Catherine The Great
by Robert K. Massie
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
79%
Critic Reviews: 25
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
82%
Reader Ratings: 911
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Synopsis
A New York Times bestseller, the long-awaited biography of one of the most fascinating and important women in history, Catherine the Great-by an author whose towering Peter the Great won the Pulitzer Prize. Robert Massie's previous books, Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs, ideally prepared him for the mammoth task of re-creating Catherine the Great's signature life as first she struggles for power and then tries to bring Russia into the modern world.Publication History: Random House HC (11/11)
About Robert K. Massie
Published: September 18, 2012 by Random House Trade Paperbacks
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs, History. Non-fiction. 672 pages
- All Critics: 25
- Positive: 20
- Negative: 5
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The New York Times | 16 Nov 2011
How delightful to discover that Robert K. Massie, 82 years old, hasn’t lost his mojo.
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Los Angeles Times | 27 Nov 2011
. . . general readers will find this an absorbing, satisfying biography of the old school.
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USA Today | 12 Nov 2011
What a woman, what a world, what a biography.
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Kirkus Reviews | 1 Oct 2011
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.
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The Washington Post | 18 Nov 2011
He leaves us frustrated only once. Early on, Massie mentions the steely ambition that will propel Catherine through some of history’s most remarkable moments. Yet he never really plumbs it.
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NY Daily News | 28 Dec 2011
Massie’s portrait of Catherine is a work of true scholarship that reads like the juiciest novel.
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Bloomberg | 30 Nov 2011
Massie, who has written prize-winning biographies of Peter the Great and the Romanovs, gives an exciting account of the chaotic days that changed the history of Russia.
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Denver Post | 13 Nov 2011
His clearly drawn depictions of the schemes, jealousies and maneuvers of the court, and of Catherine, bring the era and the woman to life.
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Washington Independent Review of Books
. . .a slightly more fleshed out historical primer might help the lay reader. . .follow the intricacies of 18th-century diplomatic and dynastic intrigue the book explores so richly.
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The Boston Globe | 13 Nov 2011
. . .if this capacious detail sometimes supports his claims. . .it can also undermine them.
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The Wall Street Journal | 18 Nov 2011
Instead of novelty, what "Catherine the Great" offers is a great story in the hands of a master storyteller.
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Look At OKC | 27 Nov 2011
Massie has superbly bridged part of the time between Peter the Great and Tsar Nicholas.
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Open Letters Monthly
. . .the strongest element of the book is the author’s unabashed humanism and his eager willingness to keep Catherine the human being squarely before our eyes.
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Book Reporter | 28 Sep 2011
Truly, the man could not pen a dull passage if he tried.
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Christian Science Monitor | 23 Nov 2011
Massie is so familiar with the figures of the Russian court that he (and consequently we) never feel lost.
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Journal Sentinel | 21 Jan 2012
Massie's keen eye for anecdote is perhaps too keen; his smooth narrative sometimes bumps on stories that serve little purpose, while somewhat slighting the social and economic conditions surrounding the empress.
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Star News Online | 20 Nov 2011
He's a respectable historian but he doesn't forget the "story" in history. . .
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Review (Barnes & Noble) | 16 Nov 2011
. . .it is thoroughly engaging to read: this is People magazine for the educated set. . .
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Dallas News | 25 Nov 2011
One quibble: The book is so full of what the characters thought and felt that one wonders how the author got such details. But that doesn’t keep this from being a remarkable story.
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My San Antonio | 7 Nov 2011
Massie. . .embraces the mammoth task of re-creating Catherine the Great's life. . .with scholarly zeal.
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The Washington Times | 2 Dec 2011
. . .a compelling biography that reads like a novel and is hard to put down.
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Publishers Weekly | 5 Sep 2011
Effectively utilizing Catherine’s own memoirs, Massie once again delivers a masterful, intimate, and tantalizing portrait of a majestic monarch.
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Star Tribune | 12 Nov 2011
. . .wonderfully told in vivid scenes and sly sentences. . .
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Knitting and Sundries | 30 Jan 2012
I applaud this book as a wonderful, fully fact-based representation of a fascinating woman.
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Reader reviews
By John Alexander 27 Feb 2013
Massie's Catherine is abysmal: poorly informed, badly written, totally unoriginal. He's lost his marbles t 82, and this book proves it! He cannt read Russian! Just ask his first wife, from whom he ...
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