Catherine The Great: Love, Sex, and Power - Softcover

Rounding, Virginia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099462346 ISBN 13: 9780099462347

Publisher: Arrow, 2007

Synopsis

'THE MOST ACCESSIBLE AND ENJOYABLE PORTRAIT YET.' DAILY MAIL
______________________________________________________

Power, sex, and politics: the fascinating rule of one of Russia's most significant monarchs

Catherine the Great ruled Russia from 1762 until 1796. Famous for the legends circulated by political rivals about her sexual rapacity, some were true - though not the infamous rumour of her death by stallion. However, a conservative Russian court was shocked by her use of her sexuality as a political tool, as well as the number and age of her lovers.

Unhappily married to the Grand Duke Peter, a man who preferred to play with his toy soldiers in the bedroom, they failed to produce an heir, and Catherine turned her attentions to a certain Sergey Saltykov who fathered the future Tsar Paul I. Six months into the reign of Peter III, Catherine, supported by the Imperial Guard, staged a successful coup against her husband and became Empress. It was her ambition to transform a vast but semi-barbaric country with the cultural and political reforms of Enlightenment Europe.

In this fascinating biography, Virginia Rounding reveals an extraordinary woman in all her complexity.
______________________________________________________

'A great thumping triumph of a book.' DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Rounding shows that the reality is far more interesting than any of the fictions.' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

'An intimate study of Catherine's life' GUARDIAN

'Enjoyable and perceptive study . . . Rounding has read widely, and writes history with a no-nonsense style and a respectful relish for the details that make the past come alive.' Simon Sebag Montefiore, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'Rounding writes with enviable lucidity, and gives us the most accessible and enjoyable portrait yet.' DAILY MAIL

'Written with vigour and intelligence enough to do justice to its prodigious subject.' SUNDAY TIMES

About this title

About the Author

Virginia Rounding is the author of Les Grandes Horizontales (2003), is fluent in French and Russian (vital for the source material of her new book). She lives in London (EC1).

From the Back Cover

'The most accessible and enjoyable portrait yet' Daily Mail

Catherine the Great had no claim to the Russian throne whatsoever; she was not even Russian. To seize the imperial crown, she overthrew her own husband, the Emperor Peter III, and was responsible, to greater and lesser degrees, for his murder Catherine may have been vain, ruthless, ambitious and duplicitous but she was also tolerant, generous, well-intentioned, cultured, superbly intelligent and a political genius. Russia had not enjoyed such a great, humanitarian leader before or since

Rounding has read widely, and writes punctilious, professional history with a no-nonsense style and a respectful relish for the details that make the past come alive. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Telegraph

For a sense of Catherine s intimate life, sexual appetites, preoccupations, ruthlessness, intellectual scope, sentimentality and dedication, this is a great piece of work. FT Magazine

Rounding's respectful take is highly appropriate Through her eyes, we see a woman committed to Enlightenment values Catherine was both a highly sexual woman and an intellectual; there is nothing anyone need add to her story. It is all there. Scotsman

Edition details

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099462346
• ISBN 13: 9780099462347
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608