Varvara will become Sophie’s confidante-and together the two young women will rise to the pinnacle of absolute power. What Sophie needs is an insider at court, a loyal pair of eyes and ears who knows the traps, the conspiracies, and the treacheries that surround her. Sophie’s destiny at court is to marry the Empress’s nephew, but she has other, loftier, more dangerous ambitions, and she proves to be more guileful than she first appears. That opportunity arrives in a slender young princess from Zerbst named Sophie, a playful teenager destined to become the indomitable Catherine the Great.
Under the tutelage of Count Bestuzhev, Chancellor and spymaster, Varvara will be educated in skills from lock picking to lovemaking, learning above all else to listen-and to wait for opportunity. Nimble-witted and attentive, she’s allowed into the employ of the Empress Elizabeth, amid the glitter and cruelty of the world’s most eminent court.
The Winter Palace tells the epic story of Catherine the Great’s improbable rise to power-as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of an all-but-invisible servant close to the throne. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYįrom award-winning author Eva Stachniak comes this passionate novel that illuminates, as only fiction can, the early life of one of history’s boldest women.
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