Review: An excellent book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 7, 2013
I loved this book.  It tells a touching, intimate story of Sophie, the little German princess who was raised in relative obscurity and poverty but whose ambitious mother manipulated the situation so that she was chosen as the bride for the half-mad grandson of Peter the Great.  The manipulative mother, Johanna, spends the money sent by Empress Elizabeth to equip the child Sophie on her own lavish wardrobe, and Sophie has to borrow a dress from the sister of Prussian ruler Fredrick II in order to be presented at the Prussian court.  The mother and daughter arrive in Moscow after an arduous journey in the dead of winter,and the Empress Elizabeth falls in love with Sophie, but the enterprising Johanna is soon exposed as a persona non grata.  I didn't appreciate the graphic account of a sexual encounter between Johanna and one of the Russian courtiers which was obviously fictional or the 21st century vulgar English words put in the mouths of these Russian nobles at this early stage of the story.  It seemed artificial and not in keeping with the dignified treatment of sexual matters in the rest of the book of which there were plenty.Although Johanna is retained in Russian until after the wedding, a period of about two years I believe, she is marginalized, and soon after the wedding, she is expelled from the country.  Although young, inexperienced, and unprepared, the intelligent young Sophie has been endued with the same ambition for power as seen in Johanna, and somehow she draws on an inner strength, with an authenticity and finesse unknown to her mother. When she realizes that the boy to become Peter III has a cruel streak, delighting to torture animals and seems more than half insane at times, she dreads their marriage.  As she is thrown into his company constantly, she learns to manipulate him, and without crossing his will, she distracts him away from his cruelity and into playing the military games, which he loves.  The only thing Peter likes about Catherine is that she is Prussian and has actually met his hero Fredrick II.  On top of everything else, Peter is physically weak and catches every sickness that comes along, including smallpox.  Although scarred by the pox, making him even more repulsive physically, he pulls through.  Johanna impresses upon Sophie that in spite of her close relationship with the Empress, five minutes before her marriage to Peter, she is just an insignificant Prussian princess who can be sent back to her own country on a whim, however, five minutes after the vows, she will be the important consort of the heir to the Russian throne, and her position will be secure.  Sophie endures cruelty and humiliation at the hands of Peter and his perverted valet with great strength and tact and becomes one of the few people who can control Peter.  For this Peter both admires and despises her.  During the months leading up to the wedding, Sophie studies intensively Russian culture and history.  She becomes fluent in the Russian language and joins the Russian Orthodox church, in spite of her promise to her adored father that she will never leave her Lutheran faith.  At her confirmation, Empress Elizabeth gives her the name Catherine after her own dearly loved mother, the second wife of Peter the Great.  From then on Sophie is known as Catherine.At their wedding banquet, Catherine realizes that Peter is in love with the vulgar daughter of one of Elizabeth's mid-level government officials.  Peter humiliates his new wife at the banquet and disappears.  Catherine's attendants prepare her in her special garments and put her to bed for her wedding night.  Catherine lays there with dignity but in much fear and trembling anticipating humiliation and ill treatment from the depraved bridegroom.  Towards morning he appears but lies on the edge of the bed, paying no attention to Catherine.  Seven years later, Catherine is still a virgin.This is the early life of the famous Empress Catherine the Great.  I highly recommend this book in which you will find out how Catherine overcomes horrendous obstacles, manages her difficult husband, manages to become the mother of an heir, placates Peter, and becomes the ruler of Russian in her own right, not as merely the Regent for her young son.  I highly recommend this book and hope you will enjoy it as I did.