Oh! Sunny! how totally cool. Do you have Royalty Digest's website address? That is totally amazing. Every since I shared that story I keep wondering if her name was actually Natalia or was Nadeja, or was it something entirely different. Well anyway I will be shortly finding the answer out. What a wonderful fourm this is. I just can't get over it.
Currently I am reading the installments of Aline, the novel about Alexandra that appeared in Harpers Magazine in 1894 just before she was married to Nicholas. Richard Harding Davis, the reigning
American journalist and writer, wrote the novel after seeing a society photograph of her and instantly falling in love. His close friend, the world famous illustrator, Charles Dana Gibson illustrated the book.
It is slowly dawning on me as I read the three installments how perfectly Alix fit into the smart young Gibson Girl ideal of the time. It also occured to me that no one, not even the ravishingly beautiful Ella, had ever been the heroine in a novel that swept America and Europe. Even Queen Victoria read Aline.
So when Alexandra rushed to the Crimea in second class accomodations and was not given much attention, it hardly matter as she was already an international sensation.
I surmise that the great acclaim of Aline must have caused a sort of Princess Di turmoil for Alix. I am sure that such public acclaim must have really cause Minnie to protect her turff with a vengence. She was not going to let this 22 year old girl upstage her during one of the greatest personal losses of her life. I am sure that the backlash from Aline must have been one of the reasons that Alix was pushed into the background to such a great extent.
I am sure very few people will agree with my conjectures. Well on the brighter side, thank you again Sunny for your help. I just cant't wait to get my hands on that book, it will be like talking to a an old friend that I have not seen for years and years. My books truely are my friends as I am sure they are for all of us. thanks again griff