Queen Gossip

by Marian Klatt

For an American, reading the Memoirs of Catherine the Great is a bit like reading your mother's diary from when you were a baby. You find out she had all these other things going on in her life, that you actually weren't the only thing she thought about, and it might just throw you off a bit. Catherine the Great, who dealt with all manner of intrigue and politics during her reign (1762-96), talks little to none about a certain country becoming sovereign across the sea. America figures little in her story: Russia (naturally), France, England, Poland, Turkey, Austria ... these are the stars of this 18th century political drama.

Because our world history education may have been less than thorough in high school--and college, for that matter--don't skip the preface, unless you already have Jeopardy-level knowledge on this time period. Catherine writes primarily for her contemporaries, and therefore doesn't focus on what happened so much as why it happened. Reading roughly the first twenty pages of the preface is a painless way to catch up; anything beyond is interesting, but not necessary to your continued enjoyment of the book.

As to the memoir itself, while it shouldn't surprise you to hear royal courts were (and are) maintained through finely balanced alliances and carefully aimed backstabbing, Catherine's commentary on these matters isn't always as juicy as one might imagine. Her writing does, however, bring such scenes to vivid life. Suddenly, these denizens of lavish palaces remind you of nothing more than the everyday gossip of your own social and familial realm. A key difference, however: when our potential husbands confess to us a burning infatuation for another woman, said woman generally isn't--as we learn from a helpful historian's footnote to have been the case here--sentenced as a traitor to the kingdom, "flogged with the knought," and sent off to Siberia with her tongue cut out.

Regrettably.

The everyday gossip, then, is the focus of this memoir, offering only the occasional glimpse into the developing mind of one of the most powerfully intelligent women of history. All the same, these glimpses are fascinating, as is the ambition which influenced Catherine's every action from at least the age of fifteen. Her drive to be empress is ever-present and unwavering, and might cause you to wonder about just what you were doing when you were fifteen.