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Searching for the Emperor
With rare empathy, Italian poet and novelist Pazzi ( The Illness of Time ) gets inside the mind of Tsar Nicholas II in the tense days when the Imperial family was kept under house arrest by Red guards, awaiting execution. Nicholas reminisces about an old mistress, swings between hope and fear, curses the Bolsheviks; he declares that Russia's strength lies in the fact that it escaped the Enlightenment. Hundreds of miles away, Prince Alexander Ypsilanti, receiving news of the tsar's imprisonment, goads his ragtag regiment across frozen Siberian wastes to save their ruler. It's a futile quest punctuated by dreams and omensmigrating birds, a tiger huntthat symbolize the dying of Old Russia. This short, haunting novel, which marks Pazzi's American debut, is an elegant dirge, as crisply written as a moonlit night in the icy taiga. In portraying the distracted tsar, his overwrought wife, their embittered son Aleksei and their daughter Tatiana who communes with Rasputin's spirit, Pazzi poetically evokes a society on the brink of collapse.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 19, 2024
It is easier to say what this novel is not then what it is - it is not a historical novel about the last days of Nicholas II and his family, it is not a historical novel about an attempt to save them, though there are elements of both of these stories in the novel. It is a fantasy, but of a far deeper sort then the usual sort of counterfactual historical novel - and when you look at the date it was first published - 1989 and country, Italy, you should begin to guess at its strengths.
The year 1989 was before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the return to history of the last Tsar and his family or their canonisation by the Orthodox Church in Russia* and Italy was not as absorbed in the sentimental cult of the dead Tsar and his family engendered by Robert Massie's biography and the film made from it as countries like the USA or UK.
In the novel Prince Ypsilanti and the Praeobrazhenski regiment he commands set out to rescue the Tsar in Tobolsk across a Russia which owes more to the Tartar Steppe of Dino Buzzati** then any real place. The journey is a mythological one, just like the narrative of the life of Tsar and his family at Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. In the end Prince Ypsilanti and his soldiers are as much in need of saving as their Imperial master. They are out of time, and time is out of joint, and Ypsilanti knows he was on a fool's errand to the wrong place attempting to recapture a dream which was as much about his past as Russia's, or the Tsar's, present.
I have seen the author and this novel compared to Italo Calvino, I would need to reread Calvino before agreeing, but I don't think it is impossible - this is a novel were truth is hidden in metaphor, myth and fable. What I do like is that there are no cardboard saints and everyone from Ypsilanti to the Tsar his wife and children are real in how much they love and hate each other, are trapped and annoyed with each other and, the case of the children, know and understand more than their parents.
There are a couple more Pazzi novels available in English and I intend to acquire and read them as well. This is a much better novel than I ever imagined it would be.
*This is no place to go into the various dates on which the various Romanovs were canonised, if you need to know Wikipedia has some fairly accurate articles. Please note that the Romanovs were canonised as 'passion bearers' not martyrs - no matter how often you see them referred to as martyrs they aren't.
**Dino Buzzati 'The Tartar Steppe' is a marvellous, Italian, novel in print constantly since 1939 in many languages including English.
The year 1989 was before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the return to history of the last Tsar and his family or their canonisation by the Orthodox Church in Russia* and Italy was not as absorbed in the sentimental cult of the dead Tsar and his family engendered by Robert Massie's biography and the film made from it as countries like the USA or UK.
In the novel Prince Ypsilanti and the Praeobrazhenski regiment he commands set out to rescue the Tsar in Tobolsk across a Russia which owes more to the Tartar Steppe of Dino Buzzati** then any real place. The journey is a mythological one, just like the narrative of the life of Tsar and his family at Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. In the end Prince Ypsilanti and his soldiers are as much in need of saving as their Imperial master. They are out of time, and time is out of joint, and Ypsilanti knows he was on a fool's errand to the wrong place attempting to recapture a dream which was as much about his past as Russia's, or the Tsar's, present.
