Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
Robert K. Massie traces the long arc of Catherine the Great, from her childhood in the small German principality of Anhalt-Zerbst through her marriage to the unstable Grand Duke Peter and her seizure of the Russian throne in 1762. Drawing on her memoirs and on diplomatic and family correspondence, Massie shows how she educated herself in Enlightenment thought and recast herself as a Russian ruler. The book follows her efforts to modernize law, schools, and the arts, her wars with the Ottoman Empire, her partition of Poland, and her complicated personal life. Massie writes with the narrative pace of a novelist and the care of a working historian, building on his earlier studies of the Romanov family. The result is a portrait of a woman who shaped Russia for a generation and remains one of the most studied rulers in modern history.
What you might want to know about Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A full life of the obscure German princess who became empress of Russia and ruled for more than three decades.
After finishing the book in early 2012, Musk posted that Massie had written an amazingly expansive and compelling portrait of an incredible woman.
It covers court politics and foreign policy in depth, but Massie balances that with personal letters and scenes from Catherine's private life.
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman was written by Robert K. Massie, published in 2011 by Random House.
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is 672 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman takes most readers 10 to 15 hours to finish.
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.