Dear Reader,
Helen Rappaport fell in love with Russian at school and after completing Russian Special Studies at Leeds University, worked as a freelance editor in academic publishing. She became a full-time professional historian in 1998 with her first published book Joseph Stalin: A Biographical Companion.
Since then, she has produced 17 titles ranging from late 18th-century Russia through the reign of Queen Victoria, to late Imperial Russia and the 1917 Revolution.
She is now working on her 18th book. Her new title is The Rebel Romanov...the story of a courageous young Imperial Grand Duchess who scandalized Europe in search of freedom.
In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson Constantine, who stood third in line to her throne. In an eerie echo of her own story, Catherine selected an innocent young German princess, Julie of Saxe-Coburg, aunt of the future Queen Victoria. Though Julie had everything a young bride could wish for, she was alone in a court dominated by an aging empress and riven with rivalries, plotting, and gossip―not to mention her brute of a husband. She longed to leave Russia and her disastrous marriage, but her family in Germany refused to allow her to do so.
You could win one of three copies of The Rebel Romanov Send an email with your preferred shipping address (in case you're a winner) to: [email protected]
Reach out to Helen: https://helenrappaport.com/contact/
Please welcome back to the book club, author Helen Rappaport...
Over the course of researching and writing several books that have focused on Russia, the Romanovs or the 1917 Revolution, I have found it necessary to draw on all my language skills, even dormant ones. Since the age of 14, I have--to varying levels of proficiency–studied French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian and Bulgarian. This has proved extremely valuable in my writing, for, on every book, in one way or another I have had to conjure up my long dormant knowledge of a language in order to access valuable sources.
The challenge of research in foreign languages goes with the territory for any historian who steps outside of their own native history. In covering the late-18th to early-20th century in Europe, I have had to trawl far and wide for new, forgotten and overlooked sources beyond those in English. For it is in obscure foreign-language sources that one often uncovers wonderful new material, that proves to be crucial in bringing fresh insights to the historical narrative one is writing.
The greatest range of language research I ever embarked on was for my 2018 book 'The Race to Save the Romanovs,' where, in covering the attitude of the royal houses of Europe to the plight of the Russian imperial family, I needed, in addition to my usual languages, to access material in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. At which point, I hired somebody to help. In such situations, this is a necessary expense.
Although Russian is my main language, I thankfully have very good French, which is essential, for in Russia throughout the 19th century the aristocracy all spoke fluent French, some better than they did their own native Russian. In the case of Julie of Saxe-Coburg, a central key resource were the letters she wrote and received from friends and family in French; her Russian was poor and her German spelling and grammar eccentric. Thank heavens for those letters in French, because any historian who has had experience of it, will tell you that having to tackle primary sources in old German Kurrentschrift is one of the biggest nightmares in any project relating to 18th –19th century Germany.
This was the challenge that I was faced with when I first embarked on research for 'The Rebel Romanov.' German was by far my weakest language; indeed, my knowledge was rudimentary. I began my research in published German sources painfully slowly, dictionary in hand, inching my way along. I knew I would need help, especially in accessing and deciphering the arcane German material held in the Staatsarchiv, Coburg. It was expensive, but the expert skills of a specialist revealed many new insights into Julie’s story that I could never have hoped to reach otherwise and which transformed the narrative.
-- Helen Rappaport
https://helenrappaport.com/contact/
You could win one of three copies of The Rebel Romanov Send an email with your preferred shipping address (in case you're a winner) to: [email protected]
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
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