First Book you read about the Imperial Family, and your minds after reading?

[rosieposie]

The first book I read about the IF was "Great Crimes of the 20th Century" which was an accompanment of a BBC series.  It was only a chapter but it was the first real thing I read about the IF.  However I loved an Australian TV series called Mirror Mirror (not to be confused with the movie) and they had a character "Nicholas" who was Alexei yet they renamed him Nicholas after his father.  It was a great series and there was even a book that went with the show.

[historyfan]

The very first book I read was Born to Rule:  Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria, by Julia Gelardi.  It was not about the Imperial Family per se, but included the story of Princess Alix of Hesse.

After that, I've been devouring anything I can get my hands on.  I don't remember which was the first book after that one, but I know it was about Alexandra Feodorovna specifically.  Why?  I don't know, exactly.  To get to the bottom of things in my own mind, I suppose, but also because something in her personality, as it's depicted on paper, speaks to me.

[jgutmaker]

Nicholas and Alexandra by Massie, and I have been hooked ever since. I think I was 11 or so, maybe 12?

[historylover]

Nicholas and Alexandra by Massie when I was a teenager.  I studied some Russian history but I did Law later so I had to leave my beloved history.  I've only really got back into it in a big way lately.

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

Mine was "Nicholas II and the tragic end of the Romanovs" by Henri Troyat.

I love this book!

[Massine]

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie.

[Imperial_Grounds]

I do not exactly remember to be honest.

I had a book on the animaed movie "Anastasia" when I was little so that should have been my first read, on the A.A. mystery(kind of)

But I think the first real boek I read was "Nicholas II: Prisoner of the Purple", actualy I am pretty sure since I was curious about the whole story and went to look for a book in the local library, I was interested before but that got me really hooked.

The first novel on the Imperial Family I read was "The Kitchenboy", I loved the book and have read it 5 times or something. The detailed execution, and the way it was told gave me shivers. I was horofied after reading, I wonder how they'll do that in the movie. Part of me hopes to get a 'correct' execution but then again, I could not stand to see it really detailed.

[Alixz]

Mine was -  The Last Grand Duchess by Ian Vorres.

That book pre dates Nicholas & Alexandra by Massie by about 15 years.

Forgive a bookish nitpicker, but those two books were only three years apart -- The Last Grand Duchess was published in 1964, and Nicholas & Alexandra in 1967.

Sorry Sarushka. I stand corrected.  It is just that I get weary of those who hang onto the "gospel according to Massie" as the ultimate authority on the last Imperial Family of Russia.

I agree that his was the first book to try to put everything into coherent order and to give back-stories about everything but there are just so many many good books out there and so many with even more information and I worry to see Mr. Massie held up as the ultimate authority.

I didn't read N&A until it was out in paperback in about 1971 and I know that the movie came out in 1971.  I remember the Oscar nominations, too.  I had to travel about 25 miles to see the movie, because it didn't play everywhere

I am glad the Massie's book brought so many new readers to the story of N&A,  I just find it interesting that so many who post here had read nothing else before they read that.  It could be just the age group.  I am, as Alexandra says in The German Woman an "old fogey".

[Alexandre64]

"La Tsarine Martyre, Derniére Impératrice de Rusie" by Laurence Catinot-Crost

[Janet Ashton]

I am, as Alexandra says in The German Woman an "old fogey".

I'm sure you're not! - But I meant to say: the fact that Alexandra used this sort of language was one of the things that surprised me about her when I first read her correspondence. I had read so many things which portrayed her as uptight, old-fashioned, stuffy, etc.....But many of contemporaries seemed to dislike her for the OPPOSITE reason: Sergei Witte for one saw her as an iconoclast who would, for one thing, try to alter the Russian succession......and I always enjoy having preconceptions in history overturned.

By the way, as far as Massie goes, I think that a lot of writers who grew up with his book feel almost a parricidal tendency towards him, in the sense of having a desire to prove him wrong on some things: he is regarded popularly as being the be-all and end-all of writing on the family of Nicholas II, and yet his book was based entirely and rather uncritically on published material. It was beautifully written, but certainly not the last word about anything.....

[GoldenPen]

"Nicholas and Alexander" a good starter book I think, and I would re comend it to anyone who wants to learn about the last Romanov family.

Truly, GoldenPen

[Puppylove]

By the way, as far as Massie goes, I think that a lot of writers who grew up with his book feel almost a parricidal tendency towards him, in the sense of having a desire to prove him wrong on some things: he is regarded popularly as being the be-all and end-all of writing on the family of Nicholas II, and yet his book was based entirely and rather uncritically on published material. It was beautifully written, but certainly not the last word about anything.....

I appreciate this criticism of Massie, which is one thing I definitely learned in conversation with you in our previously overheated book threads! I tend to look at Nicholas and Alexandra as a gateway book to Russian history because it is written in a manner accessible to less intellectually blessed readers like myself. Does it stand the test of time factually? Obviously not as well as it should, but for pure gorgeousness of prose -- more like a poem, really -- this book still has no equal.

[Sarushka]

By the way, as far as Massie goes, I think that a lot of writers who grew up with his book feel almost a parricidal tendency towards him, in the sense of having a desire to prove him wrong on some things: he is regarded popularly as being the be-all and end-all of writing on the family of Nicholas II, and yet his book was based entirely and rather uncritically on published material. It was beautifully written, but certainly not the last word about anything.....

I agree that Massie is no longer the last word, but it seems to me that this shift in attitude many Romanov fans have acquired regarding Nicholas and Alexandra is lacking context. Massie wrote his book in the midst of the Cold War, with the sources available to Americans at the time. Given the limited accessibility of material other than memoirs, and the political climate between Russia and the USA at the time, how could he have written his book differently?

Does it stand the test of time factually? Obviously not as well as it should [...]

Again, given the context in which it was written, I think Nicholas and Alexandra has withstood the test of time as well as can be expected. IMO, Massie's scholarship is not faulty. His book does perpetuate some myths (particularly regarding the IF's captivity in the Ipatiev House) but only because he did not have access to primary sources that could have refuted the rumors which found their way into books by courtiers such as Buxhoeveden and Gilliard. Had he been able to read the tsar and tsaritsa's diaries and the Ipatiev guard duty book, for example, I believe Massie would have competently sorted fact from fiction.

In spite of that, after 40 years it continues to be a compelling, engrossing read, and biased though they may be, this is still one of the best narrative fusions of the recollections of the imperial family's nearest and dearest.

[Grand Duchess Jennifer]

My first picture book on the Romanovs was a book about the 1997 movie Anastasia and my first chapter book was The Last Duchess, which is also known as My Anastasia. I enjoyed both books, but I remember I read The Last Duchess more.

Sarushka, would I be able to buy the Ipatiev Guard Duty book? That would be an interesting book to add to my bookshelf.

[Robert_Hall]

I do not remember exactly which  book was my first on the Romanovs, but is was definitely one of the post revolution exile  memoirs from the 1930's.  I was working in the school library at the time and that gort me started.  Ever since then I have been collecting books on  not just the Romanovs [about 500 titles at last count] but royalty from everywhere [1,000s]. I have scaled back a bit now; I no longer buy "fluff" or repetitive works.