I have seen the author and this novel compared to Italo Calvino, I would need to reread Calvino before agreeing, but I don't think it is impossible - this is a novel were truth is hidden in metaphor, myth and fable. What I do like is that there are no cardboard saints and everyone from Ypsilanti to the Tsar his wife and children are real in how much they love and hate each other, are trapped and annoyed with each other and, the case of the children, know and understand more than their parents.
There are a couple more Pazzi novels available in English and I intend to acquire and read them as well. This is a much better novel than I ever imagined it would be.
*This is no place to go into the various dates on which the various Romanovs were canonised, if you need to know Wikipedia has some fairly accurate articles. Please note that the Romanovs were canonised as 'passion bearers' not martyrs - no matter how often you see them referred to as martyrs they aren't.
**Dino Buzzati 'The Tartar Steppe' is a marvellous, Italian, novel in print constantly since 1939 in many languages including English.
February 12, 2008
And now, for something completely different! This book is fictional, and delves into the last few days of life of the Romanov family during their imprisonment.
The author tells two stories; one, of the Preobrazhenskii regiment, formed by Peter the Great himself and a special regiment serving the Czar; and two, as I noted, a look at the final days of the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg. What's interesting is not so much the stories themselves, but the way in which the author uses the imagery in both stories. In the case of the Preobrazhenskii regiment, it's really the story of the leader, Prince Ypsilanti, who has heard rumors of strange goings on in St. Petersburg, and probably deep down knows they're true, but refuses to acknowledge them outwardly because he's taking his regiment on one last mission: to save the Czar. I sort of got the feeling that he knew this was the one last mission for his regiment, a mission he feels compelled to make, despite the hardship on himself and his men. On the other side, there's Nicholas II, doing a lot of soul searching about freedom and how once he became the heir to the Romanov throne, he no longer had it. The author really gets inside the head of Nicholas, and just like the commander of the regiment, he knows exactly what the truth is, but has to pretend up to the very last second.
There's also a really find twist at the end of the story that I wasn't expecting, one which I think I liked better than the reality of the situation.
I really enjoyed the mystical sense of the story as well as the power of Pazzi's imagery while telling both stories (which, in a mystical sort of way, come together at the end).
Recommendations: I'd recommend it to people interested in the topic, and to those who just enjoy very good writing in general. Not an easy book to read, and there is a certain part that's kind of HUH? but otherwise, if you're into the Romanov history (like me!) this would be a good read to add to your list.
The author tells two stories; one, of the Preobrazhenskii regiment, formed by Peter the Great himself and a special regiment serving the Czar; and two, as I noted, a look at the final days of the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg. What's interesting is not so much the stories themselves, but the way in which the author uses the imagery in both stories. In the case of the Preobrazhenskii regiment, it's really the story of the leader, Prince Ypsilanti, who has heard rumors of strange goings on in St. Petersburg, and probably deep down knows they're true, but refuses to acknowledge them outwardly because he's taking his regiment on one last mission: to save the Czar. I sort of got the feeling that he knew this was the one last mission for his regiment, a mission he feels compelled to make, despite the hardship on himself and his men. On the other side, there's Nicholas II, doing a lot of soul searching about freedom and how once he became the heir to the Romanov throne, he no longer had it. The author really gets inside the head of Nicholas, and just like the commander of the regiment, he knows exactly what the truth is, but has to pretend up to the very last second.
There's also a really find twist at the end of the story that I wasn't expecting, one which I think I liked better than the reality of the situation.
I really enjoyed the mystical sense of the story as well as the power of Pazzi's imagery while telling both stories (which, in a mystical sort of way, come together at the end).
Recommendations: I'd recommend it to people interested in the topic, and to those who just enjoy very good writing in general. Not an easy book to read, and there is a certain part that's kind of HUH? but otherwise, if you're into the Romanov history (like me!) this would be a good read to add to your list.
August 19, 2019
On the cover of my copy of Searching for the Emperor, there is a quote from the Observer stating that Roberto Pazzi is “the successor to Calvino”. That is a mighty claim, but with his use of fantasy mingled with reality, there is certainly something about Pazzi’s writing that recalls, for example, the descriptions of imagined cities in Invisible Cities. With transformations of Ovidian proportions of soldiers into birds, the hunt of a tiger in the snow-bound forest, and the merging of dreams and memories with reality, Pazzi describes the last days of the Romanovs and the beginnings of the new social order of the Soviet Union.
