Tsarina

Viac o knihe

Makes Game of Thrones look like a nursery rhyme. --Daisy Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fortune Hunter "[Alpsten] recounts this remarkable woman's colourful life and times." --Count Nikolai Tolstoy, historian and author Before Catherine the Great, there was Catherine Alexeyevna, the first woman to rule Russia in her own right. Ellen Alpsten's sweeping debut novel chronicles her rise to power. In St. Petersburg, 1725, Peter the Great lies dying in his Winter Palace, leaving the empire without an heir and on the brink of chaos. Stepping into the void is Catherine Alexeyevna, Peter's second wife, as ambitious and ruthless as he was. Born into poverty, Catherine leveraged her beauty and intelligence to gain favor with Peter's generals and ultimately seduced the Tsar himself. Amidst the opulence of her new life, she is acutely aware of her precarious position—Peter's affections are fickle, and his first wife suffers a grim fate. Now, Catherine faces the ultimate challenge: can she conceal the Tsar's death while navigating a treacherous game to eliminate her enemies and claim the Crown? From the lavish aristocracy to the dark corners of Peter's reign, the intoxicating and perilous world of Imperial Russia is vividly depicted. This is the story of a remarkable woman whose quest for power would reshape the Russian Empire.