Confession here. I don't know if it's the winter, the going back to school in the spring, or what, but I'm definitely on a Russian history kick right now. Don't seem to know how to stop, don't want to. Even after the grim awfulness that was The House of Special Purpose, I still want more, more, more. Book 91 of the year is Alexandra: The Last Tsarina by Carolly Erickson.
Much in the style of Antonia Fraser, author Erickson chronicles the life of the unfortunate Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, later the Tsarina-Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanov of Russia. Alix is a minor German princess and the daughter of the formidable Queen Victoria of Great Britain, who defies her family's wishes and becomes engaged to Nicholas II, the gentle, quiet heir to the throne of Russia. Nicholas believes he has many, many years to educate himself in the duties of being the Tsar-Emperor of Imperial Russia, when his father dies suddenly and he and Alix are thrown haphazardly into their roles of leading an immense empire. Nicholas is inept and vacillating, Alix constantly ill and, after birthing four daughters, obsessed with the production of an heir. When her son Alexei is finally born, Alix feels intense relief, until she discovers that Alexei is a hemophiliac, and it was her genes that passed it on to him. Her obsession with Alexei's health drives her to search for help in the divine intercession of the starets Gregory Efimovich, known as Rasputin, and as the country races toward revolution, Alix grimly tries to hold on to her throne, her husband, her son, and her land.
It's unfortunate that I read this book after reading Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie, in my opinion the greatest biography of the Romanov family ever written. Erickson tries to paint a vivid portrait of Alix's life, but compared to Massie's, her writing comes up short. She also fails to elicit sympathy for Alix, choosing to highlight her less-than-favorable characteristics, a good reason why she was so hated by the Russian people, and making much of her poor relationship with Nicholas' mother, the Dowager Empress Marie. Reading about Alix's mocking caricatures of the members of the Russian court, it is difficult to feel sorry for her when she was maligned and reviled. Instead of making Alix seem like the sad, somewhat fatalistic, yet very much in love woman that Massie portrays, Erickson draws her as emotional, depressive, an Eeyore of a queen that was highly insufferable.
Two stars because it was well-researched, clearly Erickson did her homework, but it wasn't enough to captivate my interest.
Rating: **
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