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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
I learned a lot about a time in history that I know little about but found it slow moving.
This is the story of the end of an era in Russian history. The life of the infamous Czar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra and their 4 sisters. Their lives were tragically short. The daughters were so sheltered to protect them until WW1 when they were given the experience to be nurses. Enjoyed the way the story was told.
informative
sad
slow-paced
informative
Interesting. I don’t really know much about Russian history and it’s something it would like to read more about.
Everyone knows what happened to Tsar Nicholas and his family in a basement in 1918. What author Helen Rappaport sets out to do in The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra is to shed light on the lives of the four spunky and vivacious daughters: Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. The end result is an engrossing, easy to read record of the entire Romanov family, just up until they are called to the basement.
Rappaport uses the personal correspondence of the four sisters to establish their personalities, as they often were lumped in together as one unit. Olga, the shy quiet eldest; Tatiana, the proficient go-getter who was looked upon to take care of the family while their mother was often ill; Maria, the middle child who was sweet and kind; and Anastasia, the hilarious youngest who made everyone laugh. Through letters to their many friends, each sister is portrayed as very religious, a little boy crazy and fiercely proud to be Russian.
Much of this has to do with Nicholas and Alexandra's decision to bring the children (along with youngest and future heir Alexey) up in the more modest Victorian way, without all the excess of prior tsars and without being at court. Rappaport spends a lot of the book on Nicholas and Alexandra's background, childhood and establishing Alexandra's neurosis and reasoning for her now-ridiculed decisions, especially those involving Rasputin and becoming nurses in WWI.
While Rasputin is a major character in the Romanovs' lives, and is blamed for their downfall, what actually happens with him is not elaborated upon. Nor is it explained why Nicholas abdicated for himself and Alexey.
In the introduction, Rappaport explains that she has written another book about what happened when the Romanovs died, and that this book would strictly be about their life before exile. However, in her effort to keep both separate, certain pieces of the puzzle were not explained, leaving to some questions and underdeveloped areas of a very robust and thorough history. Nonetheless, it is such a fantastic story and Rappaport is able to write it in almost a story-like way. Those poor girls.
Rappaport uses the personal correspondence of the four sisters to establish their personalities, as they often were lumped in together as one unit. Olga, the shy quiet eldest; Tatiana, the proficient go-getter who was looked upon to take care of the family while their mother was often ill; Maria, the middle child who was sweet and kind; and Anastasia, the hilarious youngest who made everyone laugh. Through letters to their many friends, each sister is portrayed as very religious, a little boy crazy and fiercely proud to be Russian.
Much of this has to do with Nicholas and Alexandra's decision to bring the children (along with youngest and future heir Alexey) up in the more modest Victorian way, without all the excess of prior tsars and without being at court. Rappaport spends a lot of the book on Nicholas and Alexandra's background, childhood and establishing Alexandra's neurosis and reasoning for her now-ridiculed decisions, especially those involving Rasputin and becoming nurses in WWI.
While Rasputin is a major character in the Romanovs' lives, and is blamed for their downfall, what actually happens with him is not elaborated upon. Nor is it explained why Nicholas abdicated for himself and Alexey.
In the introduction, Rappaport explains that she has written another book about what happened when the Romanovs died, and that this book would strictly be about their life before exile. However, in her effort to keep both separate, certain pieces of the puzzle were not explained, leaving to some questions and underdeveloped areas of a very robust and thorough history. Nonetheless, it is such a fantastic story and Rappaport is able to write it in almost a story-like way. Those poor girls.
Things I have learned from reading books about world history: If your country is in the midst of a revolution, and the government is in the process of being overthrown, it might be time to leave and find a different country to live in, lest you be killed for having literally any association whatsoever with the former government.
The author was a meticulous researcher, and that was good because I had basically no knowledge of Russian history prior to reading The Romanov Sisters. But it did get kind of dull and bogged down in the details in the middle, and it took quite a while to get to the action that you already know is coming. (I mean, it's right there in the title of the book.)
(Also, irrelevant but I found this interesting: when I was about halfway through with the book, I re-watched the movie Anastasia, which I had not seen since I was a child. I was surprised to discover that it is horrifically inaccurate. Rasputin is still just as terrifying in it as he was when I first watched it; however, if the movie had been historically accurate AT ALL, he wouldn't have even been in it for more than like, five minutes.)
The author was a meticulous researcher, and that was good because I had basically no knowledge of Russian history prior to reading The Romanov Sisters. But it did get kind of dull and bogged down in the details in the middle, and it took quite a while to get to the action that you already know is coming. (I mean, it's right there in the title of the book.)
(Also, irrelevant but I found this interesting: when I was about halfway through with the book, I re-watched the movie Anastasia, which I had not seen since I was a child. I was surprised to discover that it is horrifically inaccurate. Rasputin is still just as terrifying in it as he was when I first watched it; however, if the movie had been historically accurate AT ALL, he wouldn't have even been in it for more than like, five minutes.)
How on earth are you gonna dedicate 50 pages to various examples of Russian architecture and then write literally one paragraph about the deaths of the Romanovs, which is what I was most looking forward to reading?? ARGH.
I did enjoy this book. Having been rather obsessed with the Romanovs for a little while now, this book seemed the natural next step in my reading. The second half in particular was insightful and Rappaport's drawing upon letters, diaries and primary sources. However, it loses a star for Rappaport's reliance on enforcing stereotypes associated with Greg King and Penny Wilson's novels, such as the children being lonely or friendless, when the copious letters and photographs from the children prove otherwise.
informative
sad
slow-paced