Elizabeth: Grand Duchess of Russia

Rating:
Summary: A long-overdue biography, but it could have been better
Review: An interesting look at the life of the sister of Alexandra, the last Tsarina of Russia. The book is a paean to Elizabeth, whom the author considers as saintly throughout her life (although he demonstrates that her journey towards the spiritual life was, in fact, not in a straight line).

If anything, the book illustrates just how difficult it was to be a member of Queen Victoria's family--Elizabeth's early life is the stuff of a modern day spot on the Oprah show (two of her younger siblings die tragic deaths, as does her mother; subsequently herfather wants to marry a woman of whom Queen Vicky did not approve--intrigue and collusion within the family results). Elizabeth was the major force involved in marrying her sister Alix/Alexandra to the future Tsar of Russia, and her own marriage was, well...interesting (trust me, you have to read the book on this one!)

I agree with a previous reviewer that much more could have been written about her "spiritual" journey--it would have been much more interesting than the several chapters devoted to her attempt to remove Rasputin from his postition in the court and to help "prevent" the coming revolution.

Finally, I found it annoying that the author made constant attacks on the Russian people. It was unnecessary (and incorrect) to make statements along the lines of "the typically drunk and ignorant Russian people didn't appreciate the Grand Duchess" (I'm paraphrasing here, but his point throughout the book is that the imported Elizabeth was too good for the Russian people. I am not sure that at the end of her life the Grand Duchess would have agreed with him (certainly not in her role as mother superior of the convent.)

Rating:
Summary: It could have been so much better
Review: Any reader of the period will have probably yearned to know more, much more about Alexandra Feodorovna's elder sister the Grand Duchess Elizabeth and this is the reason I bought the book, despite reading the several poor reviews. In fact the author succeeded in giving a much stronger picture of the Tsarina than the saintly Elizabeth, a picture much at variance with, for example, Robert Massie's Tsarina, with her passion for mauve. Mager's Tsarina is a harpie and her quoted notes to her husband about 'Ella and her clique' are chilling in their venom and arrogance. On the side of lack of detail: Mager mentions Nesterov but hardly. He fails to tell us that Elizabeth, forever the supremely elegant Grand Duchess, actually got Nesterov to design her order's religious habit - Nesterov was the leading religious artist of the day. In effect Elizabeth's habit was as much 'couture' as were any of her former gowns. There are many other details, perhaps less frivolous (but also perhaps less telling) that he would have done well to include. Just as Wilhelm II must have irritated almost everyone with whom he came in contact, it's annoying to find him so much in this book too. The section of Elizabeth's life from her taking the veil is taken at a tremendous lick. Perhaps there is little documentary evidence available, but the lack of meat - reminiscences, quotations from letters and contemporaries bar Felix Youssupov - is sad. For a non-contemplative order - the first in the Church - Elizabeth's nuns appear to have been silent all the same. There are no names, no relayed conversations, nothing of Elizabeth's doubtless frequent talks to her community. For a woman that inspired so many around her, was so much a public figure and a venerated one that the Bolsheviks feared her, this latter part of her life lacks definition. The transfer to Ekaterinburg and Alapayevsk flashes past so quickly, but again no relayed conversations and so little detail (and as Princess Helen escaped there must have been many reported).

I was much irritated by the indifferent grammar and 'typos' with which the book is littered.

Having said so many negative things about the book I do wish to thank the author for having at least written about her. It was long overdue. However, just as Michael Sullivan's book on Victoria Melita - another granddaughter of Queen Victoria - adds much to the earlier Van Kiste biography I fear we must wait for a further biography on the elusive Elizabeth to satisfy us. We must however thank Mr Mager for whetting the appetite.

Rating:
Summary: Shadow Princess
Review: Elizabeth was a truly remarkable Princess, and unfortunately this
book does not do her justice. Mager has an irritatingly smug
writing style, no feel for his subject, and a way of making sweeping generalizations about which he knows nothing. For
example, in a footnote he declares Nicholas II and his siblings
to have been stupid, "because their mother was probably rhesus
negative." This is nonsense. If Empress Marie was Rh- (not
known) her Rh+ children probably would have died at birth. Throughout the book, I could never see Elizabeth as more than a
shadow. One question: why was such a stunningly beautiful woman
photographed so often from the back? Mager never tells us this,
or so many other things, and the saintly princess keeps her
secrets.

Rating:
Summary: A Virtuous Royalty
Review: Elizabeth, Princess of Hesse and Grand Duchess of Russia, led a life which can be divided into two very different parts. In her first years she led a privileged and pampered existence as the beautiful daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and, more importantly, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She could have married her cousin, the future Kaiser William II, but refused him in order to marry a rather strange and enigmatic figure, the Grand Duke Serge, younger brother of the Tsar. This marriage is the first hint of mystery in Elizabeth's (Ella's) life. Serge was a difficult, overbearing, probably homosexual man, and it is strange that Ella loved him as much as she evidently did. She lived an opulent life in St. Petersburg and Moscow until January 1905, when Serge was assassinated. Ella visited his murderer in prison and forgave him, then devoted the rest of her life to charity and good works as the founder and head of an order of Orthodox nuns. During the Revolution she was arrested and cruelly murdered at about the same time as her yonger sister Alexandra and brother-in-law Nicholas II. This book is interesting because of its insights into the inner life of this deeply spiritual woman.

Rating:
Summary: Ella - A Complex Woman in Complex Times
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it well researched. Ella was a complex woman living in complex times, and her strange and cold husband, combined with her sister Alexandra'a increasing madness and dependency upon Rasputin, proved to be two huge crosses of the many she bore in her life. I wonder how different things might have been had Ella not been murdered as so many of the Romanovs were. Ella's story is good follow-up to Nicholas and Alexandra. The Massey book started me on my Imperialist Russia kick, which still continues, and I am continually fascinated with this family, whose members included so many tragic figures, some mad, some stupid, others noble, and others trying to be. I believe Ella wanted to be a saint and she actually got her wish. She has been canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. I found it satisfying reading and believe it will lead the reader to other Romanov biographies.