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  • Catherine the Great

  • Portrait of a Woman
  • By: Robert K. Massie
  • Narrated by: Mark Deakins
  • Length: 23 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (219 ratings)
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Catherine the Great cover art

Catherine the Great

By: Robert K. Massie
Narrated by: Mark Deakins
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Summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “absorbing” (Los Angeles Times) biography of one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in Russian history—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs

“[A] compelling portrait not just of a Russian titan, but also of a flesh-and-blood woman.”—
Newsweek

ONE OF
ESQUIRE’S BEST BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Salon, Vogue, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Providence Journal

Robert K. Massie returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became Catherine the Great. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution. Catherine’s family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers, and enemies—all are here, vividly brought to life. History offers few stories richer than that of Catherine the Great. In this book, an eternally fascinating woman is returned to life.

©2011 Robert K. Massie (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

“What Catherine the Great offers is a great story in the hands of a master storyteller.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“What a woman, what a world, what a biography.” (USA Today)

“[Massie] hasn’t lost his mojo. . . . A consistently nimble and buoyant performance. . . . [Massie] has always been a biographer with the instincts of a novelist. He understands plot—fate—as a function of character, and the narrative perspective he establishes and maintains, a vision tightly aligned with that of his subject, convinces a reader he’s not so much looking at Catherine the Great as he is out of her eyes. . . . Juicy and suspenseful.” (Kathryn Harrison, The New York Times Book Review)

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What listeners say about Catherine the Great

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book about a great woman

I'm a history geek - and proud of it. I like biographies - and this one is among the best I've ever heard. Narration is great, and the book so well written it's hard to put my earplugs away. When I give it four stars instead of five it's due to the fact that there are an overwhelming amount of Russian names - pretty damn hard to keep track at times - especially in the part that describes Catherines coup. Other than that a great read - or ...hear ;D

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What a woman!

Her diaries do bring the first half to life but I didn't really feel like it lagged in the second half as other reviewers have suggested. It's a great story; she's likeable and impressive enough that you root for her throughout; the cast of characters is astonishingly compelling and once her own version of events peters out as a source for the author he draws on plenty of other sources to document a landscape of egomanical European princelings; hyperventilating Russian nobles; a sort of revolving door of lovers; a pantomime villain mother and a husband straight out of Blackadder.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A mostly really interesting read

I did not know much about Catherine beyond her penchant for art and french culture. However this book is a really interesting look into her life and development as one of the most powerful monarchs in history. I found the book to be a little uneven and this is the reason I didn't give it five stars. The first half is superb given to the fact that she kept a wonderful diary for the first half of her life which allows Massie to delve deeply into her motivations and personal experience. The second half, when she abruptly stopped recording her personal thoughts, makes the later half of her life more of a typical history. Still, it's a wonderful book. Additionally, the narrator is quite good and makes this long book quite enjoyable to listen to.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Sometimes reads like a glossy magazine

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I might recommend the book, but in paper form. The narrator reads well but insists on using a very annoying, breathy female voice for Catherine and other female characters and uses these voices a lot. The title is "A Portrait of a Woman" and does dwell a lot on her life as a woman, her lovers in particular, which at times makes it read like an article from 'Hello'. The 'history' chapters were well written and narrated. I just wish there had been more of them.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Catherine the Great?

Her seizure of power as the Empress.

Would you be willing to try another one of Mark Deakins’s performances?

Possibly not. Only if assured there were no female impersonations, because otherwise he reads very well. Some the foreign accents were a bit hammy as well.

Did Catherine the Great inspire you to do anything?

Find out more about Peter the Great and The Russian Revolution.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Girlpower

Would you listen to Catherine the Great again? Why?

Engrossing biography of an extraordinary female icon. Maligned for centuries but brave foreward thinking woman.
Who knew she tried out the smallpox vaccination before it was widely used?

What other book might you compare Catherine the Great to, and why?

A Scandalous Life- biography of Lady Jane Digby. Another feisty woman.

What does Mark Deakins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

It is quite a dense book so it was more digestable perhaps than reading it.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Empowering.

Any additional comments?

Fills one with wonder that she achieved so much yet history has marked her down as a sex mad slut. Good to see her in the proper light.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A game of two halves

I found the second half of the book, after Catherine's personal diaries cease, less engaging than the first when her voice makes the story more alive. I also felt the second half needed editing, the author goes off an tangents as if to make up for this dryness, for example about the history, effectiveness and ethics of the guillotine, which though interesting has very little to do with Catherine and, in these days of Wikipedia can be easily accessed by anyone who cares to know more on the subject.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ludicrous accents

The content is very good and the narrator has a fine voice. However, all the correspondence, diaries and quotations are read with silly voices that I find utterly distracting. The British ambassador sounds like a joke character from a 1950s comedy, whereas the French ambassador has a slight accent that sounds to this French speaker like a German with very good English. The Russian characters don’t have Russian accents (mercifully) but the females are all spoken with a head voice that sounds like a strong rich baritone doing his best to sound ladylike. It is ludicrous and totally distracting, taking you out of the narrative and drawing your attention to the narrator. It is a real shame for a great book, read by a talented narrator to be let down by such an idiotic production decision.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

My history education was really limited to the Roman occupation of Britannia (I live in Bath - Aqua Sulis - so it made some sense) but I wish it had been broadened to include the 18th century as this would have given me a far better understanding of the current political European woes. A great listen and I fully intend to find out more of the 18/19 centuries.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

A most interesting and enjoyable book. Very well written and very well read. If only all biographies were as well written as this.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very helpful

The book is narrated beautifully and the story helps one understand some parts of today’s happening, but also reveals some of Russia’s inherited cultural wonders. Very nice!

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