The White Night of St. Petersburg

By Michel de Grèce

Book Overview

One morning in July of 1998, all the Romanovs still living assembled in the lobby of the recently renovated Astoria Hotel in St. Petersburg. They were waiting to attend the solemn burial of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their children, murdered eighty years earlier, who were finally to be interred together. Prince Michael of Greece was there because his grandmother, Grand Duchess Olga, was a Romanov. She left Russian at sixteen to marry George I of Greece. While at the ceremony, Prince Michael spied a dazzling older woman on the fringes of the crowd and, curious to know her connection, traveled to Moscow to meet her. Her name was Natalya Androssov Iskander Romanov and over tea Prince Michael listened to the long-buried story of her grandfather, the Grand Duke Nicholas. To Prince Michaels utter surprise, the royal family had erased his existence from their official vaults. Nataylas memories are the only key to his past, and as she begins to tell Prince Michael her grandfathers story, the narrative fades to a snow-filled St. Petersburg morning in November of 1860. There begins a fantastic re-imagining of the life of this rebellious and dashing Duke. Young Nicholas idolized his mother Alexandra whom he declared the most beautiful woman in the world. She adored him just the same, and was proud of her sons beauty, his progress in school and his intelligence. At that time, though, custom dictated a separation between child and parent and the grand duchess was too conventional to break with the norm. Nicholas spent his days in the hands of a tutor, most of whom were a bit rough, but he and his beloved sister Olga happened to be in the hands of the frightful Mirbach. A man who couldnt be pleased, Mirbachs whippings left life-long scars on Nicholass hips and back. And other than this, no one much looked after them. The young grand duke underwent military training and proved to be an extraordinarily gifted officer cadet. In 1868, on his 18th birthday, he was authorized to look after Pavlosk Palace, his favorite of his parents estates, and which he would one day inherit. As a young man Nicholas gained quite the reputation as a ladies man and excellent lover, and Nicholass aide-de-camp, Captain Vorpovsky, continually brought young dancers and prostitutes to Nicholas. Each time, he would show them the stunning portrait of the blue-eyed blonde princess Frederika von Hannover of Germany who rejected his offer of marriage. At this time, Nicholass mother learns her husband has a mistress, and flees to the Pavlosk estate. Nicholas follows to comfort her, but she screams that it was his debauchery that inspired his father. From this point on, his relationship with his mother was never the same. Born Hattie Blackford, Fanny Lear was a young and devasting American beauty who left the States with marriage to a royal on her mind. She had sparkling eyes, a sensual mouth, and voluptuous frame and wanted to use these traits to follow in the footsteps of her role models--the courtesans La Castiglione, Lola Montez and her friend and mentor, Cora Pearl. One evening after arriving in Russia she receives an invitation to a formal ball at the opera. She goes tired and with little expectations, but catches Nicholass eye. They hit it off instantly. Nicholas was truly in love with her, but even so he remained unfaithful, which broke her heart. One night she angrily fled to the home of her friend, Mabel Grey, where she met the young, powerfully attractive Count Nicholas Savine. They reconciled and left intolerably hot St. Petersburg for Pavlosk Palace, with Fanny in a beautiful dacha close by. He fell ill that summer and Fanny cared for him with great tenderness. Nicholas decided to take Fanny on a long trip through Western Europe, and asked for a leave of several months to restore his fragile health (he was suffering from syphilis). One day while strolling alone in a town near Vienna, Fanny came upon a lovely, secluded

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871139227
• ISBN13: 9780871139221
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great piece of history

An interesting slice of history, well written, competently translated. Other books of Prince Michael's show photos of this Romanov who survived Soviet Russia, in Moscow, living long enough to see the fall of Communism. Fascinating!