The novel by Carolly Erickson entitled "The Tsarina's Daughter," was a fun read, a great fiction laced with historical events, places, and people. The story is told from the first person perspective of Tatiana Nicholaievna, who is now an elderly woman living in Saskatchewan, having survived the revolution of 1918. I feel, compelled as a student of history to pan the novel. Erickson obviously did NOT do her homework on the Romanov family, if she did she would have selected Olga as the main character and not her prim and proper, soft spoken sister Tatiana. I say Olga because she was more inclined to be rebellious, and more worldly then the rest of her sisters.
Some of the things Tatiana was made to do and say in the book was WAY far fetched in my opinion, especially for that time period. She also shot at Rasputin in book, which I found to be a bit shocking and it seemed heavily implied Nicolas and Alexandra were unfaithful to one another. The parts that really bothered me was how Erickson portrayed her Aunt Olga as VERY liberal to the point that she would, assist Tatiana in her sexual escapades, and keep it from her family.
It just doesn't seem to fit Tatiana's character at all. I remember an incident where Tatiana was so upset about a lude photo that was shown to herself and Olga, on the Standart I believe, not mention the guards off coloured joke that bothered her so in captivity.
The novel succeeded in making everyone in the Imperial Family look like insane, stupid and without a clue of ANYTHING at all.
