacity, some were true - though not the infamous
rumour of her death by stallion. However, a conservative Russian
court was shocked by her use of her sexuality as a political tool,
as well as the number and age of her lovers. Unhappily married to
the Grand Duke Peter, a man who preferred to play with his toy
soldiers in the bedroom, they failed to produce an heir, and
Catherine turned her attentions to a certain Sergey Saltykov who
fathered the future Tsar Paul I. Six months into the reign of Peter
III, Catherine, supported by the Imperial Guard, staged a
successful coup against her husband and became Empress. It was her
ambition to transform a vast but semi-barbaric country with the
cultural and political reforms of Enlightenment Europe. In this
fascinating biography, Virginia Rounding reveals an extraordinary
woman in all her complexity.
______________________________________________________ 'A great
thumping triumph of a book.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Rounding shows that
the reality is far more interesting than any of the fictions.'
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'An intimate study of Catherine's life' GUARDIAN
'Enjoyable and perceptive study . . . Rounding has read widely, and
writes history with a no-nonsense style and a respectful relish for
the details that make the past come alive.' Simon Sebag Montefiore,
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Rounding writes with enviable lucidity, and gives
us the most accessible and enjoyable portrait yet.' DAILY MAIL
'Written with vigour and intelligence enough to do justice to its
prodigious subject.' SUNDAY TIMES
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