A superbly crafted and humane portrait of the last days - and last rulers - of the Russian Empire. Complementing his Pulitzer prize-winning Peter the Great, in this commanding book Robert K. Massie sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of imperial Russia to tell the story of the decline and fall of the ruling Romanov family: Tsar Nicholas II's political naivete; his wife Alexandra's obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin; and their son Alexis's battle with haemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Massie unfolds a family tragedy played out on the brutal stage of early twentieth-century Russian history - the tale of a doomed empire and the death-marked royals who watched it crumble.

A moving, rich and densely documented account of the last Romanovs. The tale is so bizarre, no melodrama is equal to it. * Newsweek *
Wonderfully rich tapestry...they come vividly alive before our eyes. * New York Times *
A magnificent and intimate picture...the main characters [and] a whole era become alive and comprehensible * Harpers *

Robert K. Massie was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1929. He studied American History at Yale University and Modern European History at Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes scholar. He lives in Irvington, New York.