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237 reviews for:
Nicolau e Alexandra: O relato clássico da queda da dinastia Romanov
Robert K. Massie, Angela Lobo de Andrade
4.28 AVERAGE
237 reviews for:
Nicolau e Alexandra: O relato clássico da queda da dinastia Romanov
Robert K. Massie, Angela Lobo de Andrade
4.28 AVERAGE
informative
sad
medium-paced
Massie makes everything readable. This was almost as smooth as [b:Catherine the Great|10414941|Catherine the Great Portrait of a Woman|Robert K. Massie|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327884954s/10414941.jpg|15319151], but without the whitewashing of sources. In this telling, Rasputin is a clear villain and the imperial family are semi-blameless victims. I suspect that a different writer could take the same facts and spin them the other way, at least a little bit.
But the version of history given in this book rings true to me. A very fascinating read for anyone interested in the fall of the Romanovs, and it's amazing to think that at the time it was first published (1967), many of the peripheral characters were still alive.
But the version of history given in this book rings true to me. A very fascinating read for anyone interested in the fall of the Romanovs, and it's amazing to think that at the time it was first published (1967), many of the peripheral characters were still alive.
The fall of the last Tsar of Russia and the beginnings of the Russian revolution make for a dense, fascinating read. It seems to be difficult to speak of anything Russian without bringing in at least forty or fifty characters, each of whom is indispensable to the story. In this book, Massie brings forth both scholarship and stylish writing to weave together a highly readable account of the downfall of the Russian monarchy.
The Tsar and Tsarina are both supremely unqualified to deal with the machinations of a society and a government they are doomed never to understand, much less to rule. Although their shyness and concentration on their family made them a more unified couple, their inability or unwillingness to deal with the greater issues tearing at the fabric of Russian society ultimately led to their downfall.
Throwing Rasputin into the mix just sped up the process. Since their heir, Alexei, was a hemophiliac, Nicholas and Alexandria were terrified that the boy would not live to adulthood. When Rasputin seemed to offer relief, they naively embraced him and made him a part of their household. Rasputin embodied power run amok: he held the frightened parents in his thrall, and ultimately sought to bend all of Russia to his will. It may just be that their eyes are so similar, but Charles Manson has always reminded me of Rasputin.
Massie wrote a book that has stood the test of time. I read it thirty years after it was originally published, and relished every occurrence mentioned in its pages.
The Tsar and Tsarina are both supremely unqualified to deal with the machinations of a society and a government they are doomed never to understand, much less to rule. Although their shyness and concentration on their family made them a more unified couple, their inability or unwillingness to deal with the greater issues tearing at the fabric of Russian society ultimately led to their downfall.
Throwing Rasputin into the mix just sped up the process. Since their heir, Alexei, was a hemophiliac, Nicholas and Alexandria were terrified that the boy would not live to adulthood. When Rasputin seemed to offer relief, they naively embraced him and made him a part of their household. Rasputin embodied power run amok: he held the frightened parents in his thrall, and ultimately sought to bend all of Russia to his will. It may just be that their eyes are so similar, but Charles Manson has always reminded me of Rasputin.
Massie wrote a book that has stood the test of time. I read it thirty years after it was originally published, and relished every occurrence mentioned in its pages.
What I liked most about this book was the inevitability of the tragedy. Indeed I think that is one of the components of great tragedy: watching a character make a decision that, knowing the full irony of the situation, is exactly the wrong choice to make. In this book, whether they are sympathetic or not, all of the people are so clearly realized that I felt I knew they could never make another choice. Rasputin would always manipulate others with no broader aims or vision than his own selfish desires. Empress Alexandra, as the mother of a hemophiliac child, would always take desperate measures for the safety of her son. Czar Nicholas, who swore to maintain the autocracy for his son, would always choose to uphold his authority instead of common sense. It was compelling in that excruciating way that makes all great tragedy and i just loved it.
I spent the whole month immersed in this book. I have no credentials to judge Massie's work as a historian, but he's a magnificent storyteller. This is a history intensely, intensely focused on the people. By highlighting all of Nicholas and Alexandra's personal ties to all the other European monarchs of the time, Europe's royal families become familiar characters, so that the complicated maneuvers of WWI and the nations' responses to the Russian Revolution become as personal as a family feud. This has the downside of making it difficult, at times, to understand much about broader world events, but they're not what the book is about. This book is about the people. The Romanovs come to vivid life, and I cared about every little thing that happened to them. I kept finding myself rooting for them as if they were characters in a movie, hoping that they would make the right decisions and things would turn out well, before I remembered exactly whose history I was reading about.
Even when telling such a tragic story, Massie does an excellent job of balancing the light and the dark--a chapter highlighting family life at the Imperial palace, for instance, followed by one focused on the unrest in other parts of Russia. Or the treatment of WWI--he doesn't flinch away from telling us about the astronomical amount of Russian deaths in the battles, but it's balanced by the heartwarming stories of Nicholas getting to bond with his son at army headquarters. And the chapter endings! Several ended in lines that were perfect capstones to the chapter that I'd just finished, while portending major events to come and making me desperate to see what happened next.
