Most Beautiful Princess [Paperback]

Christina Croft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2008

At the age of nineteen, Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, stepped into the glittering court of the Romanovs, beginning a journey that would lead her from the shimmering ballrooms of St. Petersburg to the back streets of Moscow. Through intrigues, assassination, war and revolution, to the tragedy of her own horrific murder, she remained true to her calling to bring beauty into the world. Based on the true story of 'the most beautiful princess in Europe', this novel is written in tribute to a remarkable and courageous woman.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Thoroughly grounded in historical accuracy, this novel was developed from Christina Croft's earlier biography of Grand Duchess Elizabeth, which was short listed for the UK Biographer's Club Award. The book contains no named fictional characters but brings alive such diverse personalities as Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Grand Duke Serge and the myriad of fascinating characters who peopled the courts of the late 19th and early 20th century monarchies. It follows Ella through the gossip and intrigues surrounding her marriage and the horrific murder of her husband, through to her remarkable decision to transform her own life and the lives of the poor. Her increasingly strained relationship with her sister, Tsarina Alexandra, and the pressures of war and revolution make for a compelling story, reaching a dramatic conclusion.

From the Author

Excerpt from "Most Beautiful Princess" ...That afternoon, Serge sat in his study, staring to no obvious purpose at the papers spread across his desk. But for the steady scuffing of his boot over the carpet the room was silent, and yet, in that steady shuffling of his foot, Ella sensed a scream of desperation, so loud and clamorous that it almost compelled her to block her ears. For some seconds she stood in the entrance gazing at him, longing for him to look up, but, whether he was unaware of her presence or had no desire to see her, his eyes remained fixed on the papers. She yearned to rush to his side, kneel at his feet and beg him to share whatever burden troubled him so intensely but twelve months of hoping had taught her that any attempt to penetrate his thoughts only drove him to a deeper silence. She pushed the door until it creaked but even when the floorboards rasped beneath her feet he did not look up. "Serge?" He raised his head slightly. "Are you very busy?" He shook a wad of papers, "I need to read through these before I leave." "May I talk with you?" "Of course." He picked up a pen and struck out a few lines on his documents. She drew closer and waited but his only response was a fleeting glance and a swift, questioning raise of his eyebrows. "Could you at least..." an unintentional irritation crept into her voice, but she restrained it with a shake of her head. "Shall I come back later when you're less busy?" He sighed, put down his pen and pushed back his chair. She tried to catch his eye but he looked beyond, or rather through her as though she were a ghost hovering invisibly before him. Even an impatient word would have been preferable to his asphyxiating silence. Her eyes wandered desperately around the room trying to find some common link to start a conversation but there was only the starkness of his study, his papers, his own private world in which she played so small a part. There was so much she burned to say and her thoughts ran so quickly that she half-expected to hear them tumbling uncontrollably from her tongue, `Why don't you love me? Why can't you love me? What have I done to repulse you?' "Please," she murmured pathetically, "will you sit over here?" He flinched but stood up and followed her to the sofa where he sat half-turned towards her. He raised one hand to his chin, wiping his index finger to and fro across his lips. Her fingers moved tentatively towards his other hand, resting flat on the cushion between them. When she touched his skin with the lightness of a pianist playing a gentle melody, he neither responded nor moved away....

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Hilliard and Croft (October 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0955985307
• ISBN-13: 978-0955985300
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The princess who became a saint, July 17, 2009

By 

P. B. Sharp (NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Most Beautiful Princess (Paperback)

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. She had golden hair and blue eyes and she married a prince. He was a Russian Grand Duke, an uncle of Tsar Nicholas II. But the princess did not live happily ever after. Her coach not only turned into a pumpkin it turned into a nightmare. Christina Croft endows her biographical novel of Ella, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, with sensitivity and flair and with a poetic gift. This story of Ella's struggle is not a litany of woe. Ella's life was scarred by tragedies but she rose above tragedy because she herself never gave in to despair- never- even when she was thrown into a mine pit by the notorious Cheka. (Witnesses to this horrific event could hear her singing a hymn way down below in the shaft). Therefore the tone of this novel is not sordid, but warm, confiding, optimistic, up-beat because Ella would have willed it that way. "Most Beautiful Princess" is a paean to a human spirit that triumphed in the face of the most awful circumstances.

