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Book Summary and Reviews of A Romanov Fantasy by Frances Welch

A Romanov Fantasy by Frances Welch

A Romanov Fantasy

Life at the Court of Anna Anderson

by Frances Welch

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  • Published:
  • Sep 2007, 340 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Did the seventeen-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia survive the massacre of the Russian imperial family in 1918? Over the years, the possibility that the youngest of the Tzar's four daughters might have escaped the killings has provided rich spawning ground for claimants.

By far the best known of these was Anna Anderson, a mysterious young woman who appeared in Berlin in 1920. Anna attracted a bizarre coterie of supporters—some of whom had known the grand duchess as a child—who risked life and limb, and often all 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 tragic comedy in the best Russian tradition—a compelling, eerie, and frequently hilarious study of discipleship, snobbery, and life after death. 54 illustrations.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Welch has researched a complex and compelling history, a testament to the power of self-delusion and the desperate human need to believe in something bigger than ourselves." - PW.

This information about A Romanov Fantasy was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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