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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
This was a long slog. I give it five stars for command of details and exhaustive research. I give 3 for not editing out details and exhausting documentation that made reading this like a chore. Redundancy ad nauseum. So I give it four. A student of Catherine the Great with a passion for Potemkin will appreciate the social, romantic, cultural, urban developmental, maritime and military history here. Every single bit of it is in here.
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Meticulously researched and absorbingly written, this is a truly excellent biography of the man who was a real power behind the Russian imperial throne in the late eighteenth century—Prince Grigory Potemkin, lover of Catherine the Great and the man who commanded her armies towards military glory. Much of Sebag Monetefiore's research uses sources not previously known to scholarship in general, not just English-language scholarship. Such a wealth of information does lead to the book feeling a little over-populated at times, a little intimidating for the reader who doesn't have a strong background in the history of the era and the author does have a tendency to go off on tangents about some of the (admittedly fascinating in their own writes) people with whom Potemkin and Catherine were in contact throughout their lives. A little more editing would have helped, but one cannot doubt Sebag Montefiore's intellectual rigour, thoroughness and enthusiasm. Absolutely worth reading if you have any interest in Russian history, or in an example of a biography well done.
