The Romanov Family Album

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating photo collection
Review: "The Romanov Family Album" is probably one of the earlier photo collections on the last imperial family of Russia. The photographs come from the photo albums of Ania Vyrubova, Empress Aleksandra's closest friend; the albums are now among the collections in Beinecke Library at Yale University.

Most of the pictures are of the family's annual summer trips to the Crimea and through the fjords of Finland, with a fair smattering of the family during World War I and a few photographs of the imperial family in captivity at Tobolsk. Numerous lengthy excerpts from Ania Vyrubova's chatty memoirs add some entertaining color. An introduction by Robert Massie gives a brief (and interesting) history of how the albums ended up with Yale.

On the whole this is a very interesting book. The main flaw is that it's very difficult to find.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating photo collection
Review: "The Romanov Family Album" is probably one of the earlier photo collections on the last imperial family of Russia. The photographs come from the photo albums of Ania Vyrubova, Empress Aleksandra's closest friend; the albums are now among the collections in Beinecke Library at Yale University.

Most of the pictures are of the family's annual summer trips to the Crimea and through the fjords of Finland, with a fair smattering of the family during World War I and a few photographs of the imperial family in captivity at Tobolsk. Numerous lengthy excerpts from Ania Vyrubova's chatty memoirs add some entertaining color. An introduction by Robert Massie gives a brief (and interesting) history of how the albums ended up with Yale.

On the whole this is a very interesting book. The main flaw is that it's very difficult to find.

Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: Lovely photographs. I have seen many of these before at Yale's Digital Beinecke Library, but some are new to me. It shows Nicholas II not as an autocrat or the "tyrant" historians say he was--it shows him as a kind man who adored the world he knew, that of his wife, smiling beautiful girls and his happy, albeit ill, son.

Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: Lovely photographs. I have seen many of these before at Yale's Digital Beinecke Library, but some are new to me. It shows Nicholas II not as an autocrat or the "tyrant" historians say he was--it shows him as a kind man who adored the world he knew, that of his wife, smiling beautiful girls and his happy, albeit ill, son.

Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: Lovely photographs. I have seen many of these before at Yale's Digital Beinecke Library, but some are new to me. It shows Nicholas II not as an autocrat or the "tyrant" historians say he was--it shows him as a kind man who adored the world he knew, that of his wife, smiling beautiful girls and his happy, albeit ill, son.

Rating:
Summary: an excellent pictorial account...
Review: this is a wonderful collection of images, but so many of them are presented poorly. they're extremely grainy and tinted hideous sepia tones. chalk it up to the 80's, i guess.

despite this problem, the album is definitely worth adding to your collection if you are a serious Romanov fan. General royalty buffs who want just one Romanov photo book would do better with Prince Michael's _Nicholas & Alexandra: The Family Albums_ (a book that everyone interested in royalty and/or the Romanovs should have, imo).

Rating:
Summary: an excellent pictorial account...
Review: this is a wonderful collection of images, but so many of them are presented poorly. they're extremely grainy and tinted hideous sepia tones. chalk it up to the 80's, i guess.

despite this problem, the album is definitely worth adding to your collection if you are a serious Romanov fan. General royalty buffs who want just one Romanov photo book would do better with Prince Michael's _Nicholas & Alexandra: The Family Albums_ (a book that everyone interested in royalty and/or the Romanovs should have, imo).