Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra
by Peter Kurth
List Price:
Our Price: $16.06
You Save: $13.93 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.97 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Peter KurthPhotographer: Peter Christopher
Contributor: Edvard Radzinsky
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-11-01
ISBN: 0316557889
Number of pages: 230
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra
Book Review: A fresh historical perspective.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read about the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family for years, but I never felt like I really understood their lives and their lifestyle until I bought and read this book. The text is an interesting historical summation, but it doesn't reveal anything your average student of Russian history wouldn't already know. What is so special about this book is the pictures. Beautiful full-color photos of the magnificient palaces and locations frequented by the Russian royal family are displayed next to a comprehensive collection of historical photos from the era. In addition to the classic royal portraits you have probably seen, there are many candid photos of the family going about their daily life. Frequently, a historical picture is shown next to a gorgeous contemporary photograph of the same locale. For example, a black and white photograph of two of the Grand Duchess rowing past the "children's island" at Tsarkoe Selo is shown with a brilliantly colored picture of the same spot as it looks today. Thanks to these beautiful photographs, I have a whole new appreciation of the incredible luxury of the royal surroundings, and what a grand contrast it must have been to the lifestyle of the average Russian peasants.
Summary of Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra
This spectacular illustrated history tells the story of the last Romanovs - one of the great tragic love stories of all time - with unparalleled vividness & intimacy. The text, which follows Nicholas & Alexandria from their childhood's to the Siberian cellar where their lives ended, is complemented by rare images from the imperial family's private collections (locked away for decades in Soviet archives, & published here for the first time), as well as by contemporary full-color photographs of the places & palaces the Romanovs knew.It's easy now to indulge in nostalgia about the era of the Romanovs, and the sheer lushness of this gorgeous book is enough to encourage the indulgence. Even the text, highly readable and informative, is a little rose-tinted in places, but perhaps the authors can hardly be blamed when the gentlemanly cruelties of the old regime look so innocent next to the quintessentially totalitarian 20th-century hell that replaced them. (Nowhere was the true nature of the new "people's" dispensation revealed more vividly than in the lurid, incompetent savagery with which Nicholas II and his family were dispatched, a story reconstructed in considerable detail here.) In any case, despite a touch of sentimentality, this is a fine short history of how the Romanov dynasty ended, artfully disguised as a coffee-table book. If you merely flip through the pictures (Ekaterinburg, Tsarkoe Selo, the Cathedral of Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg, shining like a gold dagger in the snow), you will ache to travel to Russia. If you read the text, you will learn a surprising amount about the world of an almost comically ineffectual man with whom the Fates amused themselves by placing him at a key turning point in modern history. Heartless autocrat that he was, you may even end up feeling sorry for him: the cure was so much worse than the disease. --Richard Farr
Russia Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Russia Books
The Struggle for the Middle East: The Soviet Union and the Middle East 1958-70 (Pelican)by Walter Laqueur
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1972-06-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $416.80
Russia Under the Old Regimeby Richard Pipes
Penguin Books Ltd; Published: 1990-08-30; Paperback; Book
Soviet Disunionby Bohdan Nahaylo
Free Press; Published: 1990-06-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.20
Price in other shops:
Retreat from the Finland Station: Moral Odysseys in the Breakdown of Communismby Murphy
Free Press; Published: 1992-08-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.92
Price in other shops:
St. Petersburg: A Cultural Historyby Solomon Volkov
The Free Press / Simon & Schuster; Published: 1995-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $28.90
Price in other shops:
The Kremlin: Citadel of Historyby Mina C. Klein, H. Arthur Klein
Atheneum; Published: 1973-03; Library Binding; Book
Price in other shops:
The Russian Revolutionby Richard Pipes
Fontana Press; Published: 1992-02-06; Paperback; Book
Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpionby Ed Offley
Basic Books; Published: 2008-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.93
Price in other shops:
Peter the Great: His Life and World (Abacus Books)by ROBERT K. MASSIE
ABACUS BOOKS (SPHERE); Published: 1982; Paperback; Book
Russia: A HistoryOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.77
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Rasputin Fileby Edvard Radzinsky
Anchor Books; Published: 2001-12-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.48
Price in other shops:
Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarinaby Virginia Rounding
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2012-01-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.16
Price in other shops:
The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburgby Helen Rappaport
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2009-02-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.77
Price in other shops:
From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1847--1928by Julia P. Gelardi
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2011-02-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.53
Price in other shops:
Nicholas and AlexandraSony; Release date: 1999-07-27; DVD
Best price: $13.15
Price in other shops:
Royal Russia: The Private Albums of the Russian Imperial Familyby Carol Townend
John Blake; Published: 2007-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $28.75
Price in other shops:
The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas IIby Edvard Radzinsky
Anchor; Published: 1993-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas IIby Greg King
Wiley; Published: 2006-03-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.19
Price in other shops:
The Romanovs: the Final Chapterby Robert K. Massie
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 1996-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Classic Account of the Fall of the Romanov Dynastyby Robert K. Massie
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2000-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.85
Price in other shops: