PALMDALE – The Palmdale City Library has selected Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie as the Featured Book of the Month for January.
This engaging read tells the extraordinary tale of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, who inspired by Enlightenment philosophy, was determined to become the embodiment of the benevolent despot. Along the way, she found herself always contending with the deeply ingrained realities of Russian life, including serfdom.
Catherine persevered, and for 34 years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution that swept across Europe.
Her reputation depended on the perspective of the speaker; she was praised by Voltaire and condemned by her enemies.
Massie is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and the Romanovs. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is available for check out from the Palmdale City Library.
For more information on the Featured Book of the Month, contact the Palmdale City Library at 661-267-5600 or online at www.cityofpalmdale.org/library.
(Information via press release from the City of Palmdale.)
John T. Alexander says
Massie’s book is poor because he can’t read Russian, as a glance at his biblio will show. He’s lost it at 82, if he ever had it. Professionals have nothing but contempt for his “classic” works. It’s ludicrous that he thinks he’s protecting innocent readers from salacious sries about her sexuality, unaware that these have been all over the Internet for two decades.
The gushy reviews by amateurs are just plain nauseating.
random House should hng its head in shame. Don’t wasste3 your money folks.