Helen Rappaport has 5 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 18 ratings. The most-rated is The Romanov Sisters.
The Romanov Sisters
Summary
They were the Princess Dianas of their day - perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early 20th century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses - Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia Romanov - were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore, and their privileged lifestyle. Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography. With this treasure trove of diaries and letters from the grand duchesses to their friends and family, we learn that they were intelligent, sensitive, and perceptive witnesses to the dark turmoil within their immediate family and the ominous approach of the Russian Revolution - the nightmare that would sweep their world away and them along with it. The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as the insecurities and poignancy of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of late Imperial Russia, World War I, and the Russian Revolution. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished letters, diaries, and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a book that will surprise people, even aficionados.
©2014 Helen Rappaport (P)2014 Macmillan Audio
The Last Days of the Romanovs
Summary
Helen Rappaport, an expert in the field of Russian history, brings you the riveting day-by-day account of the last 14 days of the Russian Imperial family, in this first of two books about the Romanovs. The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July 16 to 17, 1918, has long been a defining moment in world history. The Last Days of the Romanovs reveals in exceptional detail how the conspiracy to kill them unfolded. In the vivid style of a TV documentary, Helen Rappaport reveals both the atmosphere inside the family's claustrophobic prison and the political maneuverings of those who wished to save - or destroy - them. With the watching world and European monarchies proving incapable of saving the Romanovs, the narrative brings this tragic story to life in a compellingly new and dramatic way, culminating in a bloody night of horror in a cramped basement room.
©2008 Helen Rappaport (P)2017 Tantor
The Race to Save the Romanovs
Summary
On the 100th anniversary of the murder of the Russian imperial family, acclaimed historian Helen Rappaport embarks on a quest to uncover the many international plots to save them, why they failed, and who was responsible. The murder of the Romanov family in July 1918 horrified the world, and its aftershocks still reverberate today. In Putin's autocratic Russia, the Revolution itself is considered a crime, and its anniversary was largely ignored. In stark contrast, the centenary of the massacre of the imperial family will be commemorated in 2018 by a huge ceremony to be attended by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. While the murder itself has received major attention, what has never been investigated in detail are the various plots behind the scenes to save the family - on the part of their royal relatives, other governments, and Russian monarchists loyal to the tsar. Rappaport refutes the claim that the fault lies entirely with King George V, as has been the traditional claim for the last century. The responsibility for failing the Romanovs must be equally shared. The question of asylum for the tsar and his family was an extremely complicated issue that presented enormous political, logistical, and geographical challenges at a time when Europe was still at war. Like a modern-day detective, Helen Rappaport draws on new and never-before-seen sources from archives in the United States, Russia, Spain, and the UK, creating a powerful account of near misses and close calls with a heartbreaking conclusion. With its up-to-the-minute research, The Race to Save the Romanovs is sure to replace outdated classics as the final word on the fate of the Romanovs.
©2018 Helen Rappaport (P)2018 Macmillan Audio
A Magnificent Obsession
Summary
After the untimely death of Prince Albert, the Queen and her nation were plunged into a state of grief so profound that this one event would dramatically alter the shape of the British monarchy. For Britain had not just lost a prince: during his 20-year marriage to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert had increasingly performed the function of King in all but name. The outpouring of grief after Albert's death was so extreme that its like would not be seen again until the death of Princess Diana 136 years later. Drawing on many letters, diaries, and memoirs from the Royal Archives and other neglected sources, as well as the newspapers of the day, Helen Rappaport offers a new perspective on this compelling historical psychodrama - the crucial final months of the prince's life and the first long, dark 10 years of the Queen's retreat from public view. She draws a portrait of a queen obsessed with her husband and - after his death - with his enduring place in history. A Magnificent Obsession also sheds new light on the true nature of the prince's chronic physical condition, overturning for good the 150-year-old myth that he died of typhoid fever.
©2011 Helen Rappaport (P)2012 Tantor
Caught in the Revolution
Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Romanov Sisters, Caught in the Revolution is Helen Rappaport's masterful telling of the outbreak of the Russian Revolution through eyewitness accounts left by foreign nationals who saw the drama unfold. Between the first revolution in February 1917 and Lenin's Bolshevik coup in October, Petrograd (the former St. Petersburg) was in turmoil - felt nowhere more keenly than on the fashionable Nevsky Prospekt. There, the foreign visitors who filled hotels, clubs, offices, and embassies were acutely aware of the chaos breaking out on their doorsteps and beneath their windows. Among this disparate group were journalists, diplomats, businessmen, bankers, governesses, volunteer nurses, and expatriate socialites. Many kept diaries and wrote letters home: from an English nurse who had already survived the sinking of the Titanic to the black valet of the US ambassador, far from his native Deep South, to suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, who had come to Petrograd to inspect the indomitable Women's Death Battalion led by Maria Bochkareva. Helen Rappaport draws upon this rich trove of material, much of it previously unpublished, to carry us right up to the action - to see, feel, and hear the revolution as it happened to an assortment of individuals who suddenly felt themselves trapped in a "red madhouse". This program includes a bonus interview with the author and her editor.
©2016 Helen Rappaport (P)2017 Macmillan Audio