![]() Varvara, though shamed and horrified, nevertheless accepts Bestuzhev’s offer to instruct her in the art of spycraft - her only escape from years of potential servitude.Bestuzhev trains Varvara to the task of fading into the background, learning to watch and listen … and report. In a supremely sleazy and horrible moment, he molests Varvara, but tells her it’s OK because he’s left her a virgin. ![]() She starts at the Palace working on the Imperial Wardrobe under the tyrannical Chief Seamstress, until she is luckily (or not so luckily?) discovered by Count Bestuzhev, the Chancellor of Russia. The teenaged Barbara, or rather, “Varvara Nikolayevna” to the Russians, is a Polish girl, lonely and out of place after her father’s death. This time, it’s from the point of view of Catherine’s “gazette,” her “tongue” - a young lower-class orphan who eventually becomes a spy at the Imperial Court. The Winter Palace, Eva Stachniak’s third book, gives us just that in another take on the well-known story of Catherine the Great. ![]() From Tchaikovsky to the Tsars, the Russkies are always good for some intrigue and extravagance. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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