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Catherine the Great and Potemkin
- Power, Love and the Russian Empire
- Narrated by: Sophie Roberts
- Length: 27 hrs and 18 mins
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Catherine the Great and Potemkin
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Summary
It was history's most successful political partnership - as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince Potemkin - wildly flamboyant and sublimely talented - was the love of her life and her co-ruler.
Together they seized Ukraine and Crimea, defining the Russian empire to this day. Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement to share power, leaving Potemkin free to love his beautiful nieces, and Catherine her young male favourites. But these 'twin souls' never stopped loving each other.
Drawing on their intimate letters and vast research, Simon Sebag Montefiore's enthralling, widely acclaimed biography restores these imperial partners to their rightful place as titans of their age.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Critic reviews
"One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra...excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair." (Economist)
What listeners say about Catherine the Great and Potemkin
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Micheál Scott
- 20-12-22
Fantastic book
This was brilliantly brought to life by the narrator, Sophie Roberts who tackled the French & Russian names with ease. A great way to entwine two biographys in such an entertaining way.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- A. J. Taylor
- 25-05-22
Love, War and Russia
The story of Catherine the Great cannot be told without telling the story of Prince Gregory Potemkin. The same way the story of Russia cannot be told without telling the story of Catherine the Great. Therefore, it makes sense to combine a biography of both as Simon Sebag Montefiore does here.
Montefiore is a great writer and the work flows effortlessly, allowing listeners of all levels of knowledge to easily understand who everyone is, what happened and why it happened. This could easily be your first book on Russia and you would not struggle.
I can honestly say I have learnt a lot from this book and I now walk away feeling like I have a solid grasp of who these two magnates of the 18th century were, how they lived their lives in the circumstances that history has placed them in.
The book has been criticised for containing too much salacious gossip. However, I feel these people are missing the point. This was the enlightenment, before the religious revival of the early 19th century and this is how Catherine and Potemkin lived. This is overall a great work and anyone interested in Russia should take the opportunity to pin the knowledge of this book to their own historical timeline. I honestly have no complaints, I asked for Catherine and Potemkin and was given it in an easy, (but not skimmed or dumbed down) coherent way.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mary Carnegie
- 23-12-19
Not the author’s mature work.
In comparison with “The Romanovs” this book has the marks of a less polished writer.
The narrator struggles with Russian names and even mispronounces “Kirkcaldy”.
It’s difficult to give credence to a historian who describes George II as “king of England “. Historians are supposed to be as accurate as possible so a schoolboy howler like that puts the rest of the book under suspicion.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- D. R. Walters
- 30-09-23
Sounds like an AI voice
I don’t blame Sebag for repurposing his research from his magisterial The Romanovs but this work is too much of a love story for me. More importantly, I found the narration unbearable and suspect it is AI generated by the performer. I struggled on but gave up half way through.
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2 people found this helpful