Great Catherine - Hardcover

Carolly Erickson

3.83

1,311 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671712284 ISBN 13: 9780671712280

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1994

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From the moment the fourteen-year-old Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst agreed to marry the heir to the Russian throne, she was mired in a quicksand of intrigue. Precociously intelligent, self-confident, and attractive but with a stubborn, wayward streak, Sophia withstood a degree of emotional battering that would have broken a weaker spirit until at last she emerged, triumphant over her many enemies, as Empress Catherine II of Russia.

Her achievements as empress were prodigious. She brought vast new lands under Russian rule. She raised the prestige of Russia in Europe. She began the process of imposing legal and political order on the chaos she inherited from her predecessors. Yet few historical figures have been so enthusiastically vilified as Catherine the Great. Whispers that she had ordered her husband's murder grew to murmurs that she was an immoral woman and finally to shouts that she was a depraved, lust-crazed nymphomaniac. With deft mastery of historical narrative and an unsurpassed ability to make the past live again, Carolly Erickson uncovers the real woman behind the tarnished image—an indomitable, feisty, often visionary ruler who, in an age of caveats and constraints, blithely went her own way.

Great Catherine reveals the complexities of this great ruler's nature, her craving for love, her insecurities, the inevitable sorrows and disappointments of a strong empress who dared not share her power with any man yet longed to be led and guided by a loving consort. Great Catherine is a fresh portrait of an infamous historical figure, one that reveals how Catherine's flawed triumph guaranteed her posthumous fame and enhanced the might and renown of Russia for generations to come.

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About the Author:

Distinguished historian Carolly Erickson is the author of Rival to the Queen, The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots, The First Elizabeth, The Hidden Life of Josephine, The Last Wife of Henry VIII, and many other prize-winning works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Tsarina’s Daughter won the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. She lives in Hawaii.

From Booklist:

Erickson's fluid, captivating portrait of Catherine the Great reads like a first-rate historical novel. Courageous, fair, and generous Empress Catherine began life as plain but precocious Princess Sophie in a tiny German principality. Her mother never warmed to her willful, intelligent, and athletic daughter, but others discerned Sophie's charm and magnetic personality, including members of the court of Russia's Empress Elizabeth (another intriguing personality). Young, ambitious, and daring, Sophie made the arduous journey to St. Petersburg, was christened Catherine after her conversion to Greek Orthodoxy, and with a firm belief in her destiny to rule, resigned herself to marrying the repulsive, demented, and impotent grand duke. During the course of their unconsummated union, Catherine was subjected to appalling deprivations and mental cruelty, tests that ultimately tempered her resolve and honed her considerable political acumen. The tale of her rise to power is a tale of restraint, genius, and sacrifice. Erickson makes it clear that Catherine was, in many respects, a modern woman, devoted to her work, if you will, but just as determined to have love in her life. It's high time we stopped sniggering over long-stale nonsense about her allegedly voracious sexual appetite and recognize Catherine for what she was: a woman of remarkable powers and one of the world's great leaders. Donna Seaman

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