Before discussing this fine novel further, let me put you up to speed as to who Ella was, in case you are unfamiliar with her. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria as her mother was Victoria's second daughter, Alice. Alice married Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, a small German duchy. Elizabeth, always called Ella, was the couple's second daughter and older sister to the famous Alix, who became Empress Alexandra and wife of Nicholas II.

Ella was considered the most beautiful princess in Europe and she had many suitors including Kaiser Wilhelm II, whom she didn't fancy. She married the very controversial Russian Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, a son of Tsar Alexander II. Serge was rumored to be a homosexual and considered by many to be haughty, cold, and even a sadist. But Ella cherished him and when he was assassinated by a terrorist bomb she renounced her worldly goods and glories, became a nun and eventually abbess of the Order of Martha and Mary which she founded. For the rest of her life she devoted herself to charity work and nursing, and although the Bolsheviks killed her in 1918 along with the entire imperial family, they could not quench her spirit. She was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992.

The successful biographical novel depends upon the author's ability to get inside his characters' heads and recreate their speech, their manner, their idiosyncrasies, their very thoughts in a way that is totally convincing. You must feel that if a character did not actually make some observation, say something, or act in a certain way as imagined by the writer, he should have. Christina Croft had to get inside the heads of a great many historical people, people very well known to us and portray them in a refreshingly new light while making them behave in a manner that is totally authentic. Ella comes alive for us as does Queen Victoria, Nicholas and Alexandra, Ella's enigmatic husband Serge, Pavel (her adulterous brother-in-law), the soul-tortured writer Konstantin, Nicky's wily mother Minnie, Ernie (Ella's homosexual brother) and many more. Lots of gossipy facts and conversations the history aficionado will relish.

By marrying a Russian grand duke Ella became a member of the Russian royal family and she entered a very different world in which the tsar was autocrat, the aristocrats were smothered in jewels and privilege and the uneducated peasants toiled and died, unwept unhonored and unsung. Almost unsung. Ella cared about them but she couldn't go among them to help them because her husband, the emotionally sterile, snobbish Grand Duke Serge, wouldn't let her. That would come later.

Ella embraced Russian Orthodoxy after years of soul-searching and she became serene, she had an aura of saintliness. She almost appeared as a spiritual island among the seething jealousies, spites, and intrigues of the Russian court. When her husband was blown to bits by a bomb she did not lose that serenity, she simply rose above suffering. She became a nun and devoted her life to the poor. But she saw the deluge coming. She tried to talk sense into the head of her sister Alix in regard to the latter's unseemly relationship with Rasputin, but to no avail. The Romanov dynasty was doomed and it was destroyed. Ella was destroyed, too, but not before singing a hymn. Not before binding the head of a fellow sufferer in the bottom of that horrible mine shaft.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking!, November 23, 2008

By 

Elizabeth Alexandra (Madison, VA. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Most Beautiful Princess (Paperback)

Breathtaking!

From the first page of this book, I felt I was transported to another time and place, witnessing not only the world-changing events in the final decades of Imperial Russia, but sharing, too, the individual joys, tragedies and dilemmas of these very real people. Although this is a novel, the attention to historical detail is meticulous. Every word spoken seems to come directly from the actual people who lived through these events and gives the reader the sense of being present among them. Kostia's desperate struggle with his conscience, Serge, tensely lighting another cigarette, Ella's excruciation at Queen Victoria, prying into the intimate details of her life - the mannerisms and the asides, all these things brought all these people alive again. I could feel the icy winds and hear the snow crunching, smell the explosives from the shattered carriage, was dazzled by the splendor of ballrooms and the contrast with the Moscow slums. The whole book took me on a truly breathtaking and uplifting journey into another world! A wonderful read!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey of a Lifetime!, November 23, 2008

By 

Victoria Lynne (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Most Beautiful Princess (Paperback)

I finished this book with sadness that it was over, but at the same time, a great sense of satisfaction as though I had met, in person, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and many others. In spite of the heart-breaking tragedy of the story, there is something so refreshing and inspiring in these pages that I came away, too, feeling so much better for having read this book. The author handled the intimate details of Ella's marriage with such delicacy, and the inspired and beautiful descriptions of Ella's spiritual journey show a depths of insight rarely found in fiction. I will never forget the vivid accounts of Serge's murder, nor the sheer poetry of the descriptions of Ella's awe as she stands at edge of the Sea of Galilee. Repeatedly I found myself asking: is this really a work of fiction? It was all so real that it seemed I had been taken on a journey of a lifetime and one I shall not easily forget!