Natasha

Natasha is the beautiful heroine of Leo Tolstoy’s epic, War and Peace, first published in 1869 and widely considered one of the finest works of literature ever written. In essence, the book depicts the French (Napoleonic) 1812 invasion of Russia and its effect upon the aristocracy. Natasha is a member of one of those families, who evolves from a light-hearted, flirtatious and somewhat vain young girl into a mature and lovely wife and mother (and it only takes about 1,200 pages). Natasha is not a typical, sheltered 19th century maiden. She almost elopes with Anatole, she learns the nature of spiritual love while nursing the fatally wounded Andrei, and she ultimately finds her deepest fulfillment in her marriage to Pierre, bearing him four children. Against the backdrop of the war, Natasha beautifully represents what is being lost by the Russian populace, as well as the bright hope of new beginnings. In the 1956 film version, Audrey Hepburn plays Natasha – who better, indeed?!

Written by Rosemary Crawford, “Michael and Natasha” is both an astonishing love story and an illuminating look at the last glorious days of the Romanovs and the brutal revolution that ended their reign. Based on private diaries, letters, and documents long hidden in the Soviet archives, it sheds light on an extraordinary tale of enduring love and ultimate tragedy that, until now, has never been told. He was the Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich, the tall, dashing brother of Tsar Nicholas II. She was Nathalie Wulfert, a beautiful, elegant, intelligent, divorced commoner, and the wife of a Guards officer under Michael's command. Everything was wrong...yet for Grand Duke Michael, it was love at first sight-an obsession that would lead to disgrace, humiliation, and exile. Much of Michael and Natasha's story is told in their own words, through hundreds of hitherto unpublished letters. Here they reveal their passion, their joy, and their despair as they are banished from their own country, bathed in scandal in the courts of Europe, and forced to suffer cruel separation. But more than a love story, Michael and Natasha is a historical drama played out against the elegant background of a bygone age and a world at war. It is a spell-binding account of Michael's return to Russia, his reputation as a war hero, the downfall of Nicholas II, the strange and short reign of Grand Duke Michael, and the cruel and tragic end of one of the most colorful eras in world history.