About
Reviews (4)
23 September 2009
A Gift for someone else
this was a gift to someone else. I have no intention of reading it. Just wrote this to get the reminder gone.
01 May 2009
Precious Memories
2 of 2 found this helpful I loved Princess Diana very much, and I was so sad when she died.
Like a lot of little girls, I grew up dreaming of marrying a prince. She did, and he turned out to be a frog. I married a prince of a fellow, and have been happy. Diana's life was a bit exalted and certainly more glamorous than most women's lives, yet she shared the same trials and tribulations as all of us. So I felt close to her, and her life encouraged me to keep going in the rough spots.
It's a bit strange to think of listening to a recording of, of all things, a funeral. But Diana's funeral was as much about our recommitment to service as it was about remembering her life. In consequence, when I listened to this recording I felt uplifted and strengthened, ready again to confront my difficulties, ready again to fight for the betterment of the ones I serve.
When it was delivered, Earl Spencer's eulogy was received enthusiatically. His pointed criticism of the Royal Family was astute and welcome. Over the years, however, I questioned his judgement. It is right and proper for subjects to criticize their monarch. After all, a sharp rebuke is easier to tolerate than a sharp ax. But I wondered if he should have reserved those statements for a different time and place. Hearing the tribute again, I realize that he got it exactly right. An uneasy balance, but fundamentally correct and in retrospect, not out of place.
Diana's funeral was about remembering her with love, and about keeping her alive by dedicating ourselves to being ourselves the aspects of her we most admired.
16 April 2009
No New Research: Romanov Fantasy by Frances Welch
I'm very glad that I bought this book on eBay, because it isn't worth paying retail to read a retelling of already published accounts of Anna Anderson's adventures.
Those living with the Romanov virus are familiar with Anderson's story: an unknown woman was rescued from a suicide attempt in 1920 and later identified by other inmates of a German insane asylum as the supposedly dead Anastasia, youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. DNA evidence revealed in the 1990s that Anderson was really Polish factory worker Franziska Schanzkowska. By 2009, DNA has also confirmed the real Anastasia died with her family in 1918.
I was particularly disappointed to find Welch does not even try to explain why Schanzkowska adopted the false identity nor how she succeeded in deceiving so many people who had known the real Anastasia well. Welch hints at other cases of mistaken or false identity, but does not try to draw parallels to Anderson/Schanzkowska.
Now that the truth of what happened in the basement of the Ipatiev house has been revealed and the bodies identified, it is time to turn to the question of what those deaths meant. Part of that question must involve a study of the pretended survivors. Unfortunately, Romanov Fantasy adds nothing to our understanding of the most famous imposter. Perhaps it can be said that like Anna Anderson, Romanov Fantasy is a disappointing facsimile of the genuine article.