Get Started On Alix And Nicky: The Passion Of The Last Tsar And Tsarina Put Together By Virginia Rounding Offered As Leaflet

kuru vienkārši vajadzēja pabeigt, nomocīt līdz beigām, jo paralēli lasu vēl divas par attiecīgo tēmu un plānā vēl viena.
Autore mani galīgi nepārliecināja ne par savām vēsturnieces, ne rakstnieces spējām, Vispirms jau tas, ka vēstures notikumu izkāsts nebūs saprotams nevienam, kurš pirms tam jau nav iepazinies ar atiecīgā perioda Krievijas vēsturi daudzi ārkārtīgi svarīgi notikumi, kas tieši skar cara ģimeni, te tiek pieminēti garāmejot, un impērijas sabrukums vispār ir kāds nejaušs pārpratums.
Turklāt autore nezināmu iemeslu vadīta ir sajaukusi nodaļu hronoloģiju, kas diez vai veicina izpratni par notiekošo, Raundinga daudz citē, izmanto imperatoru vēstules, bet man palika iespaids, ka citāti tiek ļaunprātīgi izmantoti, lai pierādītu viņas teoriju, kura laikam gan visu laiku tika virzīta uz triumfālu, pareizticības apdvestu finālu, kurš skaidro cara ģimenes iecelšanu svēto kārtā.

Šī grāmata izmantojama tikai kā papildliteratūra, lai ieraudzītu kādas nianses, kuras vienalga vajadzētu precizēt un pārbaudīt, I received this book for free as a First Reads giveaway,

I have no doubt that in the right hands, this book would get a solidout ofstar rating, It is obvious that the book was thoroughly researched, and that the author has a great interest in this topic and a passion for acting as a "curator" to gather the various accounts and opinions of Alix and Nicky.
I really admire and respect all the work that very clearly went into this book on the part of the author, Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy reading it,

The "passion" that is in the title refers to both definitions of the word: emotion as well as suffering, When I first read the Alix and Nicky's title, I took it to be the emotional kind of passion and looked forward to a book mostly about the love between Alix and Nicky.
I think the book is actually heavier on the suffering side there is a lot of detail about their struggles, their troubles relating to the Russian people, their personality traits, Alix's illness, etc.
When the emotional side came up, I really got into it and read eagerly, But there seemed to be more talk of politics and military events there just wasn't enough of their love story for me, Don't get me wrong I love history, and I love nonfiction history/biography books, but this book didn't bring history to life for me, It was a rather dry restating of facts and events,

The book is separated into chapters that highlight important aspects of Alix and Nicky's lives, The chapters bounce around quite a bit, not really following any chronological order, One minute we're reading about Nicky's childhood, the next Alix is a grown woman and has been married to Nicky for years, the next Alix and Nicky are writing love letters to each other before they were engaged, and the next we're reading about Nicky's childhood again.
Another issue, although this is no fault of the author's, is the Russian names of friends, family, and important figures they are all pretty similar to my American eyes and it was hard to keep track of who was who.
The author does provide a list of characters, essentially, at the front of the book, and also gives a little reminder each time a character is brought up of what role they play, but I still became very confused very quickly.


I have to state again just how much effort clearly went into this book, and how sure I am that someone else would give this a shining review.
But to me, it was simply "ok" it's just not my type of book, I had to force myself to sit down and read, and then I found myself flipping ahead to see how much more I had to read before I got to the end of the chapter.
Because of this, I just can't give it better thanstars, I have always been extremely loyal to Robert K, Massie when it comes to all things Romanov, I never even saw the point of reading anything about the last Romanov family than his classic "Nicholas and Alexandra, " Over the last few years, however, I've branched a little, reading Montefiore's "The Romanovs:" as well as Radzinsky's "The Last Tsar, " Why not throw Rounding's book into the hat

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, I would say her writing is easier to digest if not as deep, She doesn't go into a lot of detail on either the war with Japan or World War I and she offers no discussion whatsoever of Rasputin's death.
However, she did spend a good deal more time on the bizarre love triangle of Ania, Alix, and Nicholas which I particularly enjoyed,

Her book did not challenge Massie's in my heart, but I might recommend this over "Nicholas and Alexandra" depending on who I was recommending it too.
Im beginning to wonder how many books on the Romanovs I can read, as most books dont add much new information, I did really think this one was a good account of their lives, especially the formative years their captivity is glossed over, the author perhaps thinking that it has already been incredibly dissected and Id rank it up there with the Romanov Sisters.
Interesting notes on the Empresss illness, Anya Vyrubova, and the familys status as saints but not a ton of new information for those who already know the story.
A fascinating read though, but a little dry in parts, Also the chronology jumped around a lot and someone who doesnt already know the history well may get confused, I really, really wanted to love this book, Massie's 'Nicholas amp Alexandra' is one of my favorite books, so I was looking forward to this update now that much new information is available from the Russian archives.
Overall, though the information it contained was good, this book was a disappointment,

First of all, the organization was weird, Rounding begins with chapters organized by topic, but about halfway through switches to organizing each chapter chronologically, starting over again with the beginning of their relationship, This seems really odd to me, As a historian and Russophile, I know enough of the story to understand what was going on, but someone less familiar with the Romanov family would probably get lost at the start of the book.
Weaving the themes throughout the chronology is pretty standard for biographies, and deviating from that did not work well in this book,

Secondly, the writing seemed very amateur to me, It read more like a graduate thesis than a work by a professional historian or writer, There were too many personal interjections and the editing seemed a little sloppy, There were also numerous instances where I felt like Rounding was really trying to force the story to fit her theme, rather than allowing the story to unfold.


