Rating: 
Summary: Good, readable bio
Review: Carolly Erickson always produces a good read, and this book is no exception. There are no searing insights here, just a solid understanding and communication of her subject. I found the presentation of Alexandra quite balanced, unlike the martyrology we find in many books concerning the fall of the Russian monarchy. Buy this book. You'll enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: an understanding, sympathetic biography
Review: Carolly Erickson has given us a full portrait of this complex woman from another time. Although I have read several other accounts of Alexandra's life, I enjoyed this one for its understanding and sympathetic presentation of this intelligent, sensitive woman, who was most of all a loving and dutiful wife and mother. Erickson makes it clear that although she lived amidst the astounding opulence of the Russian court, both she and Tsar Nicholas had fairly simple tastes, and their lives were defined by their lasting love for each other. For Americans, who are born into a culture of opportunity and democracy, it is a stretch to comprehend the strains, as well as the privileges, of the old European aristocracy. Alix was under severe pressure to bear a son. When she did, the life-threatening illness of her son was a private heartbreak and ongoing crisis that had to be kept secret. The cataclysmic, extremely bloody clash between feudal, imperial Russia and the political ideas of the industrialized West ended the lives of many thousands. Sadly, the Tsarina, her well-loved Nicky, and her much cherished four daughters and son were among them.
Rating:
Summary: Erickson is the Empress of Biographies
Review: Despite what the other reviewers wrote, Carrolly Erickson is an extremely gifted historian and author and ALEXANDRA is a probing but sympathetic look at a tragic historical figure. As is to be expected with Ms. Erickson's books, the writing is vivid and engaging. Ms. Erickson took a complex subject matter -- not just Tsarina Alexandra, but the Russian political climate of her time -- and made it easy to understand for the casual historian. An observation: I have long been a student/collector of all things relating to Marie Antoinette and I have read Ms. Erickson's book TO THE SCAFFOLD. I was surprised she did not make the connections between Antoinette and Alexandra - for surely there were many. Both women were vilified by their husband's subjects. Antoinette was called the Austrian Whore, Alexandra the German Whore. Both women attempted to learn French - and both women struggled with the language. Both women responded to criticism in childish ways (Antoinette, in leading a frivilous life, thereby lending credence to the pamphleteers charges. Alexandra, by drawing spiteful portraits). Perhaps Ms. Erickson would consider writing a book titled: The Shared Traits of Tragic Queens - Josephine, Antoinette, Alexandra My only negative comment would be that Ms. Erickson seemed to provide little original information. A perusal of her FOOTNOTES shows that she relied heavily on previously written biographies. Still, all in all, a fabulously enthralling read.
Rating:
Summary: Erickson is the Empress of Biographies
Review: Despite what the other reviewers wrote, Carrolly Erickson is an extremely gifted historian and author and ALEXANDRA is a probing but sympathetic look at a tragic historical figure. As is to be expected with Ms. Erickson's books, the writing is vivid and engaging. Ms. Erickson took a complex subject matter -- not just Tsarina Alexandra, but the Russian political climate of her time -- and made it easy to understand for the casual historian. An observation: I have long been a student/collector of all things relating to Marie Antoinette and I have read Ms. Erickson's book TO THE SCAFFOLD. I was surprised she did not make the connections between Antoinette and Alexandra - for surely there were many. Both women were vilified by their husband's subjects. Antoinette was called the Austrian Whore, Alexandra the German Whore. Both women attempted to learn French - and both women struggled with the language. Both women responded to criticism in childish ways (Antoinette, in leading a frivilous life, thereby lending credence to the pamphleteers charges. Alexandra, by drawing spiteful portraits). Perhaps Ms. Erickson would consider writing a book titled: The Shared Traits of Tragic Queens - Josephine, Antoinette, Alexandra My only negative comment would be that Ms. Erickson seemed to provide little original information. A perusal of her FOOTNOTES shows that she relied heavily on previously written biographies. Still, all in all, a fabulously enthralling read.
