09 February 2012

ARE YOU FASCINATED BY THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA'S FINAL TSAR AND HIS FAMILY?

I first became acquainted with the writing of Robert K. Massie when I readNicholas And Alexandra back in the 70s. I have always been fascinated by history and royal families, and he has been a staple of mine as a writer. I recently finished The Romanovs: The Final Chapter and it was fascinating. About 1/3 of the book was dedicated to a discussion of what transpired after the bones were found in the late 80s, early 90s. It was a very political endeavor, as you can imagine and it was fascinating to read how they determined who the bones belonged to, and how they determined who was going to work with the bones. 
The next part dealt with imposters and after a few pages about some of the celelbrated cases, Massie spent the majority of this section on the Anna Anderson case, how is transpired and what the tried to do to verify who she was. This particular story has always fascinated me, so I liked this part of the book the best. 
The final two sections were pretty small, and Massie spent that time talking about who the remaining Romanovs are that were alive in the 90s and where they lived. This was followed by another small section with some highlights from diaries and journals illustrating what life was like while the Tsar and his family were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinberg before the massacre. 
As usual, Massie did and excellent job of writing and researching and I found this book easily readable and fascinating. 

I am now primed to read his book on Catherine the Great!(