This history is extremely sympathetic to the title characters. As Massie paints him, Nicholas was a very, very good man--a loving husband, an excellent father, a devoutly religious man devoted to doing what was right, who endured all the humiliations of his abdication and imprisonment with such Christ-like mildness that even his captors couldn't help but like him. I strongly suspect that the real man was more complex--even in this book, one gets the sense that Massie is bending over backwards to put some of Nicholas' mistakes in a sympathetic light. But it doesn't paint him as perfect--he had several fatal blind spots that led to his downfall, and as much as I loved Nicholas' nobility, this was the first time I really understood how someone could be Noble to a Fault. Like, banning the sale of vodka in Russia to show the nation's religious commitment to winning WWI? A noble theory--except that the Russian government had a monopoly on vodka sales and all this really did was cut off a significant source of funding.
Alexandra isn't painted in such an intensely glowing light. Massie is still sympathetic to her--a foreign woman thrust into being the Empress of a new nation mere weeks after moving there, plagued with a chronically ill son and poor health. He makes it clear why she'd have been drawn to Rasputin--but it's hard to sympathize with her extreme efforts to protect him, especially when one sees the consequences. Even so, Massie shows she had plenty of other good qualities--a loving mother, an extremely charitably-minded woman, an Empress who wasn't too proud to spend most of the war working as a nurse.
These detailed portraits make it clear just how much of a tragedy their deaths were. By the time the last chapter rolls around, we're not just reading about the deaths of monarchs--a factoid in a history book, one piece in a larger world picture. We're watching friends get murdered. It's a brutal ending, but one that's given excellent context by the book that comes before it. These people were more than their deaths, more than their mistakes. They were real, complicated--and at heart, good--people, and I'm glad I had the chance to learn more about them.
Even when telling such a tragic story, Massie does an excellent job of balancing the light and the dark--a chapter highlighting family life at the Imperial palace, for instance, followed by one focused on the unrest in other parts of Russia. Or the treatment of WWI--he doesn't flinch away from telling us about the astronomical amount of Russian deaths in the battles, but it's balanced by the heartwarming stories of Nicholas getting to bond with his son at army headquarters. And the chapter endings! Several ended in lines that were perfect capstones to the chapter that I'd just finished, while portending major events to come and making me desperate to see what happened next.
This history is extremely sympathetic to the title characters. As Massie paints him, Nicholas was a very, very good man--a loving husband, an excellent father, a devoutly religious man devoted to doing what was right, who endured all the humiliations of his abdication and imprisonment with such Christ-like mildness that even his captors couldn't help but like him. I strongly suspect that the real man was more complex--even in this book, one gets the sense that Massie is bending over backwards to put some of Nicholas' mistakes in a sympathetic light. But it doesn't paint him as perfect--he had several fatal blind spots that led to his downfall, and as much as I loved Nicholas' nobility, this was the first time I really understood how someone could be Noble to a Fault. Like, banning the sale of vodka in Russia to show the nation's religious commitment to winning WWI? A noble theory--except that the Russian government had a monopoly on vodka sales and all this really did was cut off a significant source of funding.
Alexandra isn't painted in such an intensely glowing light. Massie is still sympathetic to her--a foreign woman thrust into being the Empress of a new nation mere weeks after moving there, plagued with a chronically ill son and poor health. He makes it clear why she'd have been drawn to Rasputin--but it's hard to sympathize with her extreme efforts to protect him, especially when one sees the consequences. Even so, Massie shows she had plenty of other good qualities--a loving mother, an extremely charitably-minded woman, an Empress who wasn't too proud to spend most of the war working as a nurse.
These detailed portraits make it clear just how much of a tragedy their deaths were. By the time the last chapter rolls around, we're not just reading about the deaths of monarchs--a factoid in a history book, one piece in a larger world picture. We're watching friends get murdered. It's a brutal ending, but one that's given excellent context by the book that comes before it. These people were more than their deaths, more than their mistakes. They were real, complicated--and at heart, good--people, and I'm glad I had the chance to learn more about them.
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
It was heartbreaking getting to know this family whilst knowing their fate. I didn't want to get to the end because i knew what was coming. This was a fantastically well researched and interesting book.
This was my year to focus on Russian history and literature so I read this book alongside Anna Karenina-which I'm still reading. Nicholas and Alexandra was such a well written book. It filled in many gaps in my knowledge about Russia as well as world history. Nicholas II is now one of my favorite historical people. He wasn't perfect and made mistakes, particularly in handling WWI. However, no one deserves what he received. Alexandra did bother me a good bit but Nicholas loved her so I guess I can too. I highly recommend for all to read-for history buffs and not so buffs like me :)
It was a hard read because of my knowledge of how things ended. Nicholas and Alexandra have loads of good intent that doesn't always work out (especially if you are stubborn about who you listen to) They meant well but to watch (Alexandra especially) slowly set themselves up to the end their world for themselves, their children and how it affected their people was difficult. I picked this up and put it down many times. Very well done - the author does a good job of giving a balanced view on what was going on and how decisions could make sense at the time but set things up for the final fall. The tragic nature of the story made it hard to read for long periods especially since Alexandra's choice to equate Rasputin with God and would lead to so much pain and suffering not just for their family but the whole country of millions of people. Very well done, sometimes the detail was a bit too much for me but that is more a personal issue. I feel I now have a much better understand of how and why of the Russian revolution.