From Publishers Weekly
The wife of Nicholas III, the tsar who was overthrown in 1917 by the Russian Revolution, Alexandra has long been viewed by Russian historians as narrow-minded, reactionary and hysterical. But in this entertaining, if not completely convincing, account, Erickson (Bloody Mary) paints a sympathetic portrait of the German-born empress. Erickson humanizes the granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria by detailing the romance between the two young cousins, "Alix" and "Nicky." One of the book's strengths is its emphasis on the private life of the court. Erickson also draws attention to the difficulties the husband and wife faced as they struggled to produce a male heir, first having four daughters before they sired the hemophiliac Alexis. "Unless help came from a divine source," Erickson writes, "he would surely succumb to one of the terrible attacks of bleeding." Though the rest of the story is familiar Alexis's illness led the family to an increasing fascination with the occult and the spiritual healer Rasputin this accomplished historical biographer tells it with style and suspense. At times, Erickson sacrifices historical accuracy for drama, e.g., when she attempts to elicit sympathy by saying that Alexandra looked middle-aged at 33, although that was not rare for a mother of four in pre-revolutionary Russia. But small glitches aside, Erickson's popular biography will satisfy readers seeking the scoop on Russia's last empress.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Erickson is the author of many popular historical biographies, only one of which (Great Catherine) dealt with Russia. When the German princess Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt (1872-1918) married the heir to the Russian throne in 1894, she assumed a role for which she was not suited, by temperament or by upbringing, as well as an obligation to support her clearly weaker husband. The author depicts her subject as rejected from the start by the Russian court and oblivious to the political situation in her adopted country, with a strong desire for a "normal," loving family life. As a result, Alexandra gradually withdrew into the mystic tradition of Russian Orthodoxy, and her illnesses isolated her ever further from the troubles abroad in Russia. The book quotes extensively from Alexandra's letters and from memoirs left by her friends and contemporaries. Though less expansive in its coverage of the era than Robert K. Massie's Nicolas and Alexandra (1967), this work makes a complex time accessible to general readers and is most suitable for public libraries.
- Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
