"A Woman Loved", by Andreï Makine
Catherine the Great, the most renowned and longest-ruling Empress of Russia, who was also widely seen as a clever politician, an influential patron and an insatiable lover, was certainly admired, desired, feared, or hated as an enlightened despot. But was she ever loved for herself as a woman? wonders novelist Andreï Makine, through his character Oleg Erdmann, a Russian film director fascinated by Catherine II of Russia.
Beyond the black – or golden – legend that surrounds this mythic figure of the XVIIIth century and beyond official History, this filmmaker would like to see right through her intimate truth, her “rosebud”. Before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he attempts to portray her by removing the showy mask that turned her into a caricatural Messaline in collective psyche.
Far from being an umpteenth unimaginative biography of Catherine II, this captivating novel by the author of acclaimed Le Testament français is about ingeniously comparing Enlightenment Europe with modern Russia. A Woman Loved*, written with psychological acuity, is above all else about self-expression – artistic or sentimental, past or present.
A Woman Loved, by Andreï Makine, translated by Geoffrey Strachan, MacLehose Press (paperback), 2016.