Review of Natasha's Dance

Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes

A magnificent book of great scope and worth

is Orlando Figes story of the cultural history

of Russia. A wonderful book to read! I am still

in awe of such a wonderful and scholarly work.

This book is full of magnificence, great wealth and

splendour with stories of princes, tsars and paupers.

I found this book fascinating for its insight and

sensitivity in writing

of its people, mountains, scenery and countryside

of Russia. It is a book of great

beauty, in the writing and also in the content of the book.

There are powerful and evocative descriptions

of pieces of poetry or prose which had been

written by some of the great

writers in Russian literature included in the story.

I am reminded that there is a review on the back cover of

the book which states that the reviewer does not like to

say too much about the book so as not to spoil it for the

reader.

This book is enlightening and wonderful.

Also educational. It is majestic in its scope, describing

palaces of princes, lives of great writers,

folk-lore and customs.

I loved the folk-loric nature of the

book with majestic stories and beliefs concerning cities, towns

and cities of

imagination and legend which were believed to have existed at times under a

lake, the healing properties of certain places

or of the gripping detail provided in stories by Gogol or

Dostoevsky. Tales of imagination abound for St Petersburg

with its bronze horseman. Fascinating! Great story-telling. I will

have to read some of Gogol's tales which certainly give an aura of the

fantastic, colour and

atmosphere to the history of the culture of Russia.

The colours and culture of Russia seem so different from

the rest of Europe. This may have been due to the eastern influences.

St Petersburg was built in more traditional Western European concepts

and architecture. This is a beautiful city which I visited in 2009. Moscow

is different again, and yet the architecture from Muscovy is a splendour with the

magnificent gold domes of cathedrals and churches which can often be seen from afar

when travelling about the city or the countryside.

In the earlier days before Russia became a Soviet

state the aristocracy was often encouraged to build palaces.

These palaces often became a place of learning, culture and

civilisation.

Prince Potemkin built

an exotic palace on the Crimea and in a note there is a mention of a book written

about him titled “Prince of Princes” by Simon Sebag Montefiore

which I would like to also read.

Great warmth and humanity, dignity and valour and personal conflict and endurance are revealed in the stories of Count Sheremetev and Prince Volkonsky.

Wonderful descriptions are given of the music, ballet, prose, poetry, gifted artists, musicians and

film makers with stories of their lives which gives an added appeal to the book for the humanity and personalities of the people involved. The book is on a personal level with the characters and it is not difficult

to often sympathise with the characters and their personal situations. Their lives were very real and the times very true. Colour plates of characters and illustrations of the

colour of arts, theatre and design provide interesting detail into aspects of the culture and arts.

The theme of the book is enduring beauty and even in the bleakest moments, sorrows and sadness,

the spirit and strength of some of the great artists who may have been living in difficult times in Russia still shine through.

In his notes the author has admitted that it did take him a long time to write this book but I am

so glad that he wrote it and also glad that I have read it. It is difficult to imagine that so much wonder, splendour and beauty can be written in one book but this certainly is the case with “Natasha's Dance” the title of which comes from Leo Tolstoy's “War and Peace.”

Full accolades for the author. At the introduction a Russian countess who had been brought up

by French governesses knew how to dance a Russian dance and picked up the rhythm. All things

French were wonderful and admired until Napoleon came to Russia. Thereafter, as described in

the chapter of “Children of 1812” some of the nobility turned away from European values and

concepts and returned to the beauty of the land and rural countryside of the Steppe and wished to

revert to more Russian ways of life. Some of the aristocracy had befriended soldiers of the peasantry in the army and had gained a renewed respect for these people who had come from the rural villages and land of Russia.

A wonderful achievement to write a book of such grand scope.

The beauty and descriptions of the times in Russia are portrayed vividly. The colours and scope of the landscape, the Siberian Steppe, the nomads and various clans and khans who conquered the territory in the 12^th century, the folk-lore, songs and dances, traditions and the times of the tsars and a later

more fraught time which is depicted in a chapter of “Russia through a Soviet Lens” is a magnificent and scholarly accomplishment by the author. The book is quite compelling full of lively descriptions and anecdotes which makes “Natasha's Dance” fascinating to read.