Download The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great AudioBook Free
From award-winning creator Eva Stachniak comes this keen novel that illuminates, as only fiction can, the first life of one of history's boldest women. The Winter Palace explains to the epic account of Catherine the Great's improbable go up to force - as seen through the ever-watchful sight of your all-but-invisible servant near to the throne. Her name is Barbara - in Russian, Varvara. Nimble-witted and attentive, she's allowed in to the hire of the Empress Elizabeth, amid the glitter and cruelty of the world's most eminent courtroom. Beneath the tutelage of Count up Bestuzhev, Chancellor and spymaster, Varvara will be informed in skills from lock picking to lovemaking, learning above all else to listen - and also to wait for opportunity. That opportunity occurs in a slim young princess from Zerbst known as Sophie, a playful teenager destined to become the indomitable Catherine the fantastic. Sophie's future at courtroom is to marry the Empress's nephew, but she's other, loftier, more threatening ambitions, and she proves to become more guileful than she first appears. What Sophie needs can be an insider at courtroom, a loyal couple of sight and ears who is aware the traps, the conspiracies, and the treacheries that surround her. Varvara will become Sophie's confidante - and alongside one another the two young women will climb to the pinnacle of overall power. With dazzling details and extreme drama, Eva Stachniak depicts Varvara's hidden knowledge alliance with Catherine as the princess grows into a legend - through an enforced relationship, illicit seductions, and, finally, the surprising coup to assume the throne of all of Russia. Impeccably investigated and magnificently written, The Winter Palace can be an irresistible peek through the keyhole of one of history's grandest stories.
