Once a Grand Duchess
Xenia, Sister of Nicolas II
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Narrated by:
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Anne Flosnik
About this listen
This biography of Xenia, sister of Nicholas II gives a new angle on the Romanov story and provides new information on relationships within the family after the Revolution.
©2002, 2004 John Van der Kiste and Coryne Hall (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
History’s most unlikely friendship - this is the astonishing story of Queen Victoria and her dearest companion, the young Indian Munshi Abdul Karim. In the twilight years of her reign, after the devastating deaths of her two great loves - Prince Albert and John Brown - Queen Victoria meets tall and handsome Abdul Karim, a humble servant from Agra waiting tables at her Golden Jubilee. The two form an unlikely bond and within a year Abdul becomes a powerful figure at court, the Queen’s teacher, her counsel on Urdu and Indian affairs, and a friend close to her heart.
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Honestly, can’t finish yet.
- By Cassie on 12-30-17
By: Shrabani Basu
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Those Wild Wyndhams
- Three Sisters at the Heart of Power
- By: Claudia Renton
- Narrated by: Claudia Renton
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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They were confidantes to British prime ministers, poets, writers, and artists, their lives entwined with the most celebrated and scandalous figures of the day, from Oscar Wilde to Henry James. They were the lovers of great men - or men of great prominence... They lived in a world of luxurious excess, a world of splendor at 44 Belgrave Square and later at the even more vast Clouds, the exquisite Wiltshire house on 4,000 acres, the "house of the age", designed in 1876 by the visionary architect Philip Webb - the model for Henry James' The Spoils of Poynton.
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SLOW START BUT STICK WITH THIS ONE
- By The Louligan on 01-22-19
By: Claudia Renton
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Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
- By: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the setting for Julian Fellowes’s Emmy Award-winning PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Catherine Wendell.
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Not what was advertised
- By Jessica C Anderson on 09-10-19
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Becoming Queen Victoria
- The Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch
- By: Kate Williams
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1819, a girl was born to the fourth son of King George III. No one could have expected such an unassuming, overprotected girl to be an effective ruler - yet Queen Victoria would become one of the most powerful monarchs in history. Writing with novelistic flair and historical precision, Kate Williams reveals a vibrant woman in the prime of her life, while chronicling the byzantine machinations that continued even after the crown was placed on her head.
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Extremely Well Written and Readable
- By Wren on 04-01-17
By: Kate Williams
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Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey
- The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
- By: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration and setting for Julian Fellowes's Emmy Award-winning PBS series, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants: Lady Almina, the fifth Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.
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the lowdown on Downton times
- By connie on 03-17-12
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The Glitter and the Gold
- The American Duchess - In Her Own Words
- By: Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfill her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home: Blenheim Palace. The ninth Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era.
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Facinating Story- Terrible reading
- By Ashley D on 03-27-14
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The Assassination of the Archduke
- Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World
- By: Greg King, Sue Woolmans
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against a backdrop of glittering privilege, The Assassination ofthe Archduke combines royal history, touching romance, and political murder in a moving portrait of the end of an era. One hundred years after the event, it offers the startling truth behind the Sarajevo assassinations, including Serbian complicity, and examines rumors of conspiracy and official negligence.
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Sarajevo trip in riveting slow motion
- By Skeptical on 06-29-14
By: Greg King, and others
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Victoria
- A Life
- By: A. N. Wilson
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 21 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The longest reigning British monarch and female sovereign in history, Queen Victoria was a figure of profound paradox who has mystified historians for over a century. Now in this magisterial biography, A.N. Wilson rebukes the conventional wisdom about her life - that she was merely a "funny little woman in a bonnet" who did next to nothing - to show she was in fact intensely involved in state affairs despite a public façade of inaction.
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This book has old and new info
- By Dr. A. on 10-29-14
By: A. N. Wilson
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Wallis in Love
- The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy
- By: Andrew Morton
- Narrated by: Molly Parker Myers
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of the Netflix series The Crown and from the author of the New York Times best seller 17 Carnations comes a captivating biography of Wallis Simpson, the notorious woman for whom Edward VIII gave up the throne.
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This one is being returned
- By Rita T on 02-15-18
By: Andrew Morton
What listeners say about Once a Grand Duchess
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- bgrant
- 01-26-24
Somewhat disappointing
Despite my great interest in Russian history, I found the biography disappointing as history took a back seat to endless reading of correspondence amongst "impoverished" nobility scattered across Europe after the Revolution.
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- Lisa M. Schirmeister
- 07-26-24
It’s a hard listen
Narrator is breathy, too soft spoken for me. Material she is reading is from diaries?
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