Nicholas and Alexandra: The Family Albums

Rating:
Summary: the best collection of romanov images anywhere
Review: It's really too bad that this wonderful book is out of print. It's a gold mine! The photographs are organized by year, making identification sooo much easier. To boot, the pictures are of marvellous quality - clear, even, nicely composed, and evocative. You'll put this one down feeling like you've had a visit with the Imperial family. Highly recommended - This book plus Massie's _Nicholas & Alexandra_ make an excellent Romanov 'starter set'. ;o)

Rating:
Summary: the best collection of romanov images anywhere
Review: It's really too bad that this wonderful book is out of print. It's a gold mine! The photographs are organized by year, making identification sooo much easier. To boot, the pictures are of marvellous quality - clear, even, nicely composed, and evocative. You'll put this one down feeling like you've had a visit with the Imperial family. Highly recommended - This book plus Massie's _Nicholas & Alexandra_ make an excellent Romanov 'starter set'. ;o)

Rating:
Summary: A truly exceptional experience
Review: One has only to browse through the intimate photographs of the Romanovs to see how warm and loving a family they were. I felt a true sadness as I looked at the last photos taken of them in their captivity and could only imagine the horrors they experienced that fateful night in the Ipatiev House. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Romanov family and their personal life.

Rating:
Summary: Behind palace walls...
Review: There are many books of pictures of the Romanov family, but Nicholas and Alexandra: The Family Albums by Prince Michael of Greece is probably the best of the bunch. Since Nicholas became tsar and husband at almost the same time, their family life is very well documented in pictures. There are the usual official photographs taken by professional photographers. But the Romanov's were also big shutterbugs. They all owned cameras and it is in these candid shots that we really get a chance to see life within the palace walls. In addition to formal portraits, we see the Imperial Family at work, at play, on vacation and just relaxing. We also see extended family members (most of them European royalty from England, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and others). Many of these photographs were taken from the albums of individual family members, and were hidden in communist archives. They were only made available after perestroika.

This book also gives us a glimpse of the many residences of the Romanov's. While the Alexander Palace was their primary home, they also spent time in the Crimea (Livadia Palace), Spala (their hunting lodge in Poland), Standart and Polar Star (Imperial Yachts), and The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Some of these photographs are of never before seen interior shots.

Nicholas and Alexandra are criticized for being ineffective rulers, but in one thing they can't be faulted--they were loving and devoted parents. The closeness of their family life comes through very clearly in The Family Albums. There are also pictures of their captivity, that are extremely haunting. But looking at this book just magnifies the tragedy of their fate. They gave up not just palaces, jewels, clothes and priceless objects, but because of poor leadership, they also cost this beautiful family their lives. That is the most heartbreaking loss of all.




Rating:
Summary: Hide and Seek Spot
Review: This album is incredible. The photos of the Imperial family are very moving. The book has been well put togather. Hats off to his HRH Prince Micheal of Greece!!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful pictures, surprising mistakes
Review: This book is a wonderful collection of pictures, nicely organized to bring out different dimensions of the story of Nicholas and Alexandra. However, I found two mistakes early into the book. The first was the the statement that Victoria Melita married Grand Duchess Boris, when in fact she married his brother, Cyril. The second was the statement that the marriage between Victoria Melita and her first Husband, Ernst of Hesse, foundered after the death of their daughter. In fact, the child's death occurred well after the separation of her parents. Given the author's family relationship with his subjects, these lapses are surprising and indicative of extremely careless editing. It causes me to discount the accuracy of the volume, overall.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful pictures, surprising mistakes
Review: This book is a wonderful collection of pictures, nicely organized to bring out different dimensions of the story of Nicholas and Alexandra. However, I found two mistakes early into the book. The first was the the statement that Victoria Melita married Grand Duchess Boris, when in fact she married his brother, Cyril. The second was the statement that the marriage between Victoria Melita and her first Husband, Ernst of Hesse, foundered after the death of their daughter. In fact, the child's death occurred well after the separation of her parents. Given the author's family relationship with his subjects, these lapses are surprising and indicative of extremely careless editing. It causes me to discount the accuracy of the volume, overall.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing for the most part
Review: This book is great in nearly every way. It is well organized by year and the photographs are very rare. The set up when it comes to the photographs needs work. Often, a photograph is cut in half by the center of the book. Despite this, it is one of the best books for Romanov fans and fans-to-be. To see the photographs shows you how Russia's last Imperial Family lived. Absolutely amazing and definitely a must read.

Rating:
Summary: 'The' best picture book on the Romanov family......
Review: To leaf through the pages of this book for a Romanov enthusiast such as myself is truly a moving experience. I particularly like the photographs of the Grand Duchesses having reached womanhood. This book unlike many others I have encountered provides us the reader with an (dare one say it) almost 'too' intimite insight into the family's day to day lives. One senses the individuals as they actually were....., rather than as court photographs typically portray them. Photographs perhaps more than any other medium serve to remind us that people before us were just as much flesh and blood as we are, 'The family albums' has demonstrated this fact admirably.

Rating:
Summary: 'The' best picture book on the Romanov family......
Review: To leaf through the pages of this book for a Romanov enthusiast such as myself is truly a moving experience. I particularly like the photographs of the Grand Duchesses having reached womanhood. This book unlike many others I have encountered provides us the reader with an (dare one say it) almost 'too' intimite insight into the family's day to day lives. One senses the individuals as they actually were....., rather than as court photographs typically portray them. Photographs perhaps more than any other medium serve to remind us that people before us were just as much flesh and blood as we are, 'The family albums' has demonstrated this fact admirably.