Reviews of Love and Conquest

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“A wonderfully readable collection that is beautifully translated and shrewdly edited. It is hard to exaggerate how entertaining and poignant these letters are, while Smith’s edition is also vitally important for understanding Catherine’s regime and the creation of the Russian Empire.”
~New York Review of Books

“Smith’s superb account of Catherine and Potemkin’s peerless love-affair and political partnership is an erudite but unforgettable, exuberant yet heartbreaking voyage into the friendship and love, power, sexuality and ambition behind one of history’s greatest romances.” 
~Financial Times

“Fascinating . . . The most comprehensive and scholarly English-language edition to date.” 
~Times Literary Supplement

“Excellent . . . hugely readable and revealing . . . an important addition to the study of eighteenth-century Russia.” 
~Hermitage Magazine

“Full of the passion of a romance novel . . . fascinating.” 
~Russian Life

“Superb”
~The Australian

“An extraordinary firsthand account of courtly life and love in 18th-century imperial Russia.”
~Passport Moscow

“Smith’s book is an essential read for anyone interested in eighteenth-century Russia, or Russian history in general.” 
~Slavic and East European Journal

“Douglas Smith’s excellent translation of the correspondence between Catherine and Potemkin now offers what no secondary account can: a lively, and far more immediate, portrayal of the personal and political relationship that produced many of Catherine’s greatest achievements.” 
~Slavic Review

“Carefully conceived and magnificently executed, this splendid translation allows readers access to an exceptionally instructive and entertaining source.”
~Simon Dixon, author of Catherine the Great

“Love and Conquest is an extraordinarily impressive achievement that will be the standard English reference for years to come.”
~Professor Ronald Vroon, UCLA