BOOK: The Tsarina’s Daughter
AUTHOR: Carolly Erickson
WARNING: The review contains plot spoilers.
Before I start, I should point out this book is a work of historical fiction, a “what if?” scenario. In this scenario, the Grand Duchess Tatiana Romanov, the second daughter of the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife, Alexandra Fedorovna, escaped being executed in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia, on July 17, 1918. She takes the name Daria Gradov, and ends up in the town Yellow Rain, Saskatchewan, where she lives to a ripe old age. I know, the DNA tests proved that this never happened (this book was written in 2008, long after the tests proved that Tatiana didn’t survive), but, as I said, this is historical fiction.
Anyway, the story opens in 1989, the Berlin Wall has just come down, and Tatiana, now in her early nineties, is the narrator. She feels that now since Communism is on its way out, she can finally tell her story, and that sets up the main plot of the novel, how Tatiana lived in the Russian Empire and in the end, how she got away. So we now flashback to those long ago days.
Now, Tatiana has always been my favourite of the Grand Duchesses, and when someone at this board mentioned this book to me, I got curious. So, the next time I was in my local Chapters (the Canadian Barnes And Noble), I grabbed a copy. The poster didn’t seem too impressed with the book, but I had to see for myself. Now that I have, I can say that I just couldn’t wrap my mind around so many historical inaccuracies. The average reader would probably not notice them, but if you know anything about the Romanov Family, and I am one of those that do, these mistakes jump right out at you. Historical fiction or not, there are some mistakes I just can’t let go.
First of all is the characterization of the Romanov Family themselves. Many times I found myself asking just who are these people. They have the same names as the Imperial Family I have read so much about, but that’s about it. Olga is bitchy and snarky, and constantly puts Tatiana down. I found myself saying again and again that Olga would never have treated her sister like that. Nicholas is depicted as a weak man and the novel implies that he is cheating on Alexandra. Now, Nicholas may have had his flaws, but he was a devoted family man. He would never sleep around on Alix, like this book suggests he does. Alexandra is shown to be an emotionally weak woman who claims the ghost of her dead mother is visiting her in the night. Also, the book implies that she is sleeping with Rasputin, something which never really happened (even though revolutionaries at the time suggested it did, to spur up anti-monarchist feelings). She flies off the handle at the slightest provocation and, at one point, almost gets into a cat fight with the Dowager Empress. At this point, I felt like I was watching an old episode of Dynasty. I know that Alexandra and her mother-in-law never really got along, but this is just too much!
Speaking of which, the Dowager Empress comes across as a scheming, calculated villain who is willing to go to great lengths to get rid of Alexandra. She even partners up with Sigmund Freud to try and trick Alix into committing herself to a mental asylum! All that the Dowager Empress was missing in this book was a mustache to twirl. This book mad her out to be a “Mwa-ha-ha” type villain.
Then of course, we have fictional characters, one of them being a young girl named Daria, whom Tatiana befriends. This is, of course, the girl whose name Tatiana will end up taking, but I’ll get to that a little farther on. Another is Michael Gradov, a soldier wounded in the First World War whom Tatiana nurses back to health. Needless to say, the two of them fall in love and soon we are getting steamy love scenes right out of a Danielle Steele novel. Ask yourself this, would a girl in that time, raised the way Tatiana was, do something like that? You be the judge. In fact, the real Tatiana did fall in love with a soldier named Dimitri Malama, but he’s not even mentioned in this book. One has to wonder why the author just didn’t use him, since there was a real love connection between Tatiana and Dimitri.
In the end, the Russian Revolution comes, the Czar abdicates and the family and servants (including Daria) are sent to Tobolsk (their first place of imprisonment). It is here that the book REALLY gets silly. At one point, there is this festival in the town and the guards allow the Romanov Family to attend. The family wanders about town, frequently being out of sight of the guards! I’m sorry, but this is another thing I just can’t accept. There is NO way the guards would have allowed the Imperial Family that kind of leeway. The family was closely watched all the time, heck they had to check with the guards whenever they wanted to take a walk outside. To think that they would be allowed to attend any festivals at this point stretches my suspension of disbelief way beyond the breaking point.
Of course, the real reason the author put this in is because it was needed to provide the backstory of how Tatiana gets away. There is a plot here to safe the Imperial Family and spirit them away, Tatiana knows about it, and Michael Gradov is part of it. I really don’t want to get into too much about it, but, needless to say, it doesn’t work. The family is recaptured and it is here that Daria steps forward to take Tatiana’s place (she either must look very much like Tatiana or the guards were too stupid to notice the switch). Michael manages to get the real Tatiana away, and Daria ends up being executed at Ipatiev House in Tatiana’s place. Once again I guess no guards at Ipatiev House noticed the switch, even thought one would assume they would have pictures of the family to make sure such a substitution could not take place.
As for Tatiana, she and Michael escape. She marries him, takes the name Daria Gradov, and they end up in Canada, where they lived happily ever after. The end.
If this book had come out twenty-five or thirty years ago, before the Soviet Union fell and the fates of the Romanov Family became known, I might not have been so hard on it. After all, back then there was room for doubt. Now, of course, there isn’t. Many would have liked a happy ending for the Romanov Family, but that just didn’t happen, history is not a Disney movie and there was no handsome prince to ride in and save the day. Still, I could overlook that, if so many other mistakes had not been in the book. As I said, I found that I just could no longer suspend my disbelief, and that ruined it for me.
In the end, I give this book a 6/10. It only gets such a high mark because Tatiana is my favourite Grand Duchess and it was nice to see a story centered around here for a change (usually it’s Anastasia that gets these stories). I just wish it had been a better story.
