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Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair [Paperback]

Simon Sebag Montefiore (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 27 Oct 2011

History's greatest love story, Catherine the Great and Potemkin is a sweeping epic of sex, love, power, conquest and extravagance on a magnificent Russian scale. Not only was only was their romance wildly passionate but they were also probably the most successful political partnership of all, outstripping Antony and Cleopatra or Napoleon and Josephine.

Their secret letters, which discuss other lovers, sex, wars, politics, arts and health, are surely the most intimate and extraordinary ever written by an empress or politician. Both characters in this joint biography, based on new archives, are fascinating: she a German princess married lovelessly at 14 to the Russian heir combined charm, passion and political genius. She ruthlessly seized power and ruled triumphantly for thirty years; he - a brilliant flamboyant politician, strategist and conqueror of wild eccentricity and debauchery. Outrageously sexual and political, he was the love of her life. They shocked Europe by taking younger lovers yet they secretly married and ruled together as best friends, and lifelong lovers.

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Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair + Sashenka
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Product details

  • Paperback: 640 pages
  • Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (27 Oct 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0753818345
  • ISBN-13: 978-0753818343
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 3.8 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 192,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Amazon 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.

Review

"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
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Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
15 reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating subject and a great read 9 Nov 2001
By A Customer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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!
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate biography! 17 Nov 2000
By A Customer
Format: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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent 21 July 2001
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary story made difficult by seeming absence of editing 28 Nov 2011
By Merovingius
Format:Paperback
What a dilemma! The subject matter is extraordinary. Potemkin comes across as way beyond what we would normally think of as a 'polymath'--- this is a virtuoso life by any yardstick. Thus far so good - it is a veritable feast of gossip, history, revisionism (for good reason correcting the slings and arrows of jealous contemporaries and subsequent, politicised, commentators)and 'spectacular' in the tradition of those Cecil B DeMille movies 40 years ago. I cannot stress enough just how mind-boggling the achievements, as laid out for us here, of Potemkin were.

Characterisation is more of a problem. I'm not sure whether I know the man any better now, after many hundreds of pages, than I did at the outset. Given the industrial quantity of source material that Sebag-Montefiori had at his disposal it would surely have been possible to write a chapter just on the man - to help the reader understand his decision-making processes. What we are, in fact, left with is a series of little explained contradictions that either define Potemkin as completely unstable or a beguiling mystery painted over with layer upon layer of 'interpretive varnish'.

The big problem with the book is its construction. Whilst awe-struck by the author's scholarship - years of research, travel, speculation and determination - I ached for evidence that he had had an editor at his side to bring coherence to this gargantuan pile of data. There is none. The book sprawls, loosely in chronological order, but with endless darting about within 'scenes'. I gave up counting the inconsistencies and factual errors.... Read more ›
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest love stories of history, impeccably researched, beautifully written 31 Aug 2010
By Asmahan
Format:Paperback
What an exhilarating read! If it was a novel you wouldn't believe it, but it really happened in 18th century Russia! A splendid biography, as magnificent and exotic as its subjects, Potemkin, the prince of princes, most beautiful man in St.Petersperg, most extraordinary man in all Europe. Born a son of a poor Nobleman, he was not made by his friendship with Catherine the Great, but by her recognition of his talents, he became important because of his intelligence, originality, drive, and imagination, he brought himself to her attention with irresistible exuberance on the day she seized power, he was an impossible man, but a wonderful character! a control freak and an appalling hypochondriac who always made his point in a characteristically flamboyant manner, one can't help but become a fan.

He died at the young age of 52. Running a country at the time was immense pressure, not only was he co-emperor of Russia, he was also running the army, building a navy, founding cities all around the black sea, conducting umpteen love affairs, sending shopping expeditions to Paris and Milan, he was collecting art, he was building English gardens, this was a man who was living every minute of his life, an insomniac, so he did a lot of it at night!

Catherine the Great, a legendary figure, an incredibly talented and adept politician, second to none, she survived almost 20 years before she became empress herself, ruled triumphantly for thirty years, a very sensuous woman, married at the age of 14, a marriage arranged by her very ambitious mother, she had a very miserable life, in fact the marriage she had with Peter was so unhappy and so unsatisfying for such passionate inelegant woman.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Catherine the Great and Potemkin
An excellent in depth and very human study of Potemkin who in many ways provided the support to the Empress
similar tothat provided to Elizabethh 1 by Lord Burghley though the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by tony cheetham
3.0 out of 5 stars Catherine & Potemkin
I am only half way through the book (hence only 3 stars)and am finding it a really good read. It gives an insight as to how Russia was run at the time. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Etty
5.0 out of 5 stars The heart of Russia in an excellent biography.
Catherine the Great and Potemkin, it is a wonderful story based on a private correspondence, it is a book that runs on two main levels that can satisfy both the historical interest... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2011 by Lupo
3.0 out of 5 stars IRISH COLEEN
OH PARTS OF IT WAS QUITE A STRUGGLE BUT I HAVE TO SAY IM NOT A HISTORY BUFF JUST AN ORDINARY READER WHO ENJOYS A BIT OF RUSSIAN HISTORY ESPECIALLY SIMON SEBAG MONT. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2009 by IRISH COLEEN
4.0 out of 5 stars Change of title
Readers should be aware that this is not a new book about Catherine the Great and Potemkin, but a reissue of the book previously called 'Potemkin: Prince of Princes'. Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2007 by Virginia Rounding
5.0 out of 5 stars What a guy!
Grigory Potemkin. I knew the name, but not the man. I had heard of Potemkin Villages but not Potemkin's towns and cities. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2001 by plana@valles.com
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling reading
Despite the fact that this is not exactly the flimsiest of booklets, you will be sorely tempted to read this book in one go. Read more
Published on 7 July 2001
4.0 out of 5 stars Okay
Potemkin was a Russian statesman who exercised power in the reign of Catherine the Great. He had a position of importance for about 17 years in the last part of the 17th Century. Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2001 by Tom Munro
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