About this book
Peter the Great: His Life and World tells the story of the tsar who ruled Russia from the late seventeenth century into the early eighteenth. It follows his unusual youth, his long journey through western Europe to learn about ships and technology, his long war with Sweden that ended Swedish dominance in the north, and the building of St Petersburg.
Robert K. Massie's approach is in the subtitle: this is the story of a world as well as a life. He paints the courts of Europe that Peter visited, the Swedish king Charles XII who was his great rival, and the Russia Peter set out to transform. He does not hide the harshness of Peter's methods, including the cost in lives of his reforms and the tragic fate of his own son.
Massie writes warm, flowing narrative that makes a long book feel approachable. Readers who enjoy it should continue with his Catherine the Great and, later in Russian history, Nicholas and Alexandra.
Who it’s for
Ideal for lovers of big, absorbing biographies; long but very readable, with no background in Russian history needed.
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