Tolstoy biography henri troyat catherine

Though a European history buff, I knew virtually nothing of Catherine the Great, so I borrowed this biography from my sister at Christmas and have just finished it. What a story it is! Born Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729, a Lutheran from one of many German noble families, she was plucked from obscurity by King Frederick of Prussia, who arranged a marriage between the teenage Sophie and Peter Ulrich of Holstein, grandson of Peter the Great and possible heir to the throne of Russia. The young princess converts to the Orthodox faith, takes the name Catherine and goes with her young husband to the court of the Czarina Elizabeth. The marriage was marked by disdain -- we know this from Catherine's own memoirs, which do not dissemble her dislike for Grand Duke Peter nor his for her -- and Elizabeth was a capricious ruler, who blamed Catherine for the fact her husband refused to sleep with her and provide an heir. Ultimately, according to Troyat, Henri troyat books!