Your in the hands of a master story teller
Bobby D., reader from CA, 07/22/2004

This volume is simply one of the very best, most exciting, interesting, and highly charged biographies I have read. Fortunately for me, a pending visit to Saint Petersburg provided me with the motivation to pull this twenty four-year-old 1st Edition copy from my bookshelf. Its 850 pages had seemed a daunting task no matter how many people had recommended this as a “must read”. Robert Massie has created a masterpiece of story telling. Each chapter is the equivalent of a short story and compelling in it’s own right. And each is presented with an introduction that places you, the reader, in context. Massie also places you both in Peter the Great's time but populates his world with many other sovereigns and characters of interesting historical note. Most notably a large part of the book is devoted to King Charles XII of Sweden. Upon completion of this wonderful book I had a much better understanding of Russia, the Baltic States history and the origins of may Russian cultural traits. Peter the Great was a massive personality who’s impact was both awful for those he ruled and passed judgement on, and visionary for pushing Russia into a modern and westernized nation. Overall, the book reads like an epic Russian Novel, deep in character study, action, adventure, and compelling social observation. Massie is just an excellent writer. I highly recommend this book as others have recommended it to me.

One of the best!
LNM, A reviewer, 04/29/2002

This was a great book, a captivating and quick read (despite the length) that takes you inside the life of Peter the Great in an epic story of love and betrayal, poverty and largess, greed and blind ambition.

Fascinating!
Turi MacCombie, A reviewer, 07/27/2001

Massie is so gifted at illuminating Russia under Peter the Great's reign, that it reads more like a novel than an historical study-I could barely put it down. This is truly an extraordinary book!