The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great

Just a good story. This really is a great historical novel, very well written and researched. I feel like I have spent a few days in St. Petersburg, in the cold even in August. The intrigues at court will make you squirm, but there is no content that can not be listened to in mixed company. I wish the book had a little more detail about how the coup was actually carried out (maybe the editors took too much out)I would have like more, but all in all a satisfying listen. Beata Pozniak took me by surprise, and it took me a few minutes to get it. But her narration was so perfect that I believed every minute she was the main character. She brought life to the wonderful prose and will make you feel like you were there. Russian and Polish in slightly broken English, her voice is haunting and unforgettable. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

After reading so many great reviews I was excited to listen to The Winter Palace. Historical fiction is hands down my favorite genre. I love seeing an event in history woven into a story. When well written, I almost feel I was there. I also very much enjoy stories of Russia and have been very happy listening to Russian Winter and The Romanov Bride.

The Winter Palace fails on so many levels. First, as others have said, the narration was terrible. It's not only the accent, it's more the odd way the narrator emphasizes her sentences. With a good enough story it could be overlooked but this story was boring, boring, boring. I almost didn't finish it.

Next was the poor character development. Catherine the Great is seen as a simpering, crying, and maipulated fool, and her husband is a man who never grew up and a total idiot. The Empress Elizabeth is cruel and horrible. Who could care what happened to any of them? Historically accurate or not (no idea), I could not have cared less about any of them. Even the protagonist was a shallow, weak woman who only took control at the end of the story and by then I was just happy for it to end. Was there nothing redeeming about any of these people? We never see any inkling of why Catherine was named The Great.

Another issue was how the author continually used foreshadowing that never went anywhere. I found it annoying to hear the narrator say "I later wished I had noticed the bitterness in his voice." So I expected that to be explained "later," but it never was. Either the editing was terrible or the author just doesn't weave a story well.

And I was so often distracted with the dullness of the story I found myself lost with who was who and had to rewind to listen to pieces to figure out what was happening, which generally wasn't very much. The author also has a tendency to refer to people by two names and it gets confusing to whom she is referring. In the first half of the book the Chancellor of Russia is important character, and then in the second half he loses his position and is refered to by name. Somewhere along the line I missed his name and so I was continually trying to figure out if this guy was the former Chancellor or some other male character. I don't think the reader/listener should have to work that hard.

Finally, this book just failed to grab my attention or keep it for any length of time. Just a disappointment overall. Hopefully my next credit will be a much better listen!

The Readers monotone and slow reading makes it difficult to enjoy. I would have enjoy this book more reading on my own.

I love historical novels and Eva Stachniak is like the Joseph Conrad of this genre. Her powerful sense of storytelling and vivid use of language are simply mesmerizing. Moreover, Beata Pozniak’s narration perfectly captures the exotic beauty of the special time and place of the Russian court. With so many colorful and complex characters in Winter Palace, the narrator provides a beautiful range of foreign accents (Polish, German, French & British) and unique intonation to each one to make this a truly authentic and unforgettable journey.

The clever invention of this novel is that it is told from the point of view of Barbara, a young girl, who arrives at the royal court as a lowly seamstress after the death of her parents. Her guile and ambition soon take her on a path to becoming a master spy with secrets that change the course of history. Since Barbara was born in Poland, Pozniak's portrayal of her with a slight Polish accent gives the character a wonderful resonance. Her hypnotic timbre was so engaging it pulled me into the imperial bedrooms of the Russian Winter Palace and dazzled me with the political intrigues of the Royal Court. I soon felt that I was, like Barbara, becoming a super spy. Thanks to the atmospheric narration I could not stop listening. With Stachniak’s innate sense of storytelling and Pozniak’s remarkable gift for character portrayal, I felt transported through the bitter Russian winter to the magnificent palace of Catherine. What a terrific ride!

The reader of this book is so awful we were not able to continue listening strong accent with awkward pronunciation of words with strange choices in delivery Needless to say we couldn't continue to listen so we have no comment on the merits of the book at all

never

This started out so slow moving or should I say the narration was so slow moving that I looked in the paperbook and after 2 hours of listening I was only on page 47. I didn't like this narrator the cadence of her voice and the slow reading was too much.

I'll read this book in paper form. If you are looking for a good audio about Catherine The Great try the book by, Robert Massie narrated by, Mark Deakins that was a good one that kept my attention throughout!

Have read a few of the great Russian novels, like Dostoyevsky, and really enjoyed them, so I thought this sounded like a good story. For me the voices and the sound of the language transport me right there. Through the narrator I feel that I am really hearing the many different voices of this story, the Polish voice of Barbara, describing the naivete of Catherine when she first arrives, or the weakened voice of her mother as she nears death, or the imperial Russian voice of the czar, or a German-accented professor. What an amazing skill to deliver all these voices / personalities in such a credible way, and to render them through Barbara. To me that is really great storytelling. If you like stories of intrigue, romance, politics, insecurity, and deception among the aristocrats at court (think Dangerous Liaisons, but in Russia instead of France), mixed as a historical fiction, you'd probably enjoy this.

story line & characters effective in telling historical story. However, narrator sounded like an oriental accent. Not effective voice for character. Lacked insight into some of the events.

I read a lot of this genre and this book was just plain boring.

No

Entertaining, especially after you get past the reader's style/accent, which actually works for the Russian character, but takes a bit of letting go of expectations.

Ultimately, it worked for the story, but her accent took a bit of getting used to.