Nicholas and Alexandra: The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty

Zusatztext A larger-than-life drama. Saturday Review A moving! rich book . . . [This] revealing! densely documented account of the last Romanovs focuses not on the great events . . . but on the royal family and their evil nemesis. . . . The tale is so bizarre! no melodrama is equal to it. Newsweek A wonderfully rich tapestry! the colors fresh and clear! every strand sewn in with a sure hand. Mr. Massie describes those strange and terrible years with sympathy and understanding. . . . They come vividly before our eyes. The New York Times An all-too-human picture . . . Both Nicholas and Alexandra with all their failings come truly alive! as does their almost storybook romance. Newsday A magnificent and intimate picture . . . Not only the main characters but a whole era become alive and comprehensible. Harper's Informationen zum Autor Robert K. Massie Klappentext From the Modern Library's new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by Robert K. Massie-also available are Peter the Great and The RomanovsIn this commanding book, Robert K. Massie, prize-winning author of Catherine the Great, sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of Imperial Russia to tell the story of the Romanovs' lives: Nicholas's political naïveté, Alexandra's obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin, and little Alexis's brave struggle with hemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Massie unfolds a powerful drama of passion and history-the story of a doomed empire and the death-marked royals who watched it crumble. The Modern Library of the World's Best Books Nicholas and Alexandra "A magnificent and intimate picture . . . Not only the main characters but a whole era become alive and comprehensible."-Harper's Peter the Great Winner of the Pulitzer Prize "Enthralling . . . as fascinating as any novel and more so than most."-The New York Times Book Review The Romanovs "Riveting . . . unfolds like a detective story."-Los Angeles Times Book Review Leseprobe Part One CHAPTER ONE 1894: Imperial Russia From the Baltic city of St. Petersburg, built on a river marsh in a far northern corner of the empire, the Tsar ruled Russia. So immense were the Tsar's dominions that, as night began to fall along their western borders, day already was breaking on their Pacific coast. Between these distant frontiers lay a continent, one sixth of the land surface of the globe. Through the depth of Russia's winters, millions of tall pine trees stood silent under heavy snows. In the summer, clusters of white-­trunked birch trees rustled their silvery leaves in the slanting rays of the afternoon sun. Rivers, wide and flat, flowed peacefully through the grassy plains of European Russia toward a limitless southern horizon. Eastward, in Siberia, even mightier rivers rolled north to the Arctic, sweeping through forests where no human had ever been, and across desolate marshes of frozen tundra. Here and there, thinly scattered across the broad land, lived the one hundred and thirty million subjects of the Tsar: not only Slavs but Baits, Jews, Germans, Georgians, Armenians, Uzbeks and Tartars. Some were clustered in provincial cities and towns, dominated by onion-­shaped church domes rising above the white-­walled houses. Many more lived in straggling villages of unpainted log huts. Next to doorways, a few sunflowers might grow. Geese and pigs wandered freely through the muddy street. Both men and women worked all summer, planting and scything the high silken grain before the coming of the first September frost. For six interminable months of winter, the open country became a wasteland of freezing whiteness. Inside their huts, in an atmosphere thick with the aroma of steaming clothes and boiling tea, the peasants sat around their huge clay stoves and argued and po...

ldquo;A larger-than-life drama.”—Saturday Review

“A moving, rich book . . . [This] revealing, densely documented account of the last Romanovs focuses not on the great events . . . but on the royal family and their evil nemesis. . . . The tale is so bizarre, no melodrama is equal to it.”—Newsweek

“A wonderfully rich tapestry, the colors fresh and clear, every strand sewn in with a sure hand. Mr. Massie describes those strange and terrible years with sympathy and understanding. . . . They come vividly before our eyes.”—The New York Times
 
“An all-too-human picture . . . Both Nicholas and Alexandra with all their failings come truly alive, as does their almost storybook romance.”—Newsday
 
“A magnificent and intimate picture . . . Not only the main characters but a whole era become alive and comprehensible.”—Harper’s

Auteur

Robert K. Massie

Texte du rabat

From the Modern Library's new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by Robert K. Massie-also available are Peter the Great and The Romanovs In this commanding book, Robert K. Massie, prize-winning author of Catherine the Great, sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of Imperial Russia to tell the story of the Romanovs' lives: Nicholas's political naïveté, Alexandra's obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin, and little Alexis's brave struggle with hemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Massie unfolds a powerful drama of passion and history-the story of a doomed empire and the death-marked royals who watched it crumble. The Modern Library of the World's Best Books Nicholas and Alexandra "A magnificent and intimate picture . . . Not only the main characters but a whole era become alive and comprehensible."-Harper's Peter the Great Winner of the Pulitzer Prize "Enthralling . . . as fascinating as any novel and more so than most."-The New York Times Book Review The Romanovs "Riveting . . . unfolds like a detective story."-Los Angeles Times Book Review

Résumé
*A “magnificent and intimate” (*Harper’s) modern classic of Russian history, the spellbinding story of the love that ended an empire—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, The Romanovs, and Catherine the Great

“A moving, rich book . . . [This] revealing, densely documented account of the last Romanovs focuses not on the great events . . . but on the royal family and their evil nemesis. . . . The tale is so bizarre, no melodrama is equal to it.”—*Newsweek

**In this commanding book, *New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Massie sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of the Russian empire to tell the story of the Romanovs’ lives: Nicholas’s political naïveté, Alexandra’s obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin, and little Alexis’s brave struggle with hemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Massie unfolds a powerful drama of passion and history—the story of a doomed empire and the death-marked royals who watched it crumble.

Échantillon de lecture
Part One

CHAPTER ONE

1894: Imperial Russia

From the Baltic city of St. Petersburg, built on a river marsh in a far northern corner of the empire, the Tsar ruled Russia. So immense were the Tsar’s dominions that, as night began to fall along their western borders, day already was breaking on their Pacific coast. Between these distant frontiers lay a continent, one sixth of the land surface of the globe. Through the depth of Russia’s winters, millions of tall pine trees stood silent under heavy snows. In the summer, clusters of white-­trunked birch trees rustled their silvery leaves in the slanting rays of the afternoon sun. Rivers, wide and flat, flowed peacefully through the grassy plains of European Russia toward a limitless southern horizon. Eastward, in Siberia, even mightier rivers rolled north to the Arctic, sweeping through for…