The Memoirs of Catherine the Great

By Catherine II Romanov and Catherine the Great

Book Overview

Empress Catherine II brought Europe to Russia, and Russia to Europe, during her long and eventful reign (1762--96). She fostered the culture of the Enlightenment and greatly expanded the immense empire created by Czar Ivan the Terrible, shifting the balance of power in Europe eastward. Famous for her will to power and for her dozen lovers, Catherine was also a prolific and gifted writer.

Fluent in French, Russian, and German, Catherine published political theory, journalism, comedies, operas, and history, while writing thousands of letters as she corresponded with Voltaire and other public figures. The Memoirs of Catherine the Great provides an unparalleled window into eighteenth-century Russia and the mind of an absolute ruler.

With insight, humor, and candor, Catherine presents her eyewitness account of history, from her whirlwind entry into the Russian court in 1744 at age fourteen as the intended bride of Empress Elizabeth I's nephew, the eccentric drunkard and future Peter III, to her unhappy marriage; from her two children, several miscarriages, and her and Peter's numerous affairs to the political maneuvering that enabled Catherine to seize the throne from him in 1762. Catherine's eye for telling details makes for compelling reading as she describes the dramatic fall and rise of her political fortunes.

This definitive new translation from the French is scrupulously faithful to her words and is the first for which translators have consulted original manuscripts written in Catherine's own hand. It is an indispensable work for anyone interested in Catherine the Great, Russian history, or the eighteenth century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812969871
• ISBN13: 9780812969870
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC (No Starch)
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent read for lovers of the Romanov dynasty!

Catherine's personal papers, letters, etc are featured heavily throughout the book.

Very interesting

Very interesting insight into the mind of a strong woman that lived long ago. Human nature never really changes does it? :-)

Face it, this is a classic, so let's at least applaud

This rather large collection can be very absorbing in spite of its "pedestrian" style. Even a bad translation (which it likely was not) couldn't be an excuse to call it good writing, but memoirs are not really known for being Pulitzer material. "Alibiographies," these are sometimes called, and the stories in "Memoirs" are very often told by Catherine to make herself a favorable picture. As historian Will Durant says about the work, it is not so much false, as it is partial. Truthfully, though, it would be hard to name any other autobiography that did not do the same. The most glaring difference between "her version" and the "world's version," for example, has to be her thoughts and descriptions of her husband, Czar Peter III. The reader will find this easy -- and interesting -- to spot all through the memoirs! Durant also implies, though, that Catherine's memoirs fills many gaps, at least as material for further reading. No matter the partiality shown in the book, it is blindingly clear that Catherine was head and shoulders above almost all her contemporaries in intelligence, energy, curiosity, and shrewdness. A word of personal annoyance with this book. It took more than three-quarters of the pages to run across the telling of her first non-husband love relationship. Even then the fateful paragraph was extra-long and in an unexpectedly different style, and had to be read twice to catch on. All that work for so little naughty information!

Letting Catherine Have Her Say

Catherine the Great has long suffered from mixed press. Jeesh, I mean there was the fact she almost certainly had her demented husband, who just happened to be the Czar, conveniently snuffed, she enacted brutal laws in retaliation for a wee bit of disloyalty on behalf of the Russian peasantry, and, well, let's not forget that nasty rumor about how fond she was of horses. Ahem. But you know, this was also one of the greatest rulers in Russian history, a pen-pal of Voltaire, hand-picked agent of Frederick the Great, and above all else, an improbable survivor against whom the deck was stacked pretty high. I think Catherine used these memoirs to sway the public's feelings about her. That's a nice way of saying I suspect the ol' gal fibbed a time or two. But so what? This is still an invaluable first-hand account of a time and place about which we might otherwise have known far less than we do, but for courtesy of her gifted prose. Sure, Catherine wasn't perfect but she wasn't a monster, either, as so many other Russian rulers have been. She had a good sense of humor, she liked to read and she made an art of political pragmatism. Catherine also tried to do what was right (especially what was right for her) and early in her reign, this German on the Russian throne brought about a number of amazingly liberal reforms that ended laws that were suffocating Mother Russia, even during the Age of Enlightenment. I say, let historians debate all they want, Catherine deserved to have her say and her point of view is privileged. If for nothing else than the details of her era, this memoir is worth its weight in sable and caviar.