"What a wonderful book! The storytelling, the research, the deep love of her subject - this must be the climax of Rappaport's long and illustrious career." --Lucy Worsley, host of the hit PBS series "Lucy Worsley Investigates" and bestselling author of Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman "Serious but sprightly. Rappaport presents a portrait of a truly frightening marriage. This is a story of one kind of suffering: that of a noble girl sacrificed on the altar of family ambition. She floats like a specter through her own biography, unreal and unknowable" -- The New York Times "In this revealing biography, Rappaport goes beyond the scandal to the human story, with an excellent eye for detail, great powers of critical thinking but also empathy and sympathy. In so doing she finds a tale of strength, perseverance and tragedy, and presents a picture, just as beguiling as that painted by Le Brun; of a woman struggling against the constraints of her society in her quest to find what most of us still struggle to find today; happiness and meaning." -- Adventures in Historyland "Ms Rappaport weaves her way through European family and political history to recount this dark fairy tale." -- The Wall Street Journal "[Rappaport] conjures with authority and verve the glitter of the Russian imperial court in the final years of Catherine's life.
an accomplished and richly detailed account." -- Country Life "Informative and interesting. " --Brendan Dowd, History Nerds United "Sparkling. a captivating historical saga of a woman in revolt." -- Publishers Weekly "Rappaport's extensive knowledge of Russian and European history and culture allows her to create an informative chronology of a woman who was at times manipulated, victimized, despondent, and defiant.A brisk rendering of tumultuous times." -- Kirkus Reviews "Rappaport revivifies this often forgotten and unique personality. Her detailed account of Juliane's 40-day journey from Saxe-Coburg to Saint Petersburg will make readers appreciate the rigors of overland travel at the close of the eighteenth century.
" -- Booklist.