Romanoviana

What is it about the Romanovs?

Is it their royalty? Their tragic end? Their 300-year-long rule? The Rasputin thing? The fact that not all the bones were accounted for?

Whatever the explanation, scarcely a year goes by without another Romanov book of some sort making it to at least the outskirts of public awareness. This year is no different. At the time of this writing in late January, a new biography of Catherine the Great (by Robert Massie, an author made famous for his biography of Nicholas and Alexandra) had been on the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks. And three new works of Romanoviana had landed in our review pile. All of them works of fiction.