Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II [Paperback]

John Van der Kiste (Author), Coryne Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2004

This compelling biography of Xenia uses new archive material to give us fresh insight into the last days of the Tsar family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Publishing (June 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750935219
• ISBN-13: 978-0750935210
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,409,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Van der Kiste read Librarianship at Ealing Technical College, where he edited the students' journal Stamp Out. He has published over forty books, including titles on historical biography, local history and true crime, music, fiction, and edited a Christmas anthology. He lives in Devon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not The Full Story, By Any Means, January 12, 2003

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II (Hardcover)

This book is the first full length biography of Tsar Nicholas II's sister Xenia. Xenia is less well known than her brothers Nicholas and Michael or her younger sister Olga, whose biography/memoir The Last Grand Duchess by Ian Vorres, was published in 1964 and recently republished in paperback. Part of the reason for this is that Xenia was the "good girl" of the Romanov family. She married young to her cousin Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and raised a family that included one daughter and six rambunctious boys. She was not a rebel like Olga or Michael, both of whom had very public marital difficulties and tended to be embarrassments to the Tsar before the Revolution. Nor was she in the spotlight like the Tsar and his family, so that her life was exhaustively chronicled. She and her husband Sandro married for love, later fell out of love and conducted discreet affairs with others, and in general lived quiet lives. During the Revolution they escaped to their palace in the Crimea where they lived until rescued in 1919. From then on Xenia lived quietly, mainly on the charity of her cousin King George V of England, until her death in 1960. She seems primarily to be of interest because she was the Tsar's sister and the mother-in-law of Prince Felix Yussoupov, one of Rasputin's murderers.

This book tends to be a bit dull because there is very little first hand information that come directly from Xenia. We never get the full names of her lover or lovers, for example. Much of what we are told is extrapolated, for instance we are told that Xenia was shocked by Rasputin, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever met him! (Olga's memories of Rasputin are among the most compelling sections of The Last Grand Duchess). Because there seems to be so little real information about Xenia's own personality, the authors spend an inordinate amount of time on unnecessary details, like for example, who her visitors were on her birthdays and what they wrote to her in letters (Few of Xenia's own letters seem to have been located and used.)

So this is a fairly interesting book with some new details about Xenia's life and family, but by reading it you are not going to feel that you knew her or have any real sense of what she was like as a person.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Xenia brought into focus, December 6, 2002

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II (Hardcover)

Grand Duchess Xenia is usually a shadowy figure in most books about the Romanovs. She usually gets a mention as Nicholas 2nd'sister and will appear in some of the family portraits, along with a mention that she spent the years after the revolution in a grace and favour flat in London. Past this information is usually scanty.

This is the first full biography of Xenia's life. The first section dealing with her life as a member of the imperial family in Russia is not terribly enlightening. This is probably a reflection of lack of documentation available, and the fact that Xenia was naturally a shy and retiring person.

Where this book comes into it's own and provides masses of new information is in dealing with Xenia (and the Royal families) experience in the Russian revolution and in her life in exile after the revolution. Xenia became the hub of a large family and the focal point of many émigrés in her long exile and this book brings that into focus at last.

This book also has a pile of new Romanov illustrations, though sadly missing any of Xenia in all her court finery, we do get to see photos her large extended family at last.

This book is actually a UK publication, and can be bought cheaper at amazon.co.uk

If you are interested in the life of the Romanov survivors after the revolution this a book worth buying.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Obscure Grand Duchess, July 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II (Hardcover)

I was fascinated to read this new book about such an obscure character. After so many Nicholas and Alexandra books, this made a pleasant change. The authors have done well to access the Hoover Institute Archives and also get what was probably the last interview with the Queen Mother before her death in 2002. An essential read for any Romanov devotee!