Customer Reviews

Ella: Princess, Saint and Martyr

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duchess Serge of Russia, was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Born three years after the death of Prince Albert, she became one of her widowed grandmother's favorite grandchildren. This seemed to set a tone for Ella, as she was known, throughout her life. Very beautiful, she had a deeply religious side to her which was intensified by long visits to her perpetually mourning grandmother and by her mother Princess Alice's deep devotion to bettering the lives of the common people. Ella lost her mother when she was 14, further encouraging her religious interests, as did her eventual marriage to Grand Duke Serge, brother of Tsar Alexander III.

Serge was and is an enigma. He was either beloved or hated. Rumors of his sexual proclivities and peculiarities abounded while he was alive and intensified after his death at the hands of a terrorist in 1905. Christopher Warwick admits that no one can now know the truth about Serge, but he speculates that Ella's marriage was unconsummated, which naturally affected her emotionally and helped lead her to her eventual doom.

The finest parts of this book come toward the end, when Warwick describes Ella's putting aside her wealth and social position and founding an order of nursing sisters in Moscow. Her devotion to her work kept her from fleeing to safety after the Revolution, and eventually she was murdered just one day after her younger sister, Empress Alexandra. The circumstances of her life and death have made her an Orthodox Saint and Martyr, and she is remembered today in Westminster Abbey as one who suffered and died for her faith.

Warwick writes well and does a very thorough job covering Ella's life. Sometimes the descriptions of court ceremonies and celebrations wax a bit tedious, but that is how they must have seemed to some of the participants, like Ella, who had their minds on higher things.

This was an exceptional read. Very easy - you are never mired down in endless ramblings like some historic tomes (you know, those ones that make you go "What?!?!"). I'm really glad Mr. Warwick did not repeat gosspip and rumors of Ella and her husband, Serge, as fact - like I've seen done before. If it is rumor or gossip - he tells you that fact upfront and tells you that these stories are so far unsubstantiated. The only thing I did not like, and this is really minor - Ella lived in a world where portraits were the norm and photography was everywhere - so where are all those pictures? The photos in the book were OK - but I really believe biographies should really have extensive sections of photographs so that the reader gets a really good idea of the individual. That aside, I really enjoyed the book and I believe anyone would as well.

Having read many books on Russian History, I agree with a previous reviewer and state here that this is perhaps the worst one I've encountered. There are several misspellings, comma splices, etc., suggesting the need for an editor. I read this book to the end because I paid for it, but it was truly a veritable slog to the last page. The writing is dense and obtuse, suggesting a recent class in English Composition as evidenced by complex sentence structure that is needless and ultimately impedes understanding. There is no chart detailing the family relationships which would have helped in identifying some of the more distant family members mentioned. There are other books that are clearer, more easily digested, and don't leave this bad taste behind when one puts them down. This is a rehash of several other materials already out there - and while this is not usually a problem in many cases, there is nothing new added here except poor writing and a supercilious attitude that runs like a thread throughout the book. I do not recommend the book, but I do recommend the subject.

If you're a true history buff and like reading about more than just the "main characters" of history, then I would recommend reading this book. Not for the faint of heart as it is full of specific details and accounts of events often taken directly from the family's personal letters at the time (and LOTS of long and hard-to-pronouce Russian and German names!), it is nevertheless a very touching book and paints a vivid picture of what life was like in the family of Queen Victoria and of her children and her grandchildren, and the life of Elisabeth (Ella) in Russia before and just after the Bolshevik Revolution. We've been fed a lot of one-sided history about how frivolous and aloof was the Russian royalty, but in Ella's case, nothing could have been farther from the truth. A very poignant and inspirational story, yet very naturally done. A great book that allows you to walk in her shoes as you turn the pages.

Warwick, the author, certainly isn't a historian. 19th century European history was my college major and remains a passion. This book is riddled with major historical inaccuracies, e.g. he confuses and merges Prussia's wars with Denmark and Austria, completely failing to understand their historical context and effect. The signifigance of this example is, if he botches what I already know about, how reliable is the rest of his research? He also has some strange perspectives. It is a well-documented fact that Ella's husband was gay. Yet Warwick treats this fact as a series of rumors spread by malicious people hurling the most vile of accusations. One suspects Mr. Warwick has some great big hang-ups related to homosexuality that interfere with his ability to write about his subject. I stopped reading about a third of the way through. This book is garbage scholarship, a dilettante's effort to make money off a dead woman no longer around to object. The other thing that amazed me were numerous misspellings, as if the book was so cheaply produced there was no money for proofing the text.

Really enjoyed this book. I am really a Romanovphile, and this book had much information that I had previously not read. Very informative and well written. An enjoyable and edifying read.

This very readable book gives a more than usually even handed account of the life of Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna; it is sympathetic without being sentimental. The book is well referenced and gives a objective view of her early life as well as her time as Grand Duchess. In addition to well known facts about her life it deals with many of the rumours and speculations about her and the family of Tsar Nicholas II. Several pages of illustrations are included.

This book took forever to read, and it wasn't worth the effort. I kept having to go back and reread passages that weren't clearly written. I took a course on Russian history in college, and I have read a few books about Russian history, and the Romanov Dynasty. I was eager to learn more about Ella, because she seemed like such an interesting woman. I felt that most of the book was written about the people in Ella's life, without really focusing on Ella, and what made her compelling. This book didn't offer a lot of new information about Ella. I got a glimpse of what was going on in the world around Ella, but I didn't learn much about her. I was also surprised that a photo of Ella's body after it had been recovered was included in the photo section. It just seemed distasteful. I would not recommend Ella: Princess, Saint, and Martyr to a friend.

Absolutely loved this book. So much has/is written about the immediate royal family and this was yet another member murdered for no other reason than she was the sister of the czarina.

I read this book a few months ago and really enjoyed it. I don't know why anyone would not give it 5 stars. It was very well written and I felt a lot of sympathy and adoration for Ella.