THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF LITTLE K

Sharp lifts a real-life figure from history, one Mathilde Kschessinska, prima ballerina assoluta of St. Petersburg's Imperial Ballet, for this saga of romance and glamour, intrigue and revolution.

Sharp imagines Nicholas II, the Tsar-to-be, introduced to young Mathilde upon her ballet-school graduation during the waning years of the 19th century. The royal Romanovs, the Imperial Court and all that is high culture in Russia decorate the city of St. Petersburg, and many of the Imperial Ballet's young ballerinas decorate the arms of the nobility. Mathilde fancies young Nicholas, and a chaste romance begins. Mathilde finally lures him into her bed, but Nicholas does not want to marry a commoner, and so he pursues a reluctant Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt. The illicit, and intermittent, romance between Mathilde and Nicholas continues after the royal marriage but is tinged by the Tsar's melancholy over siring four daughters before the birth of a male heir, one plagued by hemophilia. In the meantime, Mathilde has borne the Tsar's bastard son. Amid revolutionary fervor and the onset of World War I, the royal family co-opts Mathilde's son to serve as surrogate upon the expected death of Alexei. And then revolution, with the Tsar abdicating and Mathilde stripped of all the trappings and wealth of a royal consort. Sharp's book may move slowly for some readers, but the author's knowledge of the ballet and her lush, descriptive writing give depth and resonance to this imagined history. 

With intimate word paintings of historical characters—Rasputin makes an appearance—and with a strong-willed heroine, Sharp's novel will appeal to lovers of the genre.