A Romanov fantasy : life at the court of Anna Anderson
This book is an extraordinary story of tenacity and intrigue, and the deep human urge to salvage hope from tragedy. On July 17, 1918, in the basement of the House of Special Purpose, a Bolshevik guard lined up Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, four daughters, and son for a picture: he claimed he had been asked for proof that none of them had escaped. Minutes later an execution squad crowded into the cellar and fired a hail of bullets at the family. Two years later, the hysterical young woman was dragged out of Berlin's Landwehr Canal. The woman claimed to be the Tsar's youngest daughter Anastasia. Did the 17-year-old Anastasia survive the massacre of the Russian Imperial family? The possibility that she might have escaped the killings has proved to be one of the most intriguing mysteries of the 20th century, and it has provided a rich spawning ground for claimants. By far the best-known of these was Anna Anderson, the mysterious young woman found in the canal in 1920. Anna attracted a bizarre coterie of supporters, including Gleb Botkin, the son of the Tsar's doctor and a childhood friend of the Grand Duchesses; and relatives of the Royal Family, who risked life and limb -- and often all of their savings -- in a desperate attempt to prove that Anastasia had, after all, survived. But who was Anna Anderson -- and just how did she manage to convince so many people that she was the real Anastasia? Frances Welch's A Romanov Fantasy is a tragicomedy in the best Russian tradition -- a compelling, eerie, and frequently hilarious study of discipleship, snobbery, and life after death. - Jacket flap
紙書籍, English, 2007
W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2007