The lives and deaths of the Romanov family are redolent with colour and drama, but the personal life of the beautiful Tsarina Alexandra has remained enigmatic. In this book the full dimensions of the Empress's singular psychology are revealed: her childhood bereavement, her long struggle to attain her romantic goal of marriage to Nicholas, anguishing pathological shyness, the struggles with her in-laws, a false pregnancy, her increasing eccentricities as she became more preoccupied with matters of faith, and her growing dependence on a series of occult mentors, the most notorious of whom was Rasputin. Taking advantage of material unavailable until the fall of the Soviet Union, Erickson brings Alexandra and her family back to life, portraying her story as a closely observed, well-documented, progressive and psychological retreat from reality.