Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson [Paperback]

Peter Kurth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1985

The most dramatic unsolved mystery of the century.

In July 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and their five children were shot by Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution.

In February 1920, a woman who many believe was the Grand Duchess Anastasia was rescued from a canal in Berlin.

In July 1992, the body of Anastasia, the youngest grand duchess, was found to be missing from her family's grave.

This is the story of what happened in between.

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; 1ST edition (June 30, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316507172
• ISBN-13: 978-0316507172
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #789,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very thorough investigation but slightly biased, May 18, 2000

By 

"kingsransom" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson (Paperback)

This book is probably the most comprehensive collection of information on Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia. The book begins with what is known of Anderson's early life and continues until her death, spanning several decades, two continents and many court battles.

However, I felt that the book leaned too heavily on the evidence that supported Anderson's claim. From the mystery's beginning until its conclusive end, there was always much evidence against the possibility on Anderson being Anastasia. Some is included in the book, but not dwelt upon as much as some of the other evidence.

The updated section on the DNA testing is fascinating and very well written and should prove once and for all the claimant's identity, although some doubters still remain.

Even though the mystery does conclude at the end of the book this is still a fascinating read, especially for anyone interested in Russian or royal history.

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baffled and Bothered, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson (Paperback)

I read this book in the knowledge that the case of Fraullein Unbekannt/Anna Anderson is now meant to represent the story of the Twentieth Century's most famous impostor. So I expected I would easily be able to spot the holes in Anna Anderson's "story" and see the author's belief in her identity as little more then mawkish sentimentality. And his prose ebbs and flows ~ it is, at times, grating. Yet, after reading the extraordinarily convincing case he gradually presents, I simply was, and am, baffled. I am expected to be dismissive of this apparently "obsolete" book in the light of some negative DNA results, but I refuse to be. Besides, for me, the results of the DNA make it all the more mezmerizing. Of course, I do not want to believe the DNA results, any way. I try to remember A) that DNA is NOT 100 percent foolproof, and B) that it is possible (if relatively unlikely) that somebody, somehow, perpetrated some kind of "switch" on the samples tested. Yet, if I accept that the DNA was not tampered with, and moreover constitutes the best form of scientific identification ("proof") that mankind has on offer, then a huge gaping question remains: How did she do it? How could so many people simply have been so WRONG? The scientists, the graphologists, the friends and (some) relatives of the authentic Grand Duchess, the author of this book even, all of whom believed Anna was Anastasia? Has anybody made any attempt to reconcile the array of convincing evidence on hand ASIDE from DNA, or explain away the knowledge Anna had of the Romanov family, evidence which suggests she was indeed who she said she was? Her opponents, cited in the book, were fond of saying she was coached in her knowledge by "Russian monarchists", but how? How could Russian monarchists ~ most of whom never knew the Imperial Family ~ have had the knowledge Anna Anderson had? Am I really expected to believe that somebody falsely claiming to be a Russian princess just happened to be lucky enough to have so much evidence to prove it ~ identical hand~writing, ears matching at "seventeen anatomical points", scars such as one would expect to find on the survivor of a massacre like Ekaterinburg? It was furthermore a stroke of genius luck that Anna should claim to be Anastasia seventy years before the Grand Duchess's body was proven to be missing from the Romanov burial site. I was, in short, deeply impressed by Kurth's biography, but far more deeply baffled.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous detective work.., April 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson (Paperback)

Kurth's book is a splendid account of the odd, beguiling and unique character that was Anna Anderson. The book, drawing from many unpublished sources, explains in detail the enthralling story of Anna's pathetic and tragic life. He details how recent DNA evidence is wrong by poking serious holes in the theory that Anna was the missing Polish factory worker Franziska Shantkovska. A wonderfull book and the best biography (with the exception of:Anastasia Survivor of Ekaterinburg by Harriet Von Kielmann-Rathlef 1929) on Anna to date.