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There are currently 18 member reviews
for The Romanov Sisters
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Michelle U. (Lords Valley, PA)
The Romanov Sisters
I love reading historical novels and great non-fiction so I have been somewhat disappointed in this book. It is so filled with footnote references that the numbers seem to interfere with the flow. It feels more like a textbook.. Unfortunately, it is not something I would recommend to other readers.
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Beverly D. (Palm Harbor, FL)
Readable Russian history!
Comprehensive and well documented, this biography of the last Tsar's four daughters stops just short of their violent deaths as the tide turns in Russia. Half of the book is spent with their mother Alexandra,( her relationship with Queen Victoria) and her ill health, their brother Alexy the Tsaritsa, who suffers from Hemophilia (although a secret from all but the immediate family) and the influence of the "crazed" monk, Rasputin. Granted the title is "sisters" but the story is truly about the Romanov family and how secluded and out of touch they were. Each of the sisters was developing as individuals and Ms. Rappaport treats them individually, noting the lost potential of these lovely "poor little rich girls". I would highly recommend this title.
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Juli S. (Portland, OR)
More than just the sisters
Although the title indicates the book is primarily about the four Grand Duchesses it's really about the family. Many books focus on Nicholas, Alexandra and their hemophiliac son, Alexei and the strange monk Rasputin. This book almost makes Alexei a background presence but the girls' parents and particularly their mother are very much a part of it.
While venturing into some different territory it's still limited by the limited information about some rather sheltered and isolated young women. It's hard to feel like the girls are truly known any better but it was still an interesting book. I would not necessarily recommend it as an entry into the tragic story of this family but for people like me who are interested in the history of the Romanovs it's an interesting perspective.
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Patricia G. (Dyer, IN)
The Romanov Sisters
Helen Rapport provides a meticulous, superbly researched view into the daily lives of Nicholas and Alexandra . . . and their five children. The contrast between the turmoil and dangers of the outside world and the insolated bubble which was the Tsar's household is astonishing, but remarkably familiar. The children grow before the reader's eyes; they are active, passionate, mischievous. Their mother and father hover over them, protect them, and provide for them what seems like an impossibly "normal" environment in the midst of all of the intrigue surrounding the throne and the "almost" well-kept secret of Alexey's hemophilia.
The final collision of the two worlds is, of course, a tragic, history-changing moment in world politics. But Rappaport always remembers the real people in each moment of this remarkable biography--she never allows any of the family to become abstract symbols or ephemeral ghosts.
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Melinda W. (Los Angeles, CA)
A very fine, is slightly dry, history of the Romanov's
I have to admit I had a hard time getting into this book, because it started far before the "Romonav" sisters - it started with the upbringing of their mother (and I accidently thought the prolougue, which was kind of dry was part of the actual book and that took me a little while to get through). However, as the tragic end of the family became evident, their bravery, and humanity, brought life to the book. The book is a great documentary of the factual events surrounding the death (murder really) of the Royal Family and the beginning of the rise of Communism. However, perhaps because the writer was so fixed on accuracy, instead of storytelling, it was not my favorite accounting of the period. However, I did learn a lot that I will not soon forget.
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Shirley P. (Colorado Springs, CO)
The Romanov Sisters
Ever since reading "Nicholas and Alexandria" published in the 1970's, I have been fascinated by the Romanov family and their tragic deaths. It is amazing that Helen Rappaport has been able to write two sagas about this family. This book is well-written and eminently readable, describing a family, lovely and loved young women and the world that surrounded their tragic ends. With the relatively new information that, indeed, all perished at the same time, it is poignant to read of their living and the details that formed their too brief time on this earth. The book excels in informing the reader of the world events, which led to this family's death and the all too momentous events which followed the end of the Romanov's and Russia's history.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
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Nona F. (Evanston, IL)
Their unhappy end colors the reader's perception throughout
A biography of the Romanov sisters is necessarily a biography of their nuclear family as their parents kept their children insulated from not only the general public but even from members of the Russian aristocracy until the outbreak of the war when the tsarina and her daughters became involved in nursing and visiting wounded soldiers. Tellingly, a quarter of the book covers the final year of their lives, when they were forced into the public view by their incarceration. Readers expecting that the Romanov daughters take the lion's share of attention in this history will be disappointed, but this very readable history provides much insight to the many lost opportunities and missteps taken by Nicholas and Alexandra in their choices, both personal and political. The author does not detail the family's death (her earlier book covers this subject), but the final chapter details the fates of many of the family's friends, associates and servants, lending a wider perspective to their deaths.
It is unfortunate that the review copy does not include the planned photographs/illustrations especially as the publisher's blurb describes the princesses as "perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals" of their time.
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