The Winter Palace

The Winter Palace (#164) by Eva Stachniak is subtitled A Novel of Catherine the Great, but I don't think that's accurate.  It's really about a young Polish girl who is taken into the Russian Imperial household after her parents' death.  Varvara Nikolayevna catches the eye of the Chancellor, and so begins her career as a "tongue" or spy.  Everyone is watched at court and everyone is watching.  Varvara reports not just to the Chancellor, but also to the Empress Elizabeth is reigning after seizing the throne in a coup.  When Elizabeth brings Sophie, a minor German princess, to court as a potential wife for her nephew, the Crown Prince, Varvara is one of the first to befriend her.  As Sophie struggles to stay at court and make her mark with the Empress, Varvara is one of the few to support her.  How Sophie, now converted to Russian Orthodoxy and renamed Catherine, manages to win allies and rise to seize the throne in turn is told through the chinks of Varvara's view.

I found Ms. Stachniak's story of a world where everything is for show, nothing is private, and alliances are constantly shifting fascinating.  How tiring it must have been to live in a place where every expression, every word is carefully repeated and analyzed by dozens of other people for their own purposes.  Yet some, like Catherine, manage to thrive in this northern jungle.  This book ends just after Catherine assumes power, with the promise of Empire of the Night soon to follow.  The big question will be since Varvara seems to have escaped from the suffocating court atmosphere for the sake of herself and her daughter, who will be the narrator of the events of Catherine's later reign?  I will surely be reading the sequel to find out!  I found it especially interesting since I don't know much about Catherine the Great or the Russia of her time.  My book club will be discussing Robert Massie's new biography of Catherine in April, but I still have thirty three people ahead of me on the library's reserve list.  I suppose that this is a good indication that interest in Catherine is as strong as ever.

And just a note on the cover art of The Winter Palace: did anyone else pick up on the fact that the sumptuous portrait detail used on the cover of this edition was, in fact, part of a portrait of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, one of Empress Elizabeth's political rivals?  Ironic, isn't it?  I have included a link in case you would like to see the entire portrait:  Portrait of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria .  If you're curious as I was about what Empress Elizabeth actually looked like, I've included a link for that as well.  The Wikipedia article includes the portrait of Elizabeth as a child referenced in The Winter Palace.  Empress Elizabeth Petrovna of Russia .  And finally, last but by no means least, a link to Wikipedia's article on Catherine the Great herself, which includes several portraits of the young Catherine as well as several of the characters who appear in The Winter Palace.  I always like to have an image in mind when I read about real people.  Catherine the Great .  Enjoy!