The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of the modern era, ruling over one-sixth of the Earth's surface. How did one family manage to turn a war-torn principality into one of the world's greatest empires? And how did they lose everything? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some of whom were touched by genius, others by madness, but all inspired by the divine empire and imperial ambition. The captivating chronicler Montefiore reveals their secret world of absolute power and intense imperial necessity, marked by palace intrigues, family rivalries, sexual indulgence, and dazzling luxury, inhabited by an array of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries, and poets. Written with stunning literary flair and based on new archival research, THE BOOK OF THE ROMANOVS is both a dramatic chronicle of triumph and tragedy, love and death, a universal study of power and a definitive portrait of the empire that still defines Russia today.