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  • Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses

  • By: Helen Rappaport
  • Narrated by: Karen Cass
  • Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (94 ratings)
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Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses cover art

Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses

By: Helen Rappaport
Narrated by: Karen Cass
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Summary

Award-winning and critically acclaimed historian Helen Rappaport turns to the tragic story of the daughters of the last Tsar of all the Russias, slaughtered with their parents at Ekaterinburg. On 17 July 1918, four young women walked down 23 steps into the cellar of a house in Ekaterinburg. The eldest was 22, the youngest only 17. Together with their parents and their 13-year-old brother, they were all brutally murdered. Their crime: to be the daughters of the last Tsar and Tsaritsa of All the Russias. Much has been written about Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their tragic fate, as it has about the Russian Revolutions of 1917, but little attention has been paid to the Romanov princesses, who - perhaps inevitably - have been seen as minor players in the drama.

In Four Sisters, however, acclaimed biographer Helen Rappaport puts them centre stage and offers listeners the most authoritative account yet of the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. Drawing on their own letters and diaries and other hitherto unexamined primary sources, she paints a vivid picture of their lives in the dying days of the Romanov dynasty. We see, almost for the first time, their journey from a childhood of enormous privilege, throughout which they led a very sheltered and largely simple life, to young womanhood - their first romantic crushes, their hopes and dreams, the difficulty of coping with a mother who was a chronic invalid and a haeomophiliac brother, and, latterly, the trauma of the revolution and its terrible consequences.

Compellingly listenable, meticulously researched, and deeply moving, Four Sisters gives these young women a voice, and allows their story to resonate for listeners almost a century after their death.

©2014 Helen Rappaport (P)2014 Macmillan Publishers, Ltd.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Rappaport does a superb job of individualising the four girls and their little brother, murdered by the Bolsheviks during the Revolution. A counter-argument would of course ask, what about the lives of ordinary Russian children who died of starvation whilst the Tsar and his family ensconced themselves in their beautiful home, but Rappaport is sensitive to this, and stresses the girls’ efforts as nurses during the First World War, creating sympathy out of their general isolation." ( Independent on Sunday, Lesley McDowell)
"This biography of the grand duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia offers an alternative view of the Romanov dynasty’s collapse." ( The Daily Telegraph Review)
"One of the greatest skills a historian can possess is to make readers feel as if they have stepped back in time to witness the characters, places and events they describe. In her stunning composite biography, Helen Rappaport achieves this to dazzling and, at times, almost unbearably poignant effect." (Tracy Borman, BBC History Magazine)

What listeners say about Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best book on the romanov sisters

I love this book and having listening to it for years as it was up on YouTube for a while but the narrator was different, she was a native Russian but with not too strong an accent so you could still understand everything ( I think maybe this was the audiobook for the American market) so I was disappointed when I listen to the sample and it was a different narrator but didn't stop me buying the book as Helen Rappaport has always produced really engaging and emotional books on the romanovs.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

History brought to life

Very entertaining and found myself becoming emotionally engaged in the outcome of this tragic family. I wanted them to be able to find some sort of comfort, even though I knew from the start what happened to them. Really good story, although I could have done without the narrator frequently saying "sic". Not sure what this was about, but very irritating. Otherwise really excellent

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written

I really enjoyed this book. It focused on the girls life rather than their death and was touching and interesting. I feel it bought to life both the family and the political and social issues of that period in time. I really enjoyed it. The narration was on the whole very good

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating listening and well narrated

This is an excellent book if, like me, you are interested in the varying aspects of life in Europe at the turn of the century. It is extremely well written and deals with the desperately sad fate of this vivacious young family with compassion but without sensationalism. As much a depiction of the Tsar, Tsarina and Tsarevich as the Grand Duchesses, the family emerges as close, compassionate and mutually supportive, and the girls as complex, intelligent and engaging. Engrossing from start to finish, I couldn't help but be left speculating on the futures, of which these young people were deprived.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Rich in personal details but little context

I found this story poignant and moving. I couldn't help but be sympathetic to the 4 sisters and the last imperial family as a people who seemed very loving and devoted to one another.
I did miss getting a wider context on how the Tsar came to be the last of his kind; reading Tolstoy has given me a better sense of the Russian ruling classes. However the author's account is rich in detail and gathered from much 1st hand accounts and as such is fascinating when compared to the lives of monarchies in democracies in modern times. o really enjoyed meeting the 5 different characters and especially the 4 doomed sisters.

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fantastic book, not fiction but as easy to listen

very easy to listen to book, il be looking for more by both the author and the narrator

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating history of the Romanov sisters

Would you listen to Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses again? Why?

I will certainly be listening to this audiobook again.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses?

Hearing how the sisters were at their happiest when holidaying on their yacht, The Standart, and learning about the close-knot family bonds was very touching.

What does Karen Cass bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Karen Cass's narration brings the girls' letters to life, as well as those of their mother, father, brother and associates.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Four extraordinary sisters. One extraordinary family.

Any additional comments?

A fascinating insight into the lives of the Romanovs that looks at them as individuals, as opposed to solely being tragic victims.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent listening

I enjoyed this book in the car while travelling excellent if you are fascinated by the Romanov family.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Lost Lives, Never Forgotten

After reading the excellent and extremely poignant Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport I simply had to move onto Four Sisters. This book acts as a prequel, the lives of the Romanov family up until those fateful events in July 1917. The focus, as the title suggests is on the four Grand Duchesses, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, but it essentially a look into the private lives of all the family.

It gives everything you would expect, when they were born, what was going on in Russia, how it was perceived, how the family interacted with each other and those around them, what they like to do for fun, their personalities and love interests. But the shame being, these young and sheltered girls lives were lost, cut short and stolen by angry and frustrated men.

The book reads well and is a great length for the subject matter and is essential reading for understanding Russia. They were a huge part of it, then as they are now. They should not be forgotten and serve as a reminder of the horrors of war and the Russian Revolution. Some may say that, the proletariat, peasant or lower classes suffered too. This is covered in this and other books, but this is a flaccid point and misses the point. They were part of a national institution that was washed away with the revolution. Everyone should be against the murder of innocent children. I raise my glass in memory.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A short story with lots of padding

One accepts that because of the short and limited lives of the subjects the story will be thin but it is stretched to the point of boredom and not helped by the irritating theatrics of the narrator. An actress she is not and her amateur dramatics just got in the way.

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