Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power

This biography of the longest reigning monarch of Imperial Russia is "a vivid portrait of a sensual and intellectual woman" (Washington Post).

Dutiful daughter, frustrated wife, passionate lover, domineering mother, doting grandmother, devoted friend, tireless legislator, generous patron of artists and philosophers—the Empress Catherine II, the Great, was all these things, and more. Her reign lasted from 1762 until her death in 1796; during those years she built on the work begun by her most...