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Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs |
Author: Coryne Hall
Published: 2005-09-25 |
List price: $24.95
Our price: $23.30
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As of: December 01st, 2008 05:23:30 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Adventures Of An Adventuress
Mathilde Kschessinska was one of the great ballerinas of the early twentieth century,yet today she is known, if at all, only as the former mistress of Tsar Nicholas II. This biography illuminates Kschessinska's unjustly neglected professional life as well as her sensational private affairs.
To be fair to the public, Kschessinska was such a flamboyant adventuress that it obscured her obvious gifts as a dancer. From a family of actors and dancers, she quickly became one of the stars of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg. An occupational hazard of that line of work was the tendency to attract the attention of the men of the Romanov Dynasty. Fantastically wealthy and with little or no moral compass, the Grand Dukes were accustomed to seeing ballerinas as little more than a collection of potential mistresses and dalliances. For the ballerinas, attention from a Grand Duke or a Tsarevich was the path to wealth, glamour, and career advancement.
Kschessinska understood this all too well, and she aimed very high indeed, setting out to attract and entrance the Tsarevich Nicholas in the early 1890s. After the Tsarevich became Tsar and married Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, Kschessinka moved on to become the paramour of Grand Dukes Andrei and Serge. She was able to build a magnificent palace in the smartest section of St. Petersburg and gained an impressive collection of jewelry. She also gained a son, Vladimir, who was never sure which Grand Duke was his father. (Mathilde herself either didn't know or chose never to divulge the secret).
The first section of the book tends to drag a bit, as we read of Kschessinska's climb to personal and romantic heights. The book really becomes interesting when it reaches the Revolution and its aftermath. Kschessinska's palace was taken over by the Bolsheviks in March, 1917 and she herself barely escaped with her life. She showed true courage and heroism over the next couple of years as she fled from revolutionaries and endured real hardship for the first time. After escaping to the West, Kschessinska demonstrated keen business abilities, setting up and running a successful ballet school in Paris and managing to live in an approximation of her pre-revolutionary style (with help from admirers) until her death at age 99 in 1971.
This is an interesting and well written work which does a good job depicting the life of a woman who deserves to be better remembered.
 A Different Viewpoint
An easy to read chronicle of a woman who lived in "interesting times" and became the most influential person in the pre-revolution Russian Imperial Ballet as well as a hugely successful coutesan to the Romanovs, including Nicholas II before his accession to the throne. Replete with uncorroborated gossip about all sorts of alleged malfeasance and the author's obssessive focus on legitimacy of royal/noble status, it nevertheless provides some insights to the maelstorm of the revolution, from which Kschessinska escaped, incredibly, unscathed, albeit sans her ill gotten vast riches. In fact, the supposed importance of lineage flies in the face of the fact that the Romanov dynasty originated with a family of true Prussian emigres elected to the throne by the boyars without any legitimate claim to royal lineage. The first significant Romanov, Peter the Great, was likely the illegitimate son of the Orthodox Patriarch.
 Fascinating look at a woman who danced for the czars
I was completely captivated by this account of Matilda, who's so often mentioned in Romanov histories, but seldom profiled in any depth. Coryne Hall's writing style is fluid, making this a highly readable, fascinating portrait of imperial favor, the attention accorded the arts, and the ultimate triumph of a highly ambitious woman. I was even more delighted when I had the chance to pass by Kschessinska's home in St. Petersburg, and wished I'd been able to stop and go in...as if walking in would illuminate the past and bring the book to life.
Great addition if you're already knowledgeable on the Romanovs
I've read every book on the Romanov family itself, and I found that this well-written book full of interesting information and anecdotes about the Romanovs and St Petersburg in the late 19th and early 20th century gives a fresh perspective to a family I already had come to know well and to a city in the midst of grandeur and then turmoil. It also gives lots of information on minor Romanovs who are otherwise merely glossed over by other writers. It also gives a fascinating account of how many of the Romanov relatives fled Russia (and escaped certain death) via the Ukraine. I would highly recommend it to ballet enthusiasts, many of who may not know much about Mathilde, one of Russia's last great ballerinas and only one of two prima ballerinas of the Russian Imperial Ballet, to those interested in Imperial Russia, and as an addition to anyone's large Romanov library.
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