Most Beautiful Princess

By Christina Croft

Book Overview

At the age of nineteen, Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, stepped into the glittering court of the Romanovs, beginning a journey that would lead her from the shimmering... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0955985307
• ISBN13: 9780955985300
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Hilliard and Croft
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful novel of Grand Duchess Elizabeth

I have to say I was surprised at how good this book was. The author seems to have a good grasp of the various royal characters in Elizabeth's life, and if you have read any memoirs or history books on the Romanovs you will appreciate how spot on the author's characterisations are and how true to history she has stayed with the story. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna would have been a remarkable person in any age, but among the Romanovs she stood out for her compassion and willingness to face the ugly lives of the ordinary people under the Tsar and trying actively to do something about changing them for the better. Despite the love of the ordinary Muscovites this gave Elizabeth it did not save her from the revolutionaries. Among the Romanovs Elizabeth is the only genuine saint of modern times and to write a book about a saint is never an easy thing. Elizabeth wasn't flawless and made mistakes in her life and this book doesn't gloss over those so you get the feeling that you are reading about a real person and not a religious cardboard cut out. If you love historical novels are interested in the Romanovs I recommend this novel as a good read and something you will more than likely enjoy.

ELLA, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS

SELDOM HAVE I READ A BOOK AND WAS SO FASCINATED BY THE WAY THE AUTHOR WROTE. IT FELT LIKE MS. CROFT HAD BEEN ALL ALONG ELLA'S SIDE, FROM A CAREFEE BEGINNING AS A CHILD TO THE TRAGIC END. I HAVE READ DOZENS OF BOOKS ON THE RUSSIAN ROYAL FAMILY BUT NEVER SUCH A DETAILED AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN ONE. THE WORDS JUST FLOWED FROM THE PAGES INTO MY MIND AND CLOSING MY EYES I FELT LIKE BEING PART OF THE "HAPPENINGS". THIS BOOK IS A "MUST READ" FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE RUSSIAN ROYAL FAMILY AND ESPECIALLY THE GRANDDUCHESS ELLA. THANK YOU MS. CROFT FOR SUCH A ONE OF A KIND BOOK. KLAUS VON HAGEN.

The princess who became a saint

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. She had golden hair and blue eyes and she married a prince. He was a Russian Grand Duke, an uncle of Tsar Nicholas II. But the princess did not live happily ever after. Her coach not only turned into a pumpkin it turned into a nightmare. Christina Croft endows her biographical novel of Ella, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, with sensitivity and flair and with a poetic gift. This story of Ella's struggle is not a litany of woe. Ella's life was scarred by tragedies but she rose above tragedy because she herself never gave in to despair- never- even when she was thrown into a mine pit by the notorious Cheka. (Witnesses to this horrific event could hear her singing a hymn way down below in the shaft). Therefore the tone of this novel is not sordid, but warm, confiding, optimistic, up-beat because Ella would have willed it that way. "Most Beautiful Princess" is a paean to a human spirit that triumphed in the face of the most awful circumstances. Before discussing this fine novel further, let me put you up to speed as to who Ella was, in case you are unfamiliar with her. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria as her mother was Victoria's second daughter, Alice. Alice married Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, a small German duchy. Elizabeth, always called Ella, was the couple's second daughter and older sister to the famous Alix, who became Empress Alexandra and wife of Nicholas II. Ella was considered the most beautiful princess in Europe and she had many suitors including Kaiser Wilhelm II, whom she didn't fancy. She married the very controversial Russian Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, a son of Tsar Alexander II. Serge was rumored to be a homosexual and considered by many to be haughty, cold, and even a sadist. But Ella cherished him and when he was assassinated by a terrorist bomb she renounced her worldly goods and glories, became a nun and eventually abbess of the Order of Martha and Mary which she founded. For the rest of her life she devoted herself to charity work and nursing, and although the Bolsheviks killed her in 1918 along with the entire imperial family, they could not quench her spirit. She was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992. The successful biographical novel depends upon the author's ability to get inside his characters' heads and recreate their speech, their manner, their idiosyncrasies, their very thoughts in a way that is totally convincing. You must feel that if a character did not actually make some observation, say something, or act in a certain way as imagined by the writer, he should have. Christina Croft had to get inside the heads of a great many historical people, people very well known to us and portray them in a refreshingly new light while making them behave in a manner that is totally authentic. Ella comes alive for us as does Queen Victoria, Nicholas and Alexandra, Ella's enigmatic husband Serge, Pavel (her adulterous brother-in-law), th

A Journey of a Lifetime!

I finished this book with sadness that it was over, but at the same time, a great sense of satisfaction as though I had met, in person, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and many others. In spite of the heart-breaking tragedy of the story, there is something so refreshing and inspiring in these pages that I came away, too, feeling so much better for having read this book. The author handled the intimate details of Ella's marriage with such delicacy, and the inspired and beautiful descriptions of Ella's spiritual journey show a depths of insight rarely found in fiction. I will never forget the vivid accounts of Serge's murder, nor the sheer poetry of the descriptions of Ella's awe as she stands at edge of the Sea of Galilee. Repeatedly I found myself asking: is this really a work of fiction? It was all so real that it seemed I had been taken on a journey of a lifetime and one I shall not easily forget!

Breathtaking!

Breathtaking! From the first page of this book, I felt I was transported to another time and place, witnessing not only the world-changing events in the final decades of Imperial Russia, but sharing, too, the individual joys, tragedies and dilemmas of these very real people. Although this is a novel, the attention to historical detail is meticulous. Every word spoken seems to come directly from the actual people who lived through these events and gives the reader the sense of being present among them. Kostia's desperate struggle with his conscience, Serge, tensely lighting another cigarette, Ella's excruciation at Queen Victoria, prying into the intimate details of her life - the mannerisms and the asides, all these things brought all these people alive again. I could feel the icy winds and hear the snow crunching, smell the explosives from the shattered carriage, was dazzled by the splendor of ballrooms and the contrast with the Moscow slums. The whole book took me on a truly breathtaking and uplifting journey into another world! A wonderful read!