Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
The narrative voice sounds so authentic in this story, its hard to believe that this is fiction. That alone sold me; I was captivated even though I knew nothing about the setting and had to do a little research.
First Line: My name is Mathilde Kschessinska, and I was the greatest Russian ballerina on the imperial stages.
In 1971, a tiny, 100-year-old woman sits down to write her memoirs of everything she knows to be true. She is Mathilde Kschessinska, once the greatest ballerina on the Russian imperial stage. Born to Polish parents, when the extremely competitive Kschessinska was enrolled in ballet school, she set high goals for herself. She became the best ballerina; she became the lover of tsarevich Nicholas Romanov; she became wealthy beyond her dreams. In the end, she lost everything but her memories.
I had a difficult time reading this book for two reasons. The first is a technicality: not everyone can sit down and read undisturbed for a lengthy period of time. I've learned to look for paragraph breaks as natural stopping points. This book is 384 pages of very, very long paragraphs, and I was surprised to find that one little thing was tiring. It may sound picky, but it's a detail that I noticed over and over again.
The second reason why this book could be difficult to read can be found in the character of Kschessinska herself. Throughout the book, she is unapologetically opportunistic. She thinks nothing of using slander and sabotage (among other things) to get what she wants. I found that, after a few pages of her machinations, I wanted to stop and do something else. However, her unflinching honesty was refreshing. She may have enough pride for three people, and she may not be sorry for anything she's done, but at least she tells the truth.
"I hear that visitors to my mansion, now the State Museum of Political History, to this day ask to see the entrance to the secret tunnel that once linked the palace of the dancer Kschessinska to the palace of the tsar. Political history does not interest them. I interest them."
The one thing about Sharp's book that held me spellbound was her depiction of a vanished world. Tsarist Russia may have been filled with decadence and cruelty, but it was also filled with incredible beauty-- a land of vast contradictions as so many countries are.
I enjoyed Sharp's skill in weaving her believable fictional tale around historical figures I've read so much about. She also provided more background into the history of ballet and helped me put several dancers in their proper context.
If you love novels set in the Russia of Nicholas and Alexandra, you should love this book-- as long as your heroines don't have to be scrupulously honest in their morals and behavior.
In 1971, a tiny, 100-year-old woman sits down to write her memoirs of everything she knows to be true. She is Mathilde Kschessinska, once the greatest ballerina on the Russian imperial stage. Born to Polish parents, when the extremely competitive Kschessinska was enrolled in ballet school, she set high goals for herself. She became the best ballerina; she became the lover of tsarevich Nicholas Romanov; she became wealthy beyond her dreams. In the end, she lost everything but her memories.
I had a difficult time reading this book for two reasons. The first is a technicality: not everyone can sit down and read undisturbed for a lengthy period of time. I've learned to look for paragraph breaks as natural stopping points. This book is 384 pages of very, very long paragraphs, and I was surprised to find that one little thing was tiring. It may sound picky, but it's a detail that I noticed over and over again.
The second reason why this book could be difficult to read can be found in the character of Kschessinska herself. Throughout the book, she is unapologetically opportunistic. She thinks nothing of using slander and sabotage (among other things) to get what she wants. I found that, after a few pages of her machinations, I wanted to stop and do something else. However, her unflinching honesty was refreshing. She may have enough pride for three people, and she may not be sorry for anything she's done, but at least she tells the truth.
"I hear that visitors to my mansion, now the State Museum of Political History, to this day ask to see the entrance to the secret tunnel that once linked the palace of the dancer Kschessinska to the palace of the tsar. Political history does not interest them. I interest them."
The one thing about Sharp's book that held me spellbound was her depiction of a vanished world. Tsarist Russia may have been filled with decadence and cruelty, but it was also filled with incredible beauty-- a land of vast contradictions as so many countries are.
I enjoyed Sharp's skill in weaving her believable fictional tale around historical figures I've read so much about. She also provided more background into the history of ballet and helped me put several dancers in their proper context.
If you love novels set in the Russia of Nicholas and Alexandra, you should love this book-- as long as your heroines don't have to be scrupulously honest in their morals and behavior.
I have just finished reading Adrienne Sharp's The True Memoirs of Little K, about Mathilde Kschessinska. It sounds like a biography but it is indeed a novel. Mathilde was the mistress of the future Nicholas II beginning when she was 17 and newly graduated from St Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, for the 3 years ending when married Alexandria, but their friendship lasted a life time. The facts seem to bear this out. She was made prima ballerina assoluta in 1896, and she acquired a great deal of valuable property over the next 20 years which Ms. Sharpe suggests is evidence of the Czar continuing patronage. True or not her influence over the ballet went on long after the affair was thought to have ended. It is told in first person and it works in this case, I found it fascinating. The 100 year old Mathilde tells her story and says the biography she wrote in 1954 is just fiction and lies. Now at the end of her life she needs to tell her son the whole truth. So begins her story
I am no expert on the Russian Revolution or the Romanovs, it is true she was a known mistress to the Czar, he didnt have many. She was also the lover to two Grand Dukes, but there is no evidence that her son Vova was Nikis son, he could have also been the son of her lover at the time the Grand Duke Sergi Mikhailovich a first cousin to Czar Nicolas II. The Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich also a first cousin of the Czar was her lover as well, and years later became her husband in exile. It is a plausible story and that is why I think it works so well. The research for this novel must have been immense and I am always happy when an author really knows the subject and conveys the time period so well. Mathilde is unapologetic how she lives her life, the dancers of the Imperial Ballet expected to become mistresses to powerful men, why shouldnt she be the Czars mistress as well as a Prima Ballerina, and amass a fortune? Ms. Sharpe explains that the dancers of the Imperial Ballet where servants of the Czar I realize just how totally the common people were owned and used by the powers that be. There is so much more to this story that I cannot adequately convey. The devotion of Nicolas to Alexandria, the politics of the ballet, and court, the mind boggling opulence of the time.
This is the kind of book I love to read. The one that sets me on a voyage of discovery; I have already investigated getting my hands on a copy of her memoirs the one she wrote in 1954, the memoirs are in the libraries of several universities in my area. There are also a couple of other books on her life so I will have to acquire them. I think that Sharpe did a great job and, I give this book a strong 4 stars.
I am no expert on the Russian Revolution or the Romanovs, it is true she was a known mistress to the Czar, he didnt have many. She was also the lover to two Grand Dukes, but there is no evidence that her son Vova was Nikis son, he could have also been the son of her lover at the time the Grand Duke Sergi Mikhailovich a first cousin to Czar Nicolas II. The Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich also a first cousin of the Czar was her lover as well, and years later became her husband in exile. It is a plausible story and that is why I think it works so well. The research for this novel must have been immense and I am always happy when an author really knows the subject and conveys the time period so well. Mathilde is unapologetic how she lives her life, the dancers of the Imperial Ballet expected to become mistresses to powerful men, why shouldnt she be the Czars mistress as well as a Prima Ballerina, and amass a fortune? Ms. Sharpe explains that the dancers of the Imperial Ballet where servants of the Czar I realize just how totally the common people were owned and used by the powers that be. There is so much more to this story that I cannot adequately convey. The devotion of Nicolas to Alexandria, the politics of the ballet, and court, the mind boggling opulence of the time.
This is the kind of book I love to read. The one that sets me on a voyage of discovery; I have already investigated getting my hands on a copy of her memoirs the one she wrote in 1954, the memoirs are in the libraries of several universities in my area. There are also a couple of other books on her life so I will have to acquire them. I think that Sharpe did a great job and, I give this book a strong 4 stars.