It was not a terrible book by any means, I enjoyed the increased emphasis on Nicky and Alix as people rather than political figures, There was some information that was new to me the role of Anna Vyrubova was especially interesting,

Overall, though, I found myself wishing that the book featuring all this new material about Nicholas and Alexandra had been written by someone more experienced.
I'd much rather read another book by Robert Massie, updated with the new archival information, but alas, that does not yet exist, This book is interesting, but simply not as good as it could have been, Alix and Nicky remained on my TBR shelf for over two years, and after reading, I have no idea why that was, Well, perhaps the fact that my copy is rather a large hardback which was incredibly difficult to juggle whilst in bed, . .

I am a selfconfessed Russian history nerd, I studied Russian history, from Peter the Great to the modern day, throughout my A Level History course and as part of my undergraduate degree, There's something about it which is both mysterious and compelling, It is perhaps no surprise, then, that I picked this up when I was on a trip to Oxford,

Alix and Nicky is both rich and thorough, and I thought that the nonreliance upon a rigid chronological structure worked incredibly well, The writing is strong, the vocabulary varied, and the chapters wonderfully structured, I feel as though I learnt a lot whilst reading, which is always a bonus, Virginia Rounding is an author whom I haven't read before, but based upon this, I have added the rest of her bibliography to my toread list, and have a feeling that there will be some gems in store for me.
This book was really fascinating concerning the relationship between Nicky and Alix and their children, It really went into Rasputin's huge influence over the family, The main things I has problems with was the author jumping around switching to events sometimes out of order, Nicky and Alix's antiSemitism really turned me off and Alix's using her invalid state as a tool to control her children, My favorite parts were when the author did a personality test on Nicky with very accurate results that helped the reader understand him better because he was so reserved.
I also found the ending dramatically written and eerie with Biblical texts comparing the Romanovs fate and how they courageously approached it, Over all, it was a very interesting book, sometimes tiring to read, sometimes really fascinating, The author really brings out the Romanov's complex personalities and humanity that has often been mislabeled, Having had a dream about the Romanovs, this book was very interesting to explore who they were better, Recommended for any bio buffs,
It was good enough, however, the author allows her obvious dislike of Alix come through far too often, and takes letters and diary entries out of context.
The fact that Alix was shy seems to bother her, It was odd to read, Why write a book about someone you don't seem to care for Also, she moves back at forth through events in a somewhat random manner, Especially when reading about historical events, I prefer them in a chronological telling, There are better books about the last year and his family, While there is some material in this book not mentioned in other books on the Romanovs, I was thoroughly frustrated by a combination of the writing style, chapter arrangement, and the complete lack of inline footnotes/endnotes.
Though there is a list at the end of quotations noting where they came from, it's nearly useless when trying to evaluate them in the context of the book.
Sadly, I can't recommend this book to anyone, even those deeply interested and/or invested in the Romanovs, While I wasn't a fan of how the information was organized the order was chaotic and extremely confusing, I did enjoy learning a few new facts, Having been on a bit of a Russian history binge lately, I found this book equal parts poignant, fascinating and frustrating, Poignant because we all know what happened to those four beautiful daughters, the longprayed for son afflicted with hemophilia, and their parents, It's heartbreaking to see actual footage of the family the Romanov Royal Martyrs channel on YouTube is excellent and know their days were few upon the earth.


The author focuses primarily on the letters between Alix and her Nicky over theyears of their courtship and marriage, and once you get past the royal couple's sophomoric names for their respective genitalia it's easy to see how much they truly loved one another and how completely they supported each other.


However, Alix, Nicky and their children existed in a bubble a wonderful bubble of a life with trips to the fjords on their yacht, vacations with their cousins in Denmark including the future Kaiser Wilhelm and George V of England and the densely intertwined lineage they all shared and glorious days together at Tsarskoe Selo onlymiles away from St.
Petersburg.

We picture the girls in their customary white dresses and little Alexei in his sailor suit in the country, as life in St, Petersburg is vibrant rich with Tchaikovsky, RimskyKorsakov, Prokofiev, and Pavlova and Nijinsky of Russian ballet, It's an industrial giant and the fourth largest city in Europe, rife with political intrigue,

And yet Alix and Nicky firmly and completely believed that the true Russian people loved their Tsar and Russia would only survive with autocratic rule, They believed Rasputin was sent from God and as their Friend, He and only He had their true interests at heart, Countless military leaders, family and friends begged them to wake up and realize that Russia was changing and that Nicky needed to accept concessions and to allow some selfgovernance.


Again, we all know how the story ended, but it's truly frustrating how the Tsar and Tsarina refused to listen and could not be shaken out of their bubble.
It makes one think that perhaps a typical arranged state marriage with two partners who married for dynastic reasons rather than

love might have saved Russian instead of these two who loved one another so dearly that they could not see clearly the danger.
stars. .