White Night of St Petersburg by Prince Michael of Greece

[Mark_Chicago]

Just received this book today.  And it is indeed a fictionalized account of Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovitch.  The author thanks Prince Nicolas Romonov and his wife for their assistance so there is probably much that is historically accurate.  Although I prefer and starightforward biography with footnotes and an index.  

But I should just be grateful that the book was translated into English!!

[Mike]

Large portions of the book are very much fiction. To me, reading the Russian version was a disappointment. I would have expected more from a prince - or his ghost writer.

[Dominic_Albanese]

Hi - I could have sworn that this book had been discussed on this web site, but I can't find the thread if it was.

It is by Prince Michael of Greece and it was published in 2004.

It is based on the memoirs of Natalya Androssov Iskander Romanov - the granddaughter of Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich.  You'll remember he was banished to the interior of Russia for stealing his mothers jewels and not being 'of right mind' by Alexander III.

Does anyone know anything about it?  Would you recommened it?  I seem to remember something about it being a work of fiction, but in reading the write up in Gilbert's Royal Digest it doesn't mention anything about it being a work of fiction.

thanks
dca

[Eurohistory]

Dominic,

I read the book when it first came out in French a few years ago...not bad, not the greatest either, but certainly not bad.

Arturo Beéche

[Mike]

Here is the thread.

[Dominic_Albanese]

Dominic,

I read the book when it first came out in French a few years ago...not bad, not the greatest either, but certainly not bad.

Arturo Beéche

Hi Art -

Was it a work of fiction?  Or was it really based on fact?

Hope all is well.

best,
dca

[Belochka]

Personally I was very disappointed with this badly written book. After the first few pages in which the author details how he came to write the book, I began to skip through just to read how the story ended.

This book is a waste of money.

[rgt9w]

Does anyone know of any historical references that refer to Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich starting a fire during the funeral of his grandmother, Empress Alexandra? Is this a fictionalized detail in White Night of St. Petersburg or an old family tale?

[edtash]

Was it a work of fiction?  Or was it really based on fact?

Hope all is well.

best,
dca

Let us say that a lot of license was taken and the imagination was given free course. I enjoyed reading the book, yes, but found whole chunks of it to be pure fiction, which the author tends to do sometimes.

Eddie

[Eurohistory]

I could not agree with you more ET...he does write beautifully but takes tremendous poetic license with the subject at hand. Hence, for example, when we did The Royal Hellenic Dynasty in English, 90% of the captions were written by me so there would not be an issue with faux history or faux stories based on family lore, which tends to be either incorrect or fantasized often times.

Regards,

Arturo