The snow mountain

by Catherine Gavin

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394491793
• ISBN13: 9780394491790
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 509 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Terrific read for Roamonv Fans

I found this book to be a terrific read. But you have to remember it's a novel. There are times when we are not reading about Olga Romanova.We are reading about an Olga 3.5. The real one would not dream of throwing Rasputin out of the palace and then confronting Alexandra about him! The actual Olga Nikolaevna increasingly saw the damage Rasputin was doing, but also knew how essential he was to her mother...there is the real drama. Being stuck in an impossible situation as the stakes grow ever higher.(However I ENJOYED it when Gavin's Olga did throw him out! lol!) Also Gavin knows her history , you learn how WWI started and she also seemed to know a great deal of how the court was run...what St.Petersburg society was like. This book was written in the 70's before the Russian archives opened up too! The small pair are very well done, I would have liked more of them. Gavin also has non Romanov characters that move the story along. You will have an excellent, if brief, over view of this time in Russian history once you finish the book . However when I reread this book, I skip those parts I found the romance good in the beginning, but sort of flat in the middle. However it picks up as he tries to save the family...by the end , one is crying for this young man's pain...and you realize just having a cup of coffee with your love one is a gift millions of people would envy. So many people do not have the time they should. But the best part imo was the novelisation of the family's last chapter. Gavin must of researched that history extensively...She got many facts in. It's an amazing achievement. This could not have been easy to write and yet it feels very real to me. We know Olga spent most of her time those last weeks with her brother and mother. The scene Gavin wrote between Olga and Alexi at this time is heartbreaking. Gavin also expertly show us how their captivity became worse almost weekly for 16 months. How one goes from being the first in the land to someone who isn't allowed an open window in summer. Gavin's Olga and the real Olga Nikolaevna both knew what was in store for her and her family. And yet this brave young woman some how lived day after day with that knowledge, and was there for her family until they all walked down those steps to the cellar. I've read it 3 times, I will be reading it again!

A lovely novel, though long out of print...

I purchased this used paperback earlier this spring, on the recommendation of several friends. It was a relatively quick read. A few characterizations were rather hyperbolic, and the 'romance' for Olga Nicolaievna was not historically accurate (a grain of truth, I'll give it that). It was, however, a rare and enjoyable fictional account of how things could have actually played out. Hardcore young OTMA fans who can't get enough of the young Grand Duchesses will dig it. :o)

Lovely.

A lovely chronicle of the last years of Imperial Russia and the five children that made the lives of Nicholas and Alexandra so happy, despite the horrors of the country. Told through Olga Nikolaevna, the eldest Grand Duchess who was extremely intelligent and enjoyed writing poetry and reading novels, it's a great resource for those interested in the children of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna--the last tsar and tsaritsa of Russia. The only weak point is that they hardly ever used the nicknames so common in the family--Olga was commonly called by her sisters "Olishka," Tatiana as "Tanya," etcetera. The writing quality overrides those annoyances, definitely...a sad and poigant story of a young woman who could have been someone if she did not hold the name of Romanova.

Quite simply, the best fictional account of the Romanovs

This is, without a doubt, my favorite book of all time. Though the story is fiction, it truly captures the characters of the last Tsar and his family. Told through the eyes of Olga, the eldest daughter, this book is a must read for any Romanov enthusiast!