How to Be An Empress

Title: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
Author: Robert K. Massie
Host: Lois

To quote from the official book description, "The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra,  and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, 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." And so began our progress through 656 pages and 3 pounds of fascinating history about a little understood woman who became a towering figure on the international scene and the last female ruler of Russia.

Insights and Opinions

Our Girl

+ Massie is a vibrant storyteller who is equally masterful at pacing, prose and finding the best source material to inform his work (including works by scholar Douglas Smith and other historians).

+ Drawing heavily on Catherine's own memoirs, the book is at its most lively when she is speaking for herself. With a remarkably contemporary voice, Catherine invites the reader in as she watches, learns, absorbs, and masters both the Russian language and the Russian people. When Catherine stops writing her own memoirs, that source dries up and with it, the rest of the book. Although still completely entertaining and informative, the book's pace changes after Catherine stops speaking for herself.

+ On the other hand, staying in Catherine's point of view keeps the reader claustrophobically trapped in the palace, just as she is. We see nothing of the country. Look at any set of draperies, and you'll see a pair of boots poking out from the bottom. Minions run endless notes back and forth across the miles of palace hallways, delivering intrigue back and forth. Key figures play out painful personal situations in the middle of rooms full of watching people. So you want to be an empress? Think again.

+ Almost plot-driven, this work reads like a novel. Most histories aren't page-turners, but this one is. Do we feel a PBS mini-series coming up?

+ Fueled by the writings of Voltaire and Diderot, Catherine fearlessly strikes out on a mission to reform Russia using Enlightenment principles, only to be subverted at every step by the incredible complexity of the vast geography in her hands and the intransigent system of entrenched nobility and long-standing serfdom. We should all read about her efforts at creating a Congress of sorts, just so we can feel better about our own.

Her Bling

+ Eventually, as Catherine's memoirs disappear and her history is told from other sources, we strike out across the country and witness the terrible facts of a nobility/serf society.

+ Along the way, the reader is introduced to all of Catherine's great loves, the greatest of whom was Gregory Potemkin. The recognized and approved system of "favorites" makes a certain amount of sense once you are immersed in this imperial world -- profligacy combined with staggering debt, incredible power combined with a complete lack of freedom, the human need for love balanced by the imperative that a monarch trust no one.

Oddments and Telling Details

Indian Food Extravaganza

+ Thanks to Lois for the fab-o Indian food. Yum. Try the Thai-spiced Watermelon Soup on Epicurious. So refreshing.

+ We all want to go away now and read Peter the Great and Nicholas and Alexandra because we expect them to be as entertaining and educational as this massive work.

+ Linda's description of her trip to St. Petersburg and the Hermitage made us all want to visit.

+ And finally, we spent a fair amount of time congratulating ourselves for being such a fine group of readers.