Catherine The Great & Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair
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Amazon.co.uk Review
For most of the 20th century Grigory Potemkin has existed as no more than an entertaining side-show for Russian historians. And make no mistake--he is very entertaining; in the Russian royal court of Catherine the Great that was noted for its sexual promiscuity, Potemkin stood out as the libertine par excellence. Although his affair with Catherine only lasted a couple of years, after which he moved on to a succession of nieces and became Catherine's procurer-in-chief, Potemkin remained the love of her life and remained a powerful figure at court. In his new doorstop of a biography, Simon Sebag-Montefiore aims to show that Potemkin is much more than a historical divertissement and is instead one of the central figures of political influence in 18th-century Russia--and by and large he succeeds. Sebag-Montefiore refutes the image of the paper tiger who erected cardboard villages along the banks of Dnieper to convince Catherine that the colonisation of the Ukraine was continuing apace, and instead credits him as the architect for the cities of Odessa and Sebastapol that emerged out of his Great Plan to secure the Crimea--and hence a southern coastline--for Russia. At times, one feels that perhaps Sebag-Montefiore doth protest too much and that he pushes his claims for Potemkin too far. But this is more than compensated for by his enthusiasm. Many historians these days write with a jaded eye, looking to debunk popular heroes; Sebag-Montefiore aims to do the opposite and he has combined his journalist's eye for a good story with an academic's attention to research and detail to create a highly readable biography which is accessible even to those who know little of the period. --John Crace
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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"A rattling good read...told with with great verve and a stunning command of his sources" -- Brian Maye Irish Times
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First Sentence
Shortly before noon on 5 October 1791, the slow cavalcade of carriages, attended by liveried footmen and a squadron of Cossacks in the uniform of the Black Sea Host, stopped halfway down a dirt track on a desolate hillside in the midst of the Bessarabian steppe. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Shortly before noon on 5 October 1791, the slow cavalcade of carriages, attended by liveried footmen and a squadron of Cossacks in the uniform of the Black Sea Host, stopped halfway down a dirt track on a desolate hillside in the midst of the Bessarabian steppe. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating subject and a great read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin (Paperback)
Potemkin is nowadays mostly known in the expression "Potemkin village", describing achievements that are basically a sham.In reality Potemkin was a fascinating character responsible for a great number of very real achievements. Very Russian in a lot of ways, he was on the other hand way ahead of his time - and very un-Russian - in his treatment of common soldiers and labourers. Simon Sebag Montefiore has managed to write an eminently readable book on this man, his complex relationship with his Empress and his very eventful life. I will gladly forgive his slight tendency to try and find a deep meaning or strategic reasoning behind almost any of Potemkin's acts: he probably was a true Russian in doing a lot of things just for the hell of it. Beautifully illustrated as well as well written, this book is very hard to put down. And since the author has had the good sense of starting the book with the last chapter - Potemkin's death - you are saved the trouble of searching through the last chapters for an advance peek on the subject. Well worth all of it's 5 stars!
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A first-rate biography!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin (Hardcover)
As a scholar of Imperial Russia, I can say that Mr. Sebag-Montefiore offers us a masterful and fair treatment of Prince Potemkin in his book. To put matters bluntly, history has treated Potemkin poorly, and it is only now, what with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the return to long-ignored subjects of Russia's past, that we are beginning to get a clearer, more objective view of events and personalities such as Potemkin. Sebag-Montefiore's biography, based on significant archival research and written with a good feel for the dramatic quality of his life, represents a major contribution to the reassessment of Catherine's most trusted advisor. This is a first-rate biography, and I recommend it most highly. It will be the book in English on Potemkin for decades to come.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin (Hardcover)
The proper title of this book is "Potemkin, prince of princes" and as such you will find it elsewhere in Amazon's catalogue; together with a extensive description and the rave reviews it fully deserves
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