The Romanov sisters : the lost lives of the daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

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Title:

Author:

Rappaport, Helen.

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Subject Term:

Princesses -- Russia -- Biography -- Sources.

Sisters.

Publication Date:

2014

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Available:*

Library	Item Type	Item Barcode	Call Number	Current Location
Searching... Harris Branch	Book	33028009786288	947.083 R221r 2014	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mishawaka Library	Book	33028009676554	947.083 R221r 2014	Searching... Unknown

A 12-WEEK NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Helen Rappaport paints a compelling portrait of the doomed grand duchesses." -- People magazine

"The public spoke of the sisters in a gentile, superficial manner, but Rappaport captures sections of letters and diary entries to showcase the sisters' thoughtfulness and intelligence." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Days of the Romanovs and Caught in the Revolution , The Romanov Sisters reveals the untold stories of the four daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra.

They were the Princess Dianas of their day--perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses--Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov--were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle.

Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography. With this treasure trove of diaries and letters from the grand duchesses to their friends and family, we learn that they were intelligent, sensitive and perceptive witnesses to the dark turmoil within their immediate family and the ominous approach of the Russian Revolution, the nightmare that would sweep their world away, and them along with it.

The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as the insecurities and poignancy of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of late Imperial Russia, World War I and the Russian Revolution. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished letters, diaries and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a book that will surprise people, even aficionados.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The lives of the four daughters-Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia-of Nicholas and Alexandra, Tzar and Tzarina of Imperial Russia, have been both sentimentalized and overlooked in the years since the Russian Revolution. Nonetheless, the politics of the court were such that they affected all members of the royal family, particularly through WWI and the Russian Revolution, which claimed the lives of the Romanovs. Rappaport (Magnificent Obsession), a specialist on Russian and 19th-century women's history, works chronologically-a necessary step in understanding court intricacies and the major players involved-beginning with Alice, Princess of Hesse and daughter of Queen Victoria of England, whose own daughter, Alix, was to become the Empress of Russia. Rappaport details the difficulties leading up to the marriage of Alexandra to then tsarevich Nicholas, the birth of their children, and how the Romanov sisters blossomed into charming, capable, and affectionate young ladies. The public spoke of the sisters in a gentile, superficial manner, but Rappaport captures sections of letters and diary entries to showcase the sisters' thoughtfulness and intelligence. Readers will be swept up in the author's leisurely yet informative narrative as she sheds new light on the lives of the four daughters. B&w photo insert. Agent: Caroline Michel, Peters Fraser & Dunlop (U.K.). (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

The daughters of Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra are just the right subjects for Rappaport's (A Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy, 2012, etc.) specialties in Russian and 19th-century women's history.This story of the four girlsOlga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasiais not just a standard Russian history; witness the passing references to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and 1905 and the revolution of 1905. The author's goal is to expose the characters of these girls, brought up very much in their mother's vision of a simple, sheltered life. Rappaport manages to maintain reader interest even as she ticks off the repetitious tale of their boring lives: long walks with their father, sewing, study, tennis and heavy doses of religion. Each year, the family would leave the palace for vacations aboard the Shtandart, the imperial yacht, in the Baltic Sea or the Crimea, where they would pretty much do the same things. A visit to their English cousins on the Isle of Wight illustrated how little social freedom they actually had. Assassination was a way of life in Russia, and the Romanovs' security network was so strict that the family members were restricted from leaving the ship. Their social lives were nonexistent, and their playmates were the sailors on the yacht or members of the czar's guard. Alexandra's weak constitution initially created the family's isolation, which the populace saw as snobbery from the German-born czarina. Add the inept autocrat, Nicholas, the hemophilia of Czarevitch Alexei and the presence of the despised Rasputin for Alexandra's obsessive protection, and the monarchy was ripe for a fall.A gossipy, revealing story of the doomed Russian family's fairy tale life told by an expert in the field. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Rappaport, who has previously written about the last days of the Romanov family as well as the lives of other royal families, here turns her attention to Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, murdered along with their brother and parents in 1918. Yet, in some ways, this is less about the girls and more about their mother, Alexandra, whose despair at producing four girls before giving birth to a hemophiliac son, is palpable. Rappaport uses the sisters' letters and diaries to illuminate their lives, but they rarely jump off the pages as real people, even though they are each described with specific personality traits. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is when their relationships with the magnetic Rasputin are introduced that the girls seem the most alive. What also comes through quite clearly is the great love and devotion each of the Romanov family members felt for each other, despite living through the harshest of circumstances. The haunting cover photograph of the Romanov sisters will draw readers, and the extensive bibliography will aid those who want to learn more.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist

Choice Review

For some reason, there is an eager audience for anything written about the doomed Romanovs. This book appeals directly to that audience; the four grand duchesses provide a slightly different focus for the familiar story. The publisher has supported the book with substantial advertising, and it has climbed onto the New York Times bestseller list. There seems little basis for this enthusiasm. Rappaport has added little beyond the occasional anecdote and factoid to a long-familiar story. Her coverage of Russian society and politics beyond the tight little world of the royal family is thin, incoherent, inconsistent, and ultimately confusing; no reader of this book will arrive at a clearer understanding of the role of the monarchy in prerevolutionary Russia, the sources and consequences of the revolution, or even the issues at play in determining the fate of the royal family. Public libraries may purchase it for Romanov fans; academic libraries can ignore it. --Judith Zimmerman, University of Pittsburgh

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Glossary of Names	p. xii
Authors Note	p. xvii
Prologue: The Room of the First and Last Door	p. 1
1 Mother Love	p. 9
2 La Petite Duchesse	p. 26
3 My God! What a Disappointment! ... A Fourth Girl!	p. 44
4 The Hope of Russia	p. 63
5 The Big Pair and The Little Pair	p. 82
6 The Shtandan	p. 97
7 Our Friend	p. 109
8 Royal Cousins	p. 123
9 In St Petersburg We Work, But at Livadia We Live	p. 141
10 Cupid by the Thrones	p. 160
11 The Little One Will Not Die	p. 176
12 Lord Send Happiness to Him, My Beloved One	p. 190
13 God Save the Tsar!	p. 207
14 Sisters of Mercy	p. 229
15 We Cannot Drop Our Work in the Hospitals	p. 243
16 The Outside Life	p. 255
17 Terrible Things Are Going on in St Petersburg	p. 275
18 Goodbye. Don't Forget Me	p. 298
19 On Freedom Street	p. 322
20 Thank God We Are Still in Russia and All Together	p. 339
21 They Knew It Was the End When I Was With Them	p. 356
22 Prisoners of the Ural Regional Soviet	p. 370
Epilogue: Victims of Repressions	p. 377
Acknowledgements	p. 383
Notes	p. 387
Bibliography	p. 451
Index	p. 469

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