- Hardcover: 475 pages
- Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press; 1 edition (April 15 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0875803245
- ISBN-13: 978-0875803241
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 862 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,199,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Carefully conceived and magnificently executed, this splendid translation allows readers access to an exceptionally instructive and entertaining source."
—Simon Dixon, University of Leeds
"Love and Conquest is an extraordinarily impressive achievement that will be the standard English reference for years to come."—Ronald Vroon, UCLA
Product Description
Of all of history's great romances, few can compare with that of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin. Their turbulent and complicated relationship shocked their contemporaries and continues to intrigue observers of Russia centuries later. Lovers, companions, and, most likely, husband and wife, Catherine and Potemkin were also close political partners, and for a time Potemkin served as Catherine's de facto co-ruler of the Russian Empire. Their letters offer an intimate glimpse into the lovers' unguarded moments, revealing both ecstatic expressions of love and candid insights on eighteenth-century politics.
In February 1774, the Russian empress took Grigory Potemkin for her lover and, it is now believed, secretly married him a few months later. Particularly in the first two years of their relationship, Catherine was consumed by her passion for Potemkin. The hundreds of letters and notes she dashed off to him between assignations in the Winter Palace during this time attest to the giddy exuberance of the new love that so fully embraced her. Love and Conquest contains the most historically significant and personally revealing of these letters, only a few of which have ever before been translated into English.
Beginning with Potemkin's letter to Catherine written while off fighting the Turks in 1769 and concluding with his farewell note scribbled the day before his death in 1791, the correspondence spans most of Catherine's reign. The letters are at once personal and political, private and public. Many of Catherine's love letters to Potemkin written during their stormy affair reveal the empress's passionate personality. Potemkin's letters provide rare insight into his arrogant and mercurial character, while serving to dispel the myth of Potemkin as little more than a corrupt sycophant.
Love and Conquest reveals the complexity of Catherine and Potemkin's personal relationship in light of dramatic changes in matters of state, foreign relations, and military engagements. After their love cooled, Catherine and Potemkin continued to discuss and debate a wide range of state affairs in their letters, including the annexation of the Crimea, court politics, wars against the Ottoman Empire and Sweden, and the colonization of southern Russia. Together they carried out the most dramatic territorial expansion in the history of imperial Russia, transforming Catherine into a powerful world leader and creating a bond of affection that would never fully fade. Readers will find in the letters new insights on Russia's most famous empress, her passions, and her world.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love, Conquest, and More,
By Willard Sunderland (Cincinnati, Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: LOVE AND CONQUEST: PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT AND PRINCE GRIGORY POTEMKIN (Hardcover)
We've all seen the Hollywood melodramas about Catherine the Great with the heaving bosums and the dashing guards. Even the BBC version is mostly fluff. But the real history of Catherine's life, especially the story of her remarkable relationship with Count Potemkin, is much more interesting. This book takes you right into this relationship by offering a vivid sampling of the letters that Catherine and the Count exchanged over more than twenty years. There's melodrama here, to be sure. The Empress and the Count were ardent lovers for a time. Later, Doug Smith claims, they became secret spouses and eventually life-long friends. But, as the letters make very clear, they were also practical political partners who together ruled the Russian empire, making decisions about war and peace and debating how to manage the vast lands of the Black Sea region that the empire was busily conquering from the Turks and the Crimeans. This book brings out the way romance and power were connected in Catherine's life and, in the process, it shows us something of the political culture of her court. All of this makes it a very valuable contribution. The book is also simply nicely put together. Smith begins the work with a helpful introduction on Catherine, Potemkin, their relationship, and the business of imperial rule in the late 18th century. The letters that follow are then organized into thematic and chronological sections, each of which is prefaced by a valuable brief survey that places the correspondence in its immediate context. The letters are also annotated, but with only the lightest of touches, giving the reader just enough information to fully understand the gist of things without intruding on the guilty pleasure of eavesdropping on someone else's billets doux. In all, Smith's book is a great English edition of the letters, and it's accessible too. Any one with an interest in Catherine, Potemkin, the Russian 18th-century, or the broader history of Europe in the Enlightenment Era should definitely get a copy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love, Conquest, and More,
By Willard Sunderland - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: LOVE AND CONQUEST: PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT AND PRINCE GRIGORY POTEMKIN (Hardcover)
We've all seen the Hollywood melodramas about Catherine the Great with the heaving bosums and the dashing guards. Even the BBC version is mostly fluff. But the real history of Catherine's life, especially the story of her remarkable relationship with Count Potemkin, is much more interesting. This book takes you right into this relationship by offering a vivid sampling of the letters that Catherine and the Count exchanged over more than twenty years. There's melodrama here, to be sure. The Empress and the Count were ardent lovers for a time. Later, Doug Smith claims, they became secret spouses and eventually life-long friends. But, as the letters make very clear, they were also practical political partners who together ruled the Russian empire, making decisions about war and peace and debating how to manage the vast lands of the Black Sea region that the empire was busily conquering from the Turks and the Crimeans. This book brings out the way romance and power were connected in Catherine's life and, in the process, it shows us something of the political culture of her court. All of this makes it a very valuable contribution. The book is also simply nicely put together. Smith begins the work with a helpful introduction on Catherine, Potemkin, their relationship, and the business of imperial rule in the late 18th century. The letters that follow are then organized into thematic and chronological sections, each of which is prefaced by a valuable brief survey that places the correspondence in its immediate context. The letters are also annotated, but with only the lightest of touches, giving the reader just enough information to fully understand the gist of things without intruding on the guilty pleasure of eavesdropping on someone else's billets doux. In all, Smith's book is a great English edition of the letters, and it's accessible too. Any one with an interest in Catherine, Potemkin, the Russian 18th-century, or the broader history of Europe in the Enlightenment Era should definitely get a copy. |
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