Princess Tarakanova

Author's name: Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky

Princess Tarakanova by Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky... The novel deals with a story from Russian history, replete with dramatic and bloody events. Its events took place at the end of the eighteenth century, and its mysterious ending may bear witness to the cruelty of the era of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. The story may seem ordinary: another princess—like many princes throughout history—claimed her rightful inheritance to the throne of Russia. However, the threads of Princess Tarakanova's story, conveyed to us by the Russian writer Danilevsky in a dramatic form, reveal an important aspect of the tales of the Russian imperial court. The events of the dramatic story we follow, intertwined with the fates of its heroes, provide us with important glimpses into the endless struggles and conspiracies of the throne, which those aspiring to the throne consider a legitimate right. Where nothing drives the helm of life at court but self-interest, and everyone denies themselves the guilt of the victims. Who is the culprit in this story? Good intentions, ambition, or greed? All this is in a historical drama, told by the author through the mouth of an officer in the Russian Navy, in his memoirs, which he threw into the sea moments before a storm hit the ship he boarded on his way back to his homeland.