Catherine the Great

Starred review from September 5, 2011
The Pulitzer-winning biographer of Nicholas and Alexandra and of Peter the Great, Massie now relates the life of a minor German princess, Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, who became Empress Catherine II of Russia (1729–1796). She was related through her ambitious mother to notable European royalty; her husband-to-be, the Russian grand duke Peter, was the only living grandson of Peter the Great. As Massie relates, during her disastrous marriage to Peter, Catherine bore three children by three different lovers, and she and Peter were controlled by Peter’s all-powerful aunt, Empress Elizabeth, who took physical possession of Catherine’s firstborn, Paul. Six months into her husband’s incompetent reign as Peter III, Catherine, 33, who had always believed herself superior to her husband, dethroned him, but probably did not plan his subsequent murder, though, Massie writes, a shadow of suspicion hung over her. Confident, cultured, and witty, Catherine avoided excesses of personal power and ruled as a benevolent despot. Magnifying the towering achievements of Peter the Great, she imported European culture into Russia, from philosophy to medicine, education, architecture, and art. Effectively utilizing Catherine’s own memoirs, Massie once again delivers a masterful, intimate, and tantalizing portrait of a majestic monarch.

October 1, 2011
Roughly every decade since Nicholas and Alexandra (1967), popular historian Massie (Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea, 2003, etc.) publishes a fat volume of European history for an eager readership; his latest will not disappoint. Catherine the Great (1729–1796) was princess of a minor German state whose big chance arrived when she married Russian Czarina Elizabeth's nephew and successor, a minor German duke who was unattractive, immature and lazy. Catherine was the opposite, so she passed a stormy, mostly unhappy 17 years before Elizabeth's death in 1761; six months later Catherine snatched the throne from her husband. Under her energetic leadership, Russia modernized, expanded its empire and became accepted as one of the great powers of Europe. As attracted to Enlightenment ideas as contemporary monarchs, Catherine corresponded with and showered honors on Voltaire, Diderot and other French philosophers, and considered herself an enlightened despot but quickly gave up reform efforts in the face of aristocratic resistance. In the end, she ruled with an iron fist, tolerated little opposition and brutally suppressed several rebellions. Massie writes old-fashioned politics-and-great-men history, but few readers will resist his gripping description of colorful national leaders, their cutthroat rivalries and incessant wars. Most of this occurs after the 250-page mark, when Catherine takes power. Until then, the author recounts interminable petty intrigues, love affairs and itineraries of overprivileged, underemployed Russian aristocrats. His portraits of Catherine and other leading figures reveals a seemingly clairvoyant knowledge of their thoughts, emotions and conversation. Despite these lowbrow historical techniques, Massie delivers a fascinating account of dog-eat-dog politics in 18th-century Europe and the larger-than-life Russian empress who gave as good as she got.

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June 1, 2011

No one does Russian history like Massie, who hooked readers with Nicholas and Alexandra and went on to win a Pulitzer for Peter the Great. Iron-hard ruler of Russia in the 1700s, Catherine expanded the borders of her empire while bringing it into Europe's cultural orbit and juggling lovers along the way. For all upscale readers.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2011
The popularity of Massie's biographies of Russian czars presages a comparable reception for his presentation of Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, as Catherine the Great was originally named. She appeals to readers for several reasons. Those interested in the expansion and development of the Russian Empire under her reign (176296) can delve into her conduct of war and diplomacy, cultivation of Enlightenment notables, and attempted reforms of law and government. And those fascinated by the intimate intrigues of dynasties will find an extraordinary example in Catherine's ascent from minor German princess to absolute autocrat of Russia. Court life is Massie's strong suit, though, which he develops with a well-referenced thoroughness that begins with Catherine's own account (The Memoirs of Catherine the Great, Mark Cruse, ed., 2005) of surviving palace politics as consort to the eccentric and disliked crown prince, Paul. The memoir, which suspends in 1758, alludes to another aspect of Catherine that tantalizes royalty readers, her liaisons with courtiers, most famously, Grigory Potemkin. Massie's treatment of them proves sympathetically perceptive to Catherine's warmth and her estrangement from them, humanizing the real woman behind the imperial persona. Written dramatically and almost visually, Massie's Catherine may attain the classic status that his Peter the Great (1980) and Nicholas and Alexandra (1967) already have.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)