While ostensibly a historical novel, the narrative offers a beautifully painted canvas depicting man’s position in and relationship with the natural landscape on a vast scale. By comparing Tsar Nicholas II to a river Pazzi explores the nature of power, its inherent responsibilities, and how it denies a personality to its wielders. Meanwhile, as the ever-loyal Prince Ypsilanti struggles to save his Tsar, Pazzi reminds us of the constructed nature of our reality (“Don’t you know that history is full of traitors who became saints? The labels slip and what remains is truth”).
The novel also hints at the growth of photography and its replacement of painting as the dominant form of cultural representation and as such Pazzi presents the trauma of social upheaval in terms of technology’s dominance over nature. In this, we see both Calvino’s Marcovaldo and a reflection of our times.
While ostensibly a historical novel, the narrative offers a beautifully painted canvas depicting man’s position in and relationship with the natural landscape on a vast scale. By comparing Tsar Nicholas II to a river Pazzi explores the nature of power, its inherent responsibilities, and how it denies a personality to its wielders. Meanwhile, as the ever-loyal Prince Ypsilanti struggles to save his Tsar, Pazzi reminds us of the constructed nature of our reality (“Don’t you know that history is full of traitors who became saints? The labels slip and what remains is truth”).
The novel also hints at the growth of photography and its replacement of painting as the dominant form of cultural representation and as such Pazzi presents the trauma of social upheaval in terms of technology’s dominance over nature. In this, we see both Calvino’s Marcovaldo and a reflection of our times.
February 27, 2018
a novel with too much starch
No matter how hard I tried, I could not get into this novel. Perhaps it is the translation, it may be wooden. I don't know Italian, so that's only a guess. Maybe the translator did the best with what she had. But as I read, I had the strange feeling that every sentence was written in the passive voice. I felt very distanced from everything. SEARCHING FOR THE EMPEROR is surely more a hippopotamus than a gazelle. From the very first sentence you feel that everything is decided, given, and written in stone. All you have to do is read how the people felt about it. Are you so interested ? This is what you will have to decide if you choose to read this book. I think the world is full of many other novels. Try them.
No matter how hard I tried, I could not get into this novel. Perhaps it is the translation, it may be wooden. I don't know Italian, so that's only a guess. Maybe the translator did the best with what she had. But as I read, I had the strange feeling that every sentence was written in the passive voice. I felt very distanced from everything. SEARCHING FOR THE EMPEROR is surely more a hippopotamus than a gazelle. From the very first sentence you feel that everything is decided, given, and written in stone. All you have to do is read how the people felt about it. Are you so interested ? This is what you will have to decide if you choose to read this book. I think the world is full of many other novels. Try them.
July 27, 2023
3.5
dalla foto di una famiglia reale al romanzo che narra degli ultimi giorni della famiglia dello Zar, esiliata, imprigionata e, infine, giustiziata.
«Lui, lo Zar, s'era distratto così a lungo da non ricordarsi più che tutto avrebbero perdonato a un politico, nulla a un Imperatore. Un Kerensky sarebbe riuscito a salvarsi, non loro.»
Da un regime autocratico, totalmente indifferente nei confronti del popolo, a una famiglia perduta, fragile, dimenticata.
dalla foto di una famiglia reale al romanzo che narra degli ultimi giorni della famiglia dello Zar, esiliata, imprigionata e, infine, giustiziata.
«Lui, lo Zar, s'era distratto così a lungo da non ricordarsi più che tutto avrebbero perdonato a un politico, nulla a un Imperatore. Un Kerensky sarebbe riuscito a salvarsi, non loro.»
Da un regime autocratico, totalmente indifferente nei confronti del popolo, a una famiglia perduta, fragile, dimenticata.
October 26, 2021
An unusual but fascinating story about a lost Russian regiment searching for the imprisoned Tsar and his family, and the possible mindset of all involved. Always been interested in stories about the Romanovs, but never read about them from this perspective.
April 12, 2018
Ne accenno qualcosa su Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lH21...
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