Author Topic: First Book you read about the Imperial Family, and your minds after reading?  (Read 21086 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

alixaannencova

  • Guest
For all its faults, Massie's bio as it was in its original format has something about it. I personally find Massie one of the most evocative writers on the subject and that is quite special in an author who writes non fiction. I can find few other biographers of that ilk, whose work I have enjoyed as much. Massie provided me with what was my baptism of fire when I was ten....and I guess I have become rather sentimental about it!

 Anyway, Lady Antonia Fraser is one who comes to mind as a reasonable bio-writer, but she never seems to grab me and pulll me along with her. Vincent Cronin did with his 'Louis and Antoinette' though, ...now there is a bio which still haunts me! I wish some biographers could do a 'Cronin' on the IF!

For a pure unadulterated historical orgy of sound and beautiful constructed works I yearn for David Cannadine to do something! I know he has never touched IF, but 'his' style is so suited to it that one lives in hope!

« Last Edit: February 23, 2009, 11:05:51 PM by alixaannencova »

Offline Romanov_fan

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 4611
    • View Profile
I have always found Radzinsky to be very evocative.

Offline historylover

  • Boyar
  • **
  • Posts: 170
  • I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
    • View Profile
    • Writer and Editor
I like David Cannadine too, Imperial Angel.  The Cronin book sounds great - I must look for it.

Offline Romanov_fan

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 4611
    • View Profile
I wasn't the one who said I liked David Cannadine- that was alixaannencova.

alixaannencova

  • Guest
Oh yes I see what you mean Imperial Angel about Radzinsky. He does grab you! I guess I just compare everything subconsciously to Massie and Cronin which is very unfair and wrong really!


« Last Edit: March 01, 2009, 10:59:58 PM by alixaannencova »

Offline Romanov_fan

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 4611
    • View Profile
I guess I've never found Cronin that interesting, although I have read him, his Louis and Antoinette book, and also a book he did on Catharine the Great, so Cronin did write on the Romanovs- just an earlier generation. I have heard Cannadine has a reputation for evocative writing, but as what he writes about doesn't interest me I've never read him. I have always found Antonia Fraser's books evocative, and I've read all of them.

Belisarios

  • Guest
I read Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie when I was a teenager.  I was fascinated and have been reading and collecting books about them ever since.

rob

GoldenPen

  • Guest
I read Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie when I was a teenager.  I was fascinated and have been reading and collecting books about them ever since.

rob
It is the bibble of the romanov history!

Truly, GoldenPen

Offline clockworkgirl21

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 2667
    • View Profile
I saw the Anastasia cartoon first, but that really didn't get me into the subject. A few years later, I saw the Royal Diaries book, and thought, "Isn't that the girl from the cartoon?" So, the cartoon didn't get me into it, but I did read the book eventually because I remembered the cartoon a little. The second one was Massey's book.

I wasn't really upset when I read them. They were just names at the time. I thought it was a shame, but I wasn't too bothered. Now, though, I even tear up sometimes when I read about the murder scene.

Offline Romanov_fan

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 4611
    • View Profile
The first book I ever read on the Romanovs was the James Blair Lovell book about Anna Anderson. I was 11 and had gotten interested in Anastasia in part because of the movie and in part from seeing a picture of the book cover of Anastasia's Album in a catalog in 1996. I hadn't read that book though. After reading the James Blair Lovell book about AA, I just wanted to know more about the real Romanovs and the real Anastasia, since I figured the book was inaccurate, but a family member had gotten it from the library for me rather than Nicholas and Alexandra, which was what I read next.

DonaAntonia

  • Guest
This was my forst. It was in my grandmother's attick. I was small and didn't know a lot of French, but was fascinated all the same by the theme. It only made it more mysterious...
The cover is an early example of clororization!

DonaAntonia

  • Guest
This was my first. It was in my grandmother's attick. I was small and didn't know a lot of French, but was fascinated all the same by the theme. It only made it more mysterious...
The cover is an early example of clororization!



Sorry...
here goes!


Alixz

  • Guest
Dona Antonia - What a beautiful cover!  You are truly lucky to have found that book in your grandmother's attic.  I would imagine that copies of that book are extremely rare in that good a condition.

Offline Grand Duchess Jennifer

  • Graf
  • ***
  • Posts: 305
  • "Give my love to all who remember me"-Olga,1918
    • View Profile
    • The Last Grand-Duchesses of Russia-OTMA
There are some excerpts of that in A Lifelong Passion:)

Please visit www.freewebs.com/grand-duchessesofrussiaotma/
Banner and Icon by Ally

Offline Svetabel

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 4883
    • View Profile
    • http://svetabella.livejournal.com/
If my memory doesn't lie to me then my first book on the Romanovs was...the Memoirs of GD Alexander Mikhailovitch, the very first Russian edition of 1992 year...I remember that I bought it in Vladivostok when being on vacations with my relatives, I was a teenager in the post-Soviet Russia (1992 year!!) where any new info on the past Romanov history ( cleaned of Soviet propaganda ) was a great discovery. So I just dived into the Grand Duke's capturing stories. I still have this thin book (without any pictures, by the way) and though now I have more critical view of GD Alexander M., I still remember my looong fascination with his memoirs. : )