Rating:
Summary: A new outlook on an old character
Review: I definitely confess to having a weakness for all things Russian including accounts of the Romanovs. While I wasn't sure what to expect from Carolly Erickson, I was extremely pleased with her most recent book, "Alexandra: The Last Tsarina". Other reviews have labeled the work "history lite" and I do see what they mean - very little time spent on Alexandra's views and influences politically (for which there exists substantial documentation as viewed in the Romanov classic "Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert K. Massie) - it would have taken up too much page space describing political climates and individual personalitites. Nicholas also appears to be an intellectual lightweight with very little mind of his own. While he was easily influenced, there exists a decent amount of material indicating Nicholas' frustrations with his wife and her often highly emotional views (see Massie). However, Erickson should not be faulted for her excellent and highly readable prose. Russia of this era truely comes alive and a real sense of Alexandra's world helps aid the reader in making decisions about her behavior. Also contradicting a below review, I definitely feel that Erickson's book has brought out at least two major new contributions to the scholarly work about the Romanovs. Namely, bringing to light the fixation of Nicholas and Alexandra with the French mystic, Phillippe Vachot, one time butcher then hypnotist and charlatan to the aristocracy. Their reliance on his judgements and spiritual healing so early in their marriage and reign is incredibly predictive of their later dependency on Rasputin, down to their referring to Vachot as "our friend" in correspondance to one another. The fact that Vachot stated prior to his death that he would be reincarnated in another man who would come to give them spiritual guidance, all but cemented the later easy acceptance of Rasputin. The second of Erickson's contribution centers around a more detailed account of Alexandra's ongoing health problems (someone with chronic leg pain is going to hate balls and receptions involving hours spent on her feet, regardless of her shyness) many of them mental in nature. Also, how easily accepted drugs of their period (barbituates and cocaine) were used by both Nicholas and Alexandra as little was known of side effects by physicians of the time. This drug use (which occurs right around WWI and the downfall of the monarchy) could only have greatly infuenced decisions made in a completely autocratic government. An excellent work and one worthy of reading by any Russian scholar interested in the time period and Romanov dynasty.
Rating: 
Summary: Alexandra: the Lifetime Original Biography
Review: I have a great deal of respect for Carolly Erickson as a first-rate biographer, but this is definitely among her lesser efforts. Often melodramatic and cloying, it reads more like a novel than a biography. The last Tsarina did lead a somewhat tragic life and there's nothing wrong with a biography that reflects as much, but Erickson is capable of a much better-rounded assessment than she presents here. The basic facts of Alexandra's well-heeled, but often sad life are well presented, from her childhood in Germany to the demise of her family in the midst of the Russian Revolution. The book's real downfall is that Erickson is so intent on inspiring sympathy for her subject, the portrait she creates is both one-dimensional and unnecessarily depressing. Chapter after chapter of accounts of how the elite of St. Petersburg looked down their noses at "The German B___" and her failure to conceive a son drives home the point that, like most women of her time and class, Alexandra was valued for little more than carrying on the family bloodline. This is a valid and important point, but there is more to the story of those years, and most of it isn't touched on at all here. Additionally, Erickson inadvertently perpetuates the sexism she sets out to denounce, concentrating so much on Alexandra's hemophiliac son and her relationship with him that we learn almost nothing about her four daughters except for their names. Along the way, there are hints of her relationship with Russia as a whole before and during the revolution, but most of the time Erickson doesn't do nearly enough to illustrate the events of the period with respect to Alexandra. This occasionally leads to confusion: after reading throughout most of the book that she was loathed in St. Petersburg even in good times, we are told that she and her family were welcomed warmly by the rural villagers into whose midst they were exiled during the revolution. While this is not necessarily inconsistent, Erickson's near complete lack of attention to greater Russia throughout most of the book makes it a confusing and somewhat unconvincing point - one of many such points found in the later portion of the story. And an entertaining story it is, wonderfully readable and entertaining like most of Erickson's works are. But as a serious biographical study, especially of a figure whose life is already very well documented, it falls short.
Rating:
Summary: There are better books out there on Alexandra
Review: I truly disliked this biography, I thought it was poorly written & researched, melodramatic and frankly dull, given its subject matter. I struggled to finish it. Better books for insight into Alexandra are: "Purple Secret" by John Rohl, et al. for its chapter on Alexandra's complex medical history; Robert Massie's "Nicholas & Alexandra" for its sympathetic understanding of Alix's traumatic childhood loss of her mother, and what it's like to be the parent of a hemophaelic (& despite Massie's inaccuracies, such as stating that Queen Victoria was strongly in favor of the marriage of Nicky & Alix & that she tried to talk Alix into it, when in fact she dreaded it), and, oddly enough, a biography of Alix's mother, "Princess Alice" by Gerard Noel, which gives excellent insight into Alix's parents and German background. Also, "Advice to My Granddaughter" a collection of letters between Queen Victoria and Alix's oldest sister, Princess Victoria of Battenberg. There is also "A Lifelong Passion", a collection of letters & diaries of Nicholas & Alexandra and the people around them. Any one of these has more value than Erickson's book. I have not read Greg King's biography of Alexandra so cannot comment on it. I've enjoyed Erickson's Tudor biographies, so I'm trying to be fair, but this one didn't cut it.
