The White Night of St. Petersburg [Hardcover]

Prince Michael of Greece (Author), Franklin Philip (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2004

In the summer of 1998, Prince Michael of Greece attended a solemn interment ceremony for Tsar Nicholas II and his family, who were murdered eighty years earlier. While there, he noticed a dazzling older woman in the crowd and, curious to know her connection, traveled to Moscow to meet her. Natalya Androssov Iskander Romanov met Prince Michael and revealed the long-buried story of her grandfather, the Grand Duke Nicholas.
All record of Nicholas Kostantinovich Romanov was erased from the royal dynasty's official vaults, so Natalya's memories remained the only key to his past. As she speaks, the narrative fades to a snow-filled St. Petersburg morning in November 1860, and there begins the fantastic re-imagining of the rebellious and dashing duke's life. His scandalous affair with the devastatingly beautiful American courtesan Fanny Lear and his implication in a plot to fund revolutionaries by stealing family jewels led the emperor to banish him to the far reaches of the vast Russian empire to avoid tarnishing the family name.
From the glittering splendor of Imperial Russia to treks across the barren steppe, The White Night of St. Petersburg brings to life a fascinating and forgotten member of one of history's most legendary families.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The publishing world—and possibly readers as well—never tire of the Romanovs. This reimagination of the life story of one of the last of the czarist family's peripheral members has a heady provenance; the author is Prince Michael of Greece, a descendent of the Romanovs and a relative of most of Europe's remaining royalty. Grand Duke Nicholas Kostantinovich grew up in 19th-century Russia, his fractious childhood marked by rivalries with his relatives, notably the future emperor Alexander. As an adult, the dashing Nicholas romances an American courtesan and is suspected of having "socialist ideals"; to spare the royal family embarrassment, he's banished from Moscow under heavy guard, though house arrest doesn't prevent him from scandalously seducing a series of women. The author has written several books about the lives of royalty (The Empress of Farewells; etc.) and his knowledge of names and places of the period is considerable. But despite the sophisticated trappings, the language is downright ordinary: nearly every woman is described as "exceptionally beautiful," "a devastating beauty" or "strikingly beautiful," and the accounts of the grand duke's innumerable sexual conquests are standard romance at best.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

At the 1998 interment of Czar Nicholas II and his family, Prince Michael of Greece, a distant Romanov relation, met an elderly woman with mysterious ties to the more well-known Romanovs assembled in St. Petersburg to pay tribute to the brutally murdered last czar. Curious, he arranged to meet privately with Natalya Androssov Iskander Romanov in her native Moscow. In short order, Talya confessed that she was actually the granddaughter of Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich, Prince Michael's great uncle. Denying any knowledge of this kinsman, Prince Michael, himself somewhat of an amateur family genealogist, needed some hard evidence before he was totally convinced of the grand duke's existence. Fictionalizing Talya's mesmerizing account of the long-forgotten Romanov, Prince Michael weaves a spellbinding account of intrigue, passion, and rebellion, culminating in the exile of the grand duke and his permanent expulsion from the official Romanov family records. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 335 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1st US edition (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871139227
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139221
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,241,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So-So writing /interesting book, though, March 7, 2005

By 

SusieQ (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The White Night of St. Petersburg (Hardcover)

This was not a bad book, but, I think the fact that it's a translation from the French does give it it a stiff quality. (I think there is also a ghostwriter involved.) Also, the initial leap from present to past is somewhat awkward in execution (the first chapter begins like a memoir in the first-person, then proceeds into a novel, occasionally returning to the first-person.)

There were parts of this book that were better than others, particularly when the action was restrained to the characters of Nikolai & Fanny (where the writing really came alive), but then, there were sections that dragged a bit (for me, the sections written in the first-person).

However, the story grew on me, and it always held my interest. I think 3 stars is a fair rating as I don't think I'd want to read this one again, which is my criteria for a 4 or 5 star read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great piece of history, January 31, 2010

By 

J. A. Wood - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The White Night of St. Petersburg (Hardcover)

An interesting slice of history, well written, competently translated. Other books of Prince Michael's show photos of this Romanov who survived Soviet Russia, in Moscow, living long enough to see the fall of Communism. Fascinating!

8 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, April 10, 2005

By 

M. Gonzalez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The White Night of St. Petersburg (Hardcover)

I couldnt even finish reading this book. Prince Michael has done better.