Peter the Great: His Life and World
Robert K. Massie, 1980
Random House
928 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780679645603
Summary
Winner, 1981 Pulitizer Prize
Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia unfolds the magnificent story of Peter the Great, crowned co-tsar at the age of ten.
Robert K. Massie delves deep into the life of this captivating historical figure, chronicling the pivotal events that shaped a boy into a legend—including his “incognito” travels in Europe, his unquenchable curiosity about Western ways, his obsession with the sea and establishment of the stupendous Russian navy, his creation of an unbeatable army, his transformation of Russia, and his relationships with those he loved most: Catherine, the robust yet gentle peasant, his loving mistress, wife, and successor; and Menshikov, the charming, bold, unscrupulous prince who rose to wealth and power through Peter’s friendship.
Impetuous and stubborn, generous and cruel, tender and unforgiving, a man of enormous energy and complexity, Peter the Great is brought fully to life. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1929
• Where—Lexington, Kentucky, USA
• Education—B.A., Yale University; Oxford
University (Rhodes Scholar)
• Awards—Pulitzer Prize
• Currently—lives in Irvington, New York
Robert Kinloch Massie III is an American historian, author, Pulitzer Prize recipient. He has devoted much of his career to studying the House of Romanov, Russia's royal family from 1613-1917.Born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1929, Massie spent much of his youth in Nashville, Tennessee and currently resides in the village of Irvington, New York. He studied United States and modern European history at Yale and Oxford University, respectively, on a Rhodes Scholarship. Massie went to work as a journalist for Newsweek from 1959 to 1962 and then took a position at the Saturday Evening Post.
In 1969—before he and his family moved to France—Massie wrote and published his breakthrough book, Nicholas and Alexandra, a biography of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra of Hesse. Massie's interest in the Imperial family was triggered by the birth of his son, Reverend and politician Robert Kinloch Massie IV, who was born with hemophilia—a hereditary disease that also afflicted Nicholas's son, Alexei. In 1971, the book was the basis of an Academy Award winning film of the same title. In 1995, in his book The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, Massie updated Nicholas and Alexandra with much newly-discovered information.
In 1975 Robert Massie and his then-wife Suzanne Massie chronicled their experiences as the parents of a hemophiliac child and the significant differences between the American and French health-care systems in their jointly-written book, Journey. Massie won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Peter the Great: His Life and World. This book inspired a 1986 NBC miniseries that won three Emmy Awards and starred Maximilian Schell, Laurence Olivier and Vanessa Redgrave. In 2011 Massie published his biography, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (2011).
Massie was the president of the Authors Guild from 1987 to 1991, and he still serves as an ex officio council member. While president of the Guild, he famously called on authors to boycott any store refusing to carry Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. He is currently married to Deborah Karl. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Enthralling...as fascinating as any novel and more so than most.
New York Times Book Review
Written in a style that combines vigor, clarity, and sensitivity...should be the envy of historians and novelists alike.
Chicago Sun-Times
Fascinating...an absorbing book.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Urgently readable...the work of a master of narrative history.
Newsweek
Exceptional.
The New Yorker
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Peter the Great:
1. Describe Peter the Great as he is presented in Robert K. Massie's biogaphy. What kind of a man, and what kind of a ruler, was he? What qualities in him do you find admirable, even likable? What qualities do you find repugnant? Overall, was he a ruler with a vision, a cruel and violent dictator, or a combination of both? Did his means justify the ends?
2. Peter tortured his enemies to achieve political ends. Massie indicates that torture was also used routinely throughout a more "enlightened" Europe. Given today's ethos, and our revulsion against torture, is it possible to view it in a historical context? Can torture be condoned if used in a different era under a different ethical system?
3. What do you consider Peter's greatest accomplishments?
4. How does Massie present the differences between Russia and post-Renaissance Western Europe? In what areas did Russia lag behind...and why?
5. Talk about Peter's experiences in Amsterdam and England...and how they inspired him to bring changes to his country.
6. When Peter returned to Russia from Europe, he prohibited the wearing of beards, heavy boots, and long robes. Massie observes these habits were based on common sense. What does he mean?
7. Massie gives mixed reviews to the Westernization of Russia. Why, to this day, do Peter's actions to modernize Russia remain controversial? What are the competing viewpoints?
8. Why was Peter so intent on gaining access to the sea for his country?
9. Talk about the differences, and similarities, between Peter and Charles II of Sweden? What strategies did Peter employ that resulted in the defeat of Charles, who was considered a military genius. Is all fair in love and war?
10. Massie has said elsewhere that he believes in the "great man" theory of history: that turning points in history occur as a result of individuals, their vision, strength, and talent. Other historians believe that powerful forces outside of individuals—mass movements of populations, the spread of ideas, geography, and a land's natural wealth—are responsible for history's forward movement. What do you think?
11. What struck you most in this book? What have you learned about the history of Russia that you didn't know beforehand?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)