06024cam a2200541 4500 266779664 TxAuBib 20160625120000.0 ||||||s2016||||||||||||||||||||||||und|u 9781101946978 1101946970 B013ZNNX5W Amazon 1894128b-52cc-40f6-a280-69c979fca9ad OverDrive (Reserve ID) 116185 2476040 OverDrive (Product ID) TxAuBib Montefiore, Simon Sebag. The Romanovs [Bridges eBook] : 1613-1918. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016. Format: OverDrive Adobe EPUB eBook, Filesize: 115MB. Format: OverDrive OverDrive Read, Filesize: 115MB. Format: OverDrive Kindle Book. Catherine the Great. russian history. Peter the Great. robert massie. nicholas ii. Biography. Anastasia. Romanovs. Rasputin. dynasty. royalty. History. HTML:The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it all? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, with a global cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin, to Bismarck, Lincoln, Queen Victoria and Lenin. To rule Russia was both imperial-sacred mission and poisoned chalice: six of the last twelve tsars were murdered. Peter the Great tortured his own son to death while making Russia an empire, and dominated his court with a dining club notable for compulsory drunkenness, naked dwarfs and fancy dress. Catherine the Great overthrew her own husband (who was murdered soon afterward), enjoyed affairs with a series of young male favorites, conquered Ukraine and fascinated Europe. Paul I was strangled by courtiers backed by his own son, Alexander I, who in turn faced Napoleon's invasion and the burning of Moscow, then went on to take Paris. Alexander II liberated the serfs, survived five assassination attempts and wrote perhaps the most explicit love letters ever composed by a ruler. The Romanovs climaxes with a fresh, unforgettable portrayal of Nicholas II and Alexandra, the rise and murder of Rasputin, war and revolution—and the harrowing massacre of the entire family. Dazzlingly entertaining and beautifully written from start to finish, The Romanovs brings these monarchs—male and female, great and flawed, their families and courts—blazingly to life. Drawing on new archival research, Montefiore delivers an enthralling epic of triumph and tragedy, love and murder, encompassing the seminal years 1812, 1914 and 1917, that is both a universal study of power and a portrait of empire that helps define Russia today. . HTML:"Wonderfully written and fascinating down to the last footnote. . . . [Montefiore's] style is polished, lively, informed. . . . Montefiore is an accomplished storyteller, and what might have been a plodding succession of reigns reads instead like a novel--specifically, in its interplay of themes and motifs, and especially its pairing of opposites, like Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. . . . [The Romanovs'] stories--freshened, compressed, filled in and corrected--achieve new power and meaning in this fast-moving narrative. . . . Like a novel, too, this is a hard book to put down. As historical reconstruction and as storytelling, The Romanovs is an achievement of the first rank.". HTML:David Walton, The Dallas Morning News. HTML:"Simon Sebag Montefiore's The Romanovs is epic history on the grandest scale . . . A story of conspiracy, drunken coups, assassination, torture, impaling, breaking on the wheel, lethal floggings with the knout, sexual and alcoholic excess, charlatans and pretenders, flamboyant wealth based on a grinding serfdom, and, not surprisingly, a vicious cycle of repression and revolt. Game of Thrones seems like the proverbial vicar's tea party in comparison . . . Reading Montefiore's excellent account, it is hard to imagine how the monarchy could ever have survived under their catastrophic leadership.". HTML:Antony Beevor, Financial Times. HTML:"The dynasty is a marvellously rich bag of deshabille, despotism and diplomacy as Montefiore's feisty history brilliantly shows.. Countless illuminating details gleaned from archives stud the pages of The Romanovs . . . The gems are priceless . . . Immensely enjoyable full-blooded and totally enthralling.". HTML:Judith Armstrong, The Australian. Biography & Autobiography. Nonfiction. Politics. History. Media Type: eBook. Importer Version: 2014-01-08.01 Import Date: 2016-06-24 23:00:03. http://bridges.lib.overdrive.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=1894128b-52cc-40f6-a280-69c979fca9ad http://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=1894128b-52cc-40f6-a280-69c979fca9ad&.epub-sample.overdrive.com Excerpt (Adobe EPUB eBook) http://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=1894128b-52cc-40f6-a280-69c979fca9ad&.epub-sample.overdrive.com Excerpt (Kindle Book) http://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=1894128b-52cc-40f6-a280-69c979fca9ad&.epub-sample.overdrive.com Excerpt (OverDrive Read)