Name: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
Rating: 3.896551724137931 (29 reviews)
ISBN: 9781789544534

Robert K. Massie

The extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became one of the most powerful women in history.

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

portrait of a woman

Catherine the Great

Toni Turner

It is 2am when I’m finishing this and my biggest thought is: why did I not know that half of these people existed at the same time in history?? My ignorance of like...our entire timeline will never cease to amaze me!

Renee Delcourt

Catherine the Great has always been one of the most inspirational stories in history. This woman came to Russia very much disliked for her German roots and became Empress of all of Russia and beloved by all off her subjects. The book did go into the childhood of both Sophia and Peter, as well as the in depth relationships that Catherine had with her Favorites. I'm pretty sure that most people are aware of the story of Princess Sophia Augusta Fredericka, so I am mostly going to speak about how the book was written and my reaction to it.

Firstly, the book is so intimidating. It's a huge book. When I first received the book, I didn't even want to start reading it. The language on the first page was deterring. It's a bunch of really long names that I have never heard before. After a while, I was able to get into the style of the writing and could really enjoy the story. It's a lot more fact driven then I thought it would be. Now I didn't expect it to be historical fiction, but I thought it would be more about her memoirs. Now I should probably explain that I have never read a Robert Massie book before, so I wasn't used to his style.

To read the rest of the review go to: http://thebookprojectandme.blogspot.com/

Jeni Enjaian

Overall this was a fairly decent biography of Catherine the Great. I feel at a bit of a disadvantage in writing this review because I don't know as much about Russian history as I would like and cannot critique it on that end. 
The thing that bothered me most was the shift in the book's focus once the author passed the point of Catherine's ascension to the throne. The biography became less personal and more like a history of Russia (and Europe partially) during the time of her reign. I realize that this is likely due in large part to the abrupt end of her memoirs which impart a great deal of personal testimony to the early portion of the narrative. However, the lack of personal testimony does not mean that it is perfectly acceptable to waste precious pages on the events of the French Revolution, text that could be found in any number of generic textbooks. That reason alone kept me from giving this book four stars. I did enjoy it though and would recommend it to any Russian history/Catherine the Great aficionados.

Bryan Alexander

An enjoyable narrative history of Catherine II's life, Robert Massie's book traces the tsarina's career from childhood through death.

For readers new to Catherine the Great, it's a rich and very engaging experience. Massie accessibly introduces the eighteenth-century Russian and general European worlds. Most importantly he presents Catherine as a sympathetic character: very intelligent, ambitious yet sometimes kind, suffering as a girl and as a wife, successful in most of her endeavors. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is especially and unsurprisingly interested in Catherine's famous proclivity for romantic relationships, which occupy perhaps one half of the book. We also learn about her major achievements and controversies, from launching smallpox inoculation (a truly impressive feat) to carving up Poland and chunks of the Ottoman Empire. If you're new to eighteenth-century history, Massie gives a good introduction to some highlights. We get Frederick the Great, the Enlightenment, the partitions of Poland, and the French Revolution.

I knew most of this from studying Russian history as an undergrad (well, my whole life) and eighteenth-century lit as a professor. Still, there were some fun surprises, like the possibility of Russia sending Cossacks to fight the American Revolution (!) (Kindle location 7666).

Yet I wanted more from the book. For a pretty long tome, it underplayed some serious issues. I suspect that's because Massie had two different objects: a close biography and the history of a reign.

To begin, Catherine II was one of the leading examples of "enlightened despots", a crop of non-democratic rulers who sought in various ways to apply Enlightenment ideas to their realms. Massie takes time to build up Austria's Joseph II and Prussia's Frederick the Great as characters, but doesn't address this major topic, despite making Catherine's connections to Voltaire, Diderot, etc. a major piece of his portrait. 

At the same time the book seems to celebrate or at least accept Catherine's autocratic rule. That she was an authoritarian monarch who dismissed democracy, wanted to war against the French Revolution, and propped up Russian aristocrats ends up being just what was best for Russia at the time. It's as if the book is so fascinated by Catherine as a character that it fails to assess what it would have been like to be one of her subjects (and not one of her lovers).

Speaking of the aristocracy, it's weird that Massie doesn't write more about this. The dynamic between tsar and boyar, autocrat and nobility is essential to any consideration of Russian history prior to 1917. The aristos were the nation's leading competing power center. That's why Ivan Groznii so brutally suppressed them. Breaking the aristocracy to his new regime is central to Peter the Great's triumph (quite a bit like Louis XIV in contemporary France; I'm pretty sure Massive makes this comparison in his earlier biography). Catherine actually undid some of Peter's major aristo-controlling measures. Did she manage to be both a powerful autocrat while letting the nobles have more power? That would be an unusual achievement in Russian history, which the book lets slide.
 
Massive begins by expressing sympathy to serfs. There's a terrific passage of serf sale notices (Kindle location 5351ff), which should fascinate any American reader interested in this nation's history of slavery. But, like Catherine after Pugachev's revolt, Massie seems to have resigned himself to serfdom's continuation, and ceases writing about them.

Massie stints on Sweden, which is strange, given that nation's enormous role in Peter the Great's reign; indeed, by Catherine's accession, Russia had just recently supplanted Sweden as leading power in that corner of Europe. The Baltic region was a major area of political struggle - indeed, Russia's recently founded capital sat at one end of it. Massive offers a light and disparaging portrait of Gusvatus III, despite his interesting similarities to Catherine (patron of the arts, enlightened despot, took power in controversial fashion). Massie also brushes aside Sweden's war with Russia during Catherine's reign, citing Russian sources (only) that mocked Gustavus' plans and effort. This leaves the reader wanting more.

Massive also downplays the role of Suvorov, who is usually considered Russia's greatest general. Suvorov is a fantastic character. Besides being a fantastic military commander and innovator, he was also very eccentric. Yet Massive barely notes his career at all - probably because he wasn't romantically involved with Catherine.

I was also left wanting on the account of Potemkin and his supposed fake villages. Massie dismisses that story without much explanation or evidence.

The book's conclusion is far too brief. After a description of Catherine's death we get a two-page summary of her achievements. There's nothing about her successor, even after many pages setting up the difficulties of the succession (Catherine really didn't want her son Paul to become tsar). There's nothing about Catherine's posthumous reputation - how did the 19th century view her? How did the USSR assess her? What's her standing in today's women's history? 

Lastly, for a book from a major publisher, would it have killed them to provide some maps? We would have done well with one showing changes to Russia over Catherine's reign, the Polish partitions, and the theater of war with the Ottoman Empire.

Ah, but I'm a picky reader. If you're new to Catherine or her times, Massie's book is a very good passport.

One fun quote:Knowing that the empress would never accept the public spectacle of Pugachev being quartered alive, Vyazemsky secretly arranged with Moscow’s chief of police to have the executioner “accidentally” behead Pugachev first and afterward chop off his hands and feet. (Kindle location 7244)

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

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