'Your Majesty may find it extraordinary that I should answer with a shipment of fruit your letter of 6 August, in which you inform me that you are sending the plan for a treaty, and that of the 8 September, in which you are so good as to share with me equally important intelligence. Things big and small often come from the same source: my watermelons derive from the same principles as our planned alliance...' (To Frederick the
Great)Catherine the Great's letters present a vivid picture of Russia in a momentous age. They also offer a unique account of her personal development and intimate life, her strategic acumen as a diplomat and military
commander, and her political skills at the Russian court and in handling foreign monarchs. Born a German princess, Catherine married into the Russian royal family and came to the throne after a coup. As absolute ruler for 34 years she presided over the expansion of the Russian empire, legislated actively to reform the country in keeping with the principles of the Enlightenment, actively promoted the arts and sciences, and in her correspondence engaged with the most renowned minds in Europe,
among them Diderot and Voltaire. Her letters are her literary masterpiece, written to a wide circle of associates and friends, not least her most celebrated lover and ally, Potemkin. Combining her wit,
charm, and quick eye for detail, they entertain and tell the griping story of a self-made woman and legendary ruler. This edition of the letters offers a taste of Catherine's entire writing career, with biographies of Catherine's addressees, a thorough overview of her reign and an analysis of Catherine's literary skill as a letter-writer. Organized chronologically and thematically into six periods, each section also features an introduction to the domestic, personal and
foreign policy contexts out of which her letters emerge.
'Your Majesty may find it extraordinary that I should answer with a shipment of fruit your letter of 6 August, in which you inform me that you are sending the plan for a treaty, and that of the 8 September, in which you are so good as to share with me equally important intelligence. Things big and small often come from the same source: my watermelons derive from the same principles as our planned alliance...' (To Frederick the
Great)Catherine the Great's letters present a vivid picture of Russia in a momentous age. They also offer a unique account of her personal development and intimate life, her strategic acumen as a diplomat and military
commander, and her political skills at the Russian court and in handling foreign monarchs. Born a German princess, Catherine married into the Russian royal family and came to the throne after a coup. As absolute ruler for 34 years she presided over the expansion of the Russian empire, legislated actively to reform the country in keeping with the principles of the Enlightenment, actively promoted the arts and sciences, and in her correspondence engaged with the most renowned minds in Europe,
among them Diderot and Voltaire. Her letters are her literary masterpiece, written to a wide circle of associates and friends, not least her most celebrated lover and ally, Potemkin. Combining her wit,
charm, and quick eye for detail, they entertain and tell the griping story of a self-made woman and legendary ruler. This edition of the letters offers a taste of Catherine's entire writing career, with biographies of Catherine's addressees, a thorough overview of her reign and an analysis of Catherine's literary skill as a letter-writer. Organized chronologically and thematically into six periods, each section also features an introduction to the domestic, personal and
foreign policy contexts out of which her letters emerge.
Introduction
Note on the Text and Translation
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of the Life and Reign of Catherine the Great
SELECTED LETTERS
Explanatory Notes
Gazetteer
Andrew Kahn has written widely on Russian literature. His books
include The Cambridge Companion to Pushkin (2006) and Pushkin's
Lyric Intelligence (2008). For Oxford World's Classics he has
edited Pushkin's The Queen of Spades and Other Stories,
Montesquieu's Persian Letters, Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time. and
Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories. Kelsey
Rubin-Detlev read Modern Languages
(French and Russian) at Christ Church, Oxford, and was awarded a
Congratulatory First. She completed her doctoral dissertation at
Oxford on the subject of Catherine the Great and epistolarity.
These selected letters are an irresistible encapsulation of
emergent Russia in the mid-to-late eighteenth century and involve
the principal players in Europe during the Age of Reason. This
volume, with its careful annotation by Kahn and Rubin-Detlev, is a
valuable companion to Catherine the Great scholarship.
*Patrick Hunt, Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance
Studies*
With their wide range of correspondents and topics, these letters,
which have been ably translated, will help further understanding of
this most charismatic of Russian rulers, whose tastes and
personality helped shape Enlightenment Europe.
*Vera Proskurina (2019) Catherine the great: selected letters,
Women's Writing*
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