Rating:
Summary: There are better books out there on Alexandra
Review: I truly disliked this biography, I thought it was poorly written & researched, melodramatic and frankly dull, given its subject matter. I struggled to finish it. Better books for insight into Alexandra are: "Purple Secret" by John Rohl, et al. for its chapter on Alexandra's complex medical history; Robert Massie's "Nicholas & Alexandra" for its sympathetic understanding of Alix's traumatic childhood loss of her mother, and what it's like to be the parent of a hemophaelic (& despite Massie's inaccuracies, such as stating that Queen Victoria was strongly in favor of the marriage of Nicky & Alix & that she tried to talk Alix into it, when in fact she dreaded it), and, oddly enough, a biography of Alix's mother, "Princess Alice" by Gerard Noel, which gives excellent insight into Alix's parents and German background. Also, "Advice to My Granddaughter" a collection of letters between Queen Victoria and Alix's oldest sister, Princess Victoria of Battenberg. There is also "A Lifelong Passion", a collection of letters & diaries of Nicholas & Alexandra and the people around them. Any one of these has more value than Erickson's book. I have not read Greg King's biography of Alexandra so cannot comment on it. I've enjoyed Erickson's Tudor biographies, so I'm trying to be fair, but this one didn't cut it.
Rating:
Summary: Manic-depressive?
Review: I'm a sucker for anything remotely connected to the Romanovs. I'm read Massie's NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA; Salisbury's BLACK NIGHT, WHITE SNOW; Massie's THE ROMANOVS, THE FINAL CHAPTER; MICHAEL AND NASTASHA (about Nicholas's brother, who was also murdered); I've even read ANNA ANDERSON (I was totally sold until the DNA results proved her a fraud) and the specious THE ESCAPE OF ALEXEI.
As a result, there wasn't much new about Erickson's ALEXANDRA. I didn't know, however, that she was almost twenty-two and worried about becoming a spinster before she married Nicholas. Erickson portrays Alexandra as a shy, yet willful and intelligent woman. But there isn't much evidence to prove the latter. Alexandra interfered in government, putting pressure on Nicholas to assume command of the Russian armies during WWI and to appoint Rasputin's friend, Boris Sturmer, as a minister in the government. She also had him take Rasputin's comb along as a talisman. Alexandra shows symptoms of a borderline manic-depressive, alternating periods where she took to bed with migraine headaches with days working herself ragged at military hospitals.
Many of the dramatic turns of the last tsar's reign are glossed over: Bloody Sunday, Rasputin's assassination, the stampede during Nicholas's coronation, even the murder scene in Ekaterinburg. There is some new material concerning Rasputin's son-in-law, Boris Soloviev, who tried to help the Romanovs escape before being arrested. We also learn that Alexandra managed to smuggle numerous messages past the Bolshevik guards, one of which found its way to the Cheka.
A major disappointment was the dearth of pictures, only eight pages. The daughters also receive scant attention.
I found the footnotes and the bibliography beneficial. We find out what happened to Boris Soloviev and others. Some of the titles seem intriguing, Bykov's THE LAST DAYS OF TSARDOM, and especially Rasputin's murderer Prince Felix Yusupov's LOST SPLENDER.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing glimpse into the life of Russia's last empress
Review: In the macabre story of the ill-fated Romanov dynasty, the tragic figure of the Empress Alexandra - Alix of Hesse - has always played a most fascinating part. While sometimes a bit melodramatic, veteran biographer Erickson has brought to life an intriguing glimpse into the life Russia's last tsarina. Although Erickson obviously feels sympathy for the empress, she makes no bones about portraying Alix as she was - an aloof, dominant, manic-depressive woman with deep fears. Deeply religious - and deeply superstitious - the sensitive German was vilified by the Russian people, who blamed her (with some justification) for the mistakes of her bumbling husband's regime. The deep love affair between Alix and her husband, Nicholas II, is sketched poignantly in the early chapters, claiming that they fell in love while yet children. Their marriage was opposed on many fronts, by both families, and at one point, Alix firmly believed that she was destined to be an old maid. And, indeed, it would have better for her if she had. From the onset, despite the unfailing love that permeated her marriage with "Nicky," Alix struggled to fit into her role as queen of all Russia. She clashed with her mother-in-law, the dowager empress, drew nasty caricatures of court members, failed to make favorable impressions on anyone, and tried in vain to produce the male heir that would secure her husband's line. In desperation, Alix turned to spiritual "go-betweens," men whom she firmly believed were saints, and at last she finally did give birth to a son, the tsarevich, Alexis. But her son's hemophilia drove her to seek out a man - a man of God, she believed - who would prove to be one of the greatest players in the destruction of both her nation and her family: the man known as Rasputin, or "the debauched one." From Alix's lonely childhood to her ill-fated marriage, from her careworn six pregnancies (she miscarried a son early) to her rash idolization of Grigory Rasputin, and finally to the blood-stained cellers of Ekaterinburg, Erickson leads us through the corridors of one woman's life, and leaves us, in the end, although we cannot love her, at least pitying her wretched life.
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