The Romanov empress : a novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna

Title:

Author:

Gortner, C. W., author.

Personal Author:

Gortner, C. W., author.

ISBN:

9780425286166

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

427 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Abstract:

Marrying the Romanov heir, nineteen-year-old Danish princess Minnie becomes empress of Russia and treads a perilous path of compromise in a beloved but resistance-torn country where her son becomes the last tsar.

Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage. She is brought to Russia, and marries the Romanov heir, Alexander. Once he ascends the throne, she becomes empress Maria. When their son, Nicholas, inherits the throne he is the inexperienced ruler of a deeply divided and crumbling empire. Determined to guide him to reforms that will bring Russia into the modern age, Maria faces implacable opposition from Nicholas's wife, Alexandra, whose fervor has led her into a disturbing relationship with a mystic named Rasputin. -- adapted from jacket.

Personal Subject:

MariÌiı̐ aı̐Ł FÌeodorovna, Empress, consort of Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, 1847-1928-Fiction.

Romanov, House of-Fiction.

Subject Term:

Empresses -- Russia -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Russia -- History -- Alexander III, 1881-1894 -- Fiction.

Russia -- History -- Revolution, 1905-1907 -- Fiction.

Russia -- Kings and rulers -- Fiction.

Genre:

Biographical fiction.

Historical fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Belmont	Book	FICTION GORTNER	Searching... Unknown
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION GORTNER	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

For readers of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir comes a dramatic novel of the beloved Empress Maria, the Danish girl who became the mother of the last Russian tsar.

Even from behind the throne, a woman can rule.

Narrated by the mother of Russia's last tsar, this vivid, historically authentic novel brings to life the courageous story of Maria Feodorovna, one of Imperial Russia's most compelling women who witnessed the splendor and tragic downfall of the Romanovs as she fought to save her dynasty in the final years of its long reign.

Barely nineteen, Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage-as her older sister Alix has done, moving to England to wed Queen Victoria's eldest son. The winds of fortune bring Minnie to Russia, where she marries the Romanov heir and becomes empress once he ascends the throne. When resistance to his reign strikes at the heart of her family and the tsar sets out to crush all who oppose him, Minnie-now called Maria-must tread a perilous path of compromise in a country she has come to love.

Her husband's death leaves their son Nicholas as the inexperienced ruler of a deeply divided and crumbling empire. Determined to guide him to reforms that will bring Russia into the modern age, Maria faces implacable opposition from Nicholas's strong-willed wife, Alexandra, whose fervor has lead her into a disturbing relationship with a mystic named Rasputin. As the unstoppable wave of revolution rises anew to engulf Russia, Maria will face her most dangerous challenge and her greatest heartache.

From the opulent palaces of St. Petersburg and the intrigue-laced salons of the aristocracy to the World War I battlefields and the bloodied countryside occupied by the Bolsheviks, C. W. Gortner sweeps us into the anarchic fall of an empire and the complex, bold heart of the woman who tried to save it.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A Danish princess becomes a Russian czarina, mother to the last Romanov czar.In his 10th historical novel, Gortner (The Vatican Princess, 2016, etc.) creates a vibrant portrait of imperial Russia, narrated by the woman at its throbbing center: Maria Feodorovna. The daughter of Denmark's King Christian IX, Minnie, as she was known, was destined to marry into royalty, just as her older sister, Alix, did when she married Queen Victoria's son, Bertie. Faced with a marriage to the czarevich, Nicholas, she was surprised to find herself falling in love with "his gentle spirit and noble soul." But suddenly, he was dying, exacting a promise from Sasha, one of his brothers, to wed Minnie. When Minnie balks at the idea of marrying a man so unlike her beloved Nixa, her mother rebukes her sternly: "Think of everything you can achieve," not only as "conscience and counsel" for her husband, but also for the good of Denmark. As Maria Feodorovna, she arrives in a nation beset by turmoil and violence. Although her father-in-law, Czar Alexander II, enacted liberal changes, such as abolishing serfdom, Nihilists and anarchists cry for more: "they sow terror in the hope that I'll either grant reforms or abdicate. Preferably abdicate," Alexander tells Minnie. "They have no use for a tsar." While Russian royalty reside in opulent palaces and bedeck themselves in stunning arrays of precious jewels, peasants live in abject poverty. Visiting a Red Cross hospital, Maria is shocked by the "searing display of the plight of the poor." When Alexander II is assassinated, Sasha emerges as an oppressive ruler, trying to contain bloody dissension. When he dies of illness, he is succeeded by his son, Nicholas, whose czarina, Alexandrawhom Maria vehemently dislikeshas her own ideas about Russian supremacy, fueled in part by her alliance with the unsavory Rasputin. Politics and war form the backdrop of a story more closely focused on court gossip, family tensions, and the arrogance and isolation that led the Romanovs to their doom. "We existed in a dream," Maria reflects, "enclosed in our lacquered splendor."A briskly narrated tale of power and revolution. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.