![]() ![]() There was also a line not to be crossed, even by friends.įans of Massie's previous books - his phenomenal Nicholas and Alexandra, his Pulitzer Prize-winning Peter the Great, or his massive, enthralling study of Europe in the run-up to the First World War, Dreadnought, will recognize immediately in that paragraph the hallmarks of Massie's easy, consummate skill. She softened imperial presence with a sense of humor and a quick tongue indeed, with Catherine more than with any other monarch of her day, there was always a wide latitude for humor. ![]() During the coup, she had shown determination and courage once on the throne, she displayed an open mind, willingness to forgive, and a political morality founded on rationality and practical efficiency. ![]() She was intelligent, well read, and a shrewd judge of character. Her signature, inscribed on a decree, was law and, if she chose, could mean life or death for any one of her twenty million subjects. She sat on the throne of Peter the Great and ruled an empire, the largest on earth. ![]() MassieRandom House, 2011Right at the half-way mark in Robert Massie's supple, fantastic new life of Catherine the Great, his subject's life changes forever: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. ![]()
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