Nicholas and Alexandra: The Family Albums

by Prince Of Greece Michael

An album that chronicles both a tragic tale of failed leadership and an extraordinary love story compiles more than three hundred family photographs of the last czar, Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, their hemophiliac son, and their four daughters.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Romanovs, Russian History, Royalty, Russia, Photography

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[Zosi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars bc my library copy was missing some pages. Sold of the information was a little outdated and the girls were mislabeled once or twice but it wasn’t a big deal. Otherwise, a lovely little book with plenty of pictures I hadn’t seen before, from 1895-1917.

[Julie Leggett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains a spooky picture I have not seen in any other books of the Romanovs. I wish there were more detail behind it. The picture is of the five children all with their heads shaved. It was taken while they were living in captivity in one of the siberian houses. The caption says their heads were shaved because of having the measles. It's just a very eerie photo.

[Calvin]

Very enjoyable. Usually books on the family go over the same history that has been covered for decades. But a Photo Album, it gave such a different view.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best royalty-photographs book I've ever read. Everything about it is fantastic: the pictures themselves, the details, the writing.

Prince Michael of Greece, the author, is the son of Prince Christopher of Greece, whose father was Nicholas II's uncle King George I. Prince Christopher grew up visiting Russia with his Russian mother, Queen Olga, and knew the Tsar's family well. When Russia decided, not so long ago, to open their 'Romanov archives', Prince Michael, as one of the Tsar's last living relatives and an author, was invited to see the photograph albums of the Tsar's four daughters.

The pictures he found were published in this book with amazing detail and they are breathtaking. These are not official photographs, but the ones the girls took on vacations in the Crimea or during lessons. We get to see a whole different world of people who have been so misunderstood by History. We see the loving father in long walks with his girls, the little boy sitting next to his sick mother in bed, the four sisters who clearly loved each other so much. We see a family that, true, lived in their own little world, but were so happy in it. We see the haemophiliac Alexei as a normal boy, being buried in the sand at a beach by his father and sisters. And Olga reading, Tatiana posing looking impecably regal, Maria always smiling, Anastasia in many different practicaly jokes.

I can't praise this book enough, it gives a completely new outlook to the Romanov family, and I got teary-eyed looking at the pictures more than once.

And I think there's something especially touching about reading about the Romanovs from the perspective of someone whose father knew them so well. I know I'll never look at pictures of Prince Christopher with his cousins again in the same way.

(In six years of looking for this book online - constantly - I only found it once under $100, which was when I bought it - and for $20. So I recommend to keep looking, it's really worth it.)

[H. R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Czar and family in formal and casual pictures. Makes you wonder what filtering process was used by the family at the time the pictures were taken. These had to be the ones 'approved', vs the ones that never passed some combination of censers for the family, and the family themselves.

The introduction seemed more than a bit self-serving. It's hard to imagine many are waxing poetic about the Czars. Wasn't Scholzinitzen the last to do this?

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, it took me a long time to get this from the library, but when I did - WOW. What an incredible display of photos. Some of these I had seen floating around on the internet before, but MANY I had not. What a brilliantly done book, with extraordinarily high-quality pictures (considering that almost all were taken with portable box cameras!). The designers on this book outdid themselves.

[Lynn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely photographic history of the tragic last Tsar and his Tsarina and their family. Some photos at the time of the publication not known to the wider public. A lovely private family but as a Tsar an utter failure to grasp the political and public needs of his role and this was what was so tragic not just the final murder of this part of the family dynasty.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that this book was written by a relative of the Romanovs. It gave a more personal slant on their life and death. The photos are interesting on so many different levels and the captions did a good job of putting them into a bigger story. Good read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among my favorite books on the last Romanovs. Excellent, rare photographs and very good text (rare in this genre).

[Zelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures, I've seen most of them before but they're still as amazing as always. Prince Michael's captions to the pictures are very funny and pretty informative too.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures are magnificent but there are one or two clunky mistakes in the commentary. He doesn't have a very high opinion of Alexandra, but that's understandable.