Catherine the Great (despite its dippy sub-title) is full of that skill, that dramatist's eye, and that raconteur's feel for the balance of narrative and quip.Catherine, a Prussian bride to a Russian prince, is a rich source of such quips despite having led a mostly miserable life until a palace coup put her on the throne in 1762, and Massie deploys them with self-evident glee, as when Catherine received an intemperate ultimatum from Gustavus III of Sweden, demanding back certain territories annexed by Peter the Great - Catherine rather plaintively asked, "What have I done that God should choose to chastise me with such a feeble instrument as the King of Sweden?"Massie is as thorough as ever (this biography completely supplants Henri Troyat's Catherine La Grande from 1977, even in terms of its strongest point, its readability), covering all the signal events, including scientific advances, plague, diplomacy, the tedium of imperial paperwork, and a positively unladylike swarm of wars, border disputes, and invasions. There was also a line not to be crossed, even by friends.įans of Massie's previous books - his phenomenal Nicholas and Alexandra, his Pulitzer Prize-winning Peter the Great, or his massive, enthralling study of Europe in the run-up to the First World War, Dreadnought, will recognize immediately in that paragraph the hallmarks of Massie's easy, consummate skill. She softened imperial presence with a sense of humor and a quick tongue indeed, with Catherine more than with any other monarch of her day, there was always a wide latitude for humor. During the coup, she had shown determination and courage once on the throne, she displayed an open mind, willingness to forgive, and a political morality founded on rationality and practical efficiency. She was intelligent, well read, and a shrewd judge of character. Her signature, inscribed on a decree, was law and, if she chose, could mean life or death for any one of her twenty million subjects. She sat on the throne of Peter the Great and ruled an empire, the largest on earth. MassieRandom House, 2011Right at the half-way mark in Robert Massie's supple, fantastic new life of Catherine the Great, his subject's life changes forever:
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K.
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