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Catherine the Great Portrait of a Woman Robert K Massie Books

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Catherine the Great Portrait of a Woman Robert K Massie Books

I received this pre-published edition of Robert Massie's Catherine the Great as part of the Early Reviewers program of Library Thing. I received the biography free of charge in exchange for this review.

I had high hopes for this work based upon my experience with two of Massie's previous works, Peter the Great and Dreadnought, both of which I found outstanding. Quite some time ago, I read a previous biography of Catherine the Great written by Henri Troyat and found her life story to be fascinating. Having said that, I must say I was somewhat disappointed with this biography.

Perhaps my disappointment stems from excessive expectations, but in any event I found it failed to measure up to Massie's earlier work. When compared to the Troyat biography, while I found this work to be more approachable and reader friendly, it was lacking in the more detailed and deeper analysis provided by Troyat. By no means is this a poor effort, but the subject matter is about as rich as it comes and I found Massie's result to be somewhat pedestrian and simple. All the bases are covered from a factual standpoint, but the book is quite weak when it comes to any kind of analysis. The history is set out in a series of short, choppy chapters (over seventy chapters, each of which is broken into further subsections) that do little more than take the reader from event to event in the life of Catherine, one of the most intriguing lives of the period.

Massie is a fine biographer and historian. I can't help but feel that with subject matter this rich, he could have done far better.


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Catherine the Great Portrait of a Woman Robert K Massie Books Reviews

Massie has written several books about the rulers of Russia including Nicholas, Peter the Great, and now Catherine the Great. I've thoroughly enjoyed each one, learning about extremely interesting and historically important figures. Catherine led a semi tragic life before she became the empress of Russia. Married to an immature prince from Germany, who had no plans of embracing Russia, including it's language, religion, army, or culture. Unlike Catherine, who also came from Germany, but strove to learn the language, convert to the Russian Orthodox, church, and made an effort to get to know whatever Russians she was allowed to have contact. Her personal life was a lot racier than one would expect from someone in her position, but given her personal history, understandable.
Admittedly, I don’t know much about Russian History, so I’m not in a position to judge Robert K. Massie’s Catherine the Great Portrait of a Woman on accuracy, but I read and thoroughly enjoyed his books on the World War I naval war, so I have no reason to doubt his accuracy when it comes to Catherine the Great. So much of what you see about Catherine the Great is about her sexuality, so it was wonderful to read about her ideas and how and why they changed throughout her reign and about her accomplishments. She’s such a fascinating subject and Massie did a great job describing what developed and formed her personality and how her experiences changed her thoughts from childhood to Empress then over her reign as Empress. Since Catherine was a Western European taking an Eastern European throne, Massie does a great job showing how it disadvantaged her and how she overcame her subject’s suspicions. He also does a wonderful job fitting in the complicated relationship between Russia and the rest of Europe and how the two influenced each other. If you’re a fan of History or Biography, this is definitely a book to put on your reading list.
One of the BEST biographies I have EVER read. The maps were very useful. The entire story read like a novel but was still filled with essential & interesting facts. It was sad to read that Catherine repeated many of the same mistakes (which she swore she never would) that Elizabeth I committed concerning her immediate family when Catherine was under her tutelage. I especially liked the idea of short chapters with breaks within those chapters. So much easier to read than the usual "History Book" with a zillion pages, too many facts & footnotes, & ponderous prose. A welcome change. Would give it TEN stars! Massie's other books are very similar informative, well-written, but eminently readable.
I received this pre-published edition of Robert Massie's Catherine the Great as part of the Early Reviewers program of Library Thing. I received the biography free of charge in exchange for this review.

I had high hopes for this work based upon my experience with two of Massie's previous works, Peter the Great and Dreadnought, both of which I found outstanding. Quite some time ago, I read a previous biography of Catherine the Great written by Henri Troyat and found her life story to be fascinating. Having said that, I must say I was somewhat disappointed with this biography.

Perhaps my disappointment stems from excessive expectations, but in any event I found it failed to measure up to Massie's earlier work. When compared to the Troyat biography, while I found this work to be more approachable and reader friendly, it was lacking in the more detailed and deeper analysis provided by Troyat. By no means is this a poor effort, but the subject matter is about as rich as it comes and I found Massie's result to be somewhat pedestrian and simple. All the bases are covered from a factual standpoint, but the book is quite weak when it comes to any kind of analysis. The history is set out in a series of short, choppy chapters (over seventy chapters, each of which is broken into further subsections) that do little more than take the reader from event to event in the life of Catherine, one of the most intriguing lives of the period.

Massie is a fine biographer and historian. I can't help but feel that with subject matter this rich, he could have done far better.