Would anyone like to share thoughts on Romanov reading matter? Did anyone ever read the book Alix and Nicky mentioned those times in their war letters about Little Boy Blue?
'Fraid so. :-) I picked up a copy in a second-hand book sale years ago, and also have other of Florence Barclay's books from similar sources. It's actually not as sentimental as it might be; the theme is how a man might fall for a woman who is both older than he is AND a bluestocking, so in that sense it's positive...
I know when Alix was still at her lessons, she read
Guizot's "Reformation de la Litterature", the Life of Cromwell, and Raumer's "Geschichte der Hohenstaufen" in nine volumes, and Paradise Lost.
Elisa
Other authors read by Alix (most of these are religious): James Russell Miller (Protestant clergyman with practical advice on life)
Jacob Boehme (early Protestant mystic)
"the sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch theosophists" (her words; I am not quite sure who she means; Bob might know?)
St John of the Ladder (Orthodox ascetic)
Auguste Jundt (modern French mystic, author of the infamous "A few friends of God")
Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science)
I am interested in people's reading matter for what it tells us about how they think. It's possible to read too much into such things, but all these authors were sufficiently important to Alix that she mentioned or recommended them to friends.
On the fiction front, both Alix and Nicholas had a leaning to light romance or thrillers: during the war he read a lot of William LeQueux, who wrote trashy spy stories and pseudo-history (around three a year) and in fact ironically, later, also some real howlers about Rasputin. :-)
Janet
