Ken Saunders’s Reviews > Peter the Great: His Life and World > Status Update

Enter Augustus of Sweden

Peter spends a week in Swedish city Riga waiting for the ice to thaw. They host him and let him examine and sketch their fortresses and give him a big send-off. INCOGNITO Peter gets pissed because one guard ordered him (again: incognito) away from the fortress. Thirteen years later orders the "accursed" city raided and conquers the entire nation because of his rude treatment.

Our Russian history book club bailed on Dostoevsky after 200 pages so now back to the usual. And what a treat with such a fabulous opening chapter. I mean we already get human remains blasted out of a cannon (sending 'False Dmitry' back to Poland by express air) and naked alcoholics shivering outside bars to await their fix.