THE KITCHEN BOY By Robert Alexander Penguin (January 2004), $14
Interest in the Romanovs’ final days shows no sign of waning. The opening of Russian archives has solved many decades-old mysteries, and, in this case, provided grist for fiction.
Actually, in The Kitchen Boy, Alexander artfully blends fact and fiction to show the Romanovs’ final days through the eyes of one of the royal family’s last servants. There is speculation about the missing jewels, the missing children’s bodies and more, all in a taut tale that makes the events very close and personal.
LOST SPLENDOR By Prince Felix Youssoupoff DAP (November 2003), $21.95
Subtitled “The Amazing Memoirs of the Man Who Killed Rasputin,” the marketing copy for this book calls it “a fascinating first-person account of the life and times of cross-dressing Prince Felix Youssoupoff who poisoned Rasputin with rose cream cakes laced with cyanide and spiked Madeira.”
Somehow, one expects that the prince would have liked to have his memoirs flogged with a slightly more dignified air, but then one has little choice about how history remembers us. In any event, this is a “fascinating first-person account” of someone who married into the royal family and led a rather exciting life amidst the swirl of collapsing tsarism.
Renegades, Rebels and rogues under the tsars By Peter Julicher McFarland & Company (2003), $39.95
Poor Prince Youssoupoff merits less than half a dozen pages in this interesting new volume. But then that’s understandable. By the standards of Russian history, Youssoupoff is but a minor rogue when compared to the likes of Pugachyov, Stepan Razin and the False Dmitry.
Julicher writes in an easy, non-academic style and succeeds in tying hundreds of years of Russian history together with the unlikely thread of dissident behavior. Now, as then (actually, there are multiple “thens”), the lesson is simple: some of the worst errors Russian leaders have made were in overreacting to agitators.
Fortune’s Fool By Ivan Turgenev Overlook Press (2003), $14.95
Turgenev’s “A Month in the Country” is a theatrical mainstay in the US, just like Chekhov’s “Seagull” and “Uncle Vanya.” This lesser-known Turgenev play, on the other hand, is a delight waiting for broader discovery. Mike Poulton has done a masterful job adapting and translating this play, which deals with the inevitable 19th century themes of wealth, inheritance, infidelity and loyalty. There are wonderful bits of humor here and the characters are drawn to perfection. No wonder that the play won two Tonys for its actors when it was staged a few years ago on Broadway.
ODESSA MEMORIES Nicolas Iljine, ed. Univ of Wash Press (Feb. 2004), $40
This picture book is a treasure trove of postcards, memories, photographs, placards and more about one of late imperial Russia’s most vibrant cities.
Many of the items in this rare volume have never been published before and offer a vivid picture of life in what was once Russia’s third largest city. Patricia Herlihy’s essay brings further context and explores the unusual history of this port city.
ST PETERSBURG: A PORTRAIT OF A GREAT CITY By Vincent Giroud Univ Press of NE (March 2004), $29.95
If you liked the feature in this issue on old maps, and if St. Petersburg is of interest to you, rush out and get this new volume. It reproduces St. Petersburg maps, illustrations and rare photographs from Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The print quality is simply superb and the extracts from old diaries and journals makes it a great read as well.
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