Angelina Vacheva, The Empress's Novel: Novelistic Discourse in Catherine the Great's Memoirs. Approaches to Reading in the Second Half of the 19th Century/Romanut Na Imperatritsata: Romanoviiat Diskurs V Avtobiografichnite Zapiski Na Ekaterina II. Rakursi Na Chetene Prez Vtorata Polovina Na XIX Vek (Book Review)

Angelina Vacheva, Romanut na Imperatritsata: Romanoviiat diskurs v avtobiografichnite zapiski na Ekaterina II. Rakursi na chetene prez vtorata polovina na XIX vek (The Empress's Novel: Novelistic Discourse in Catherine the Great's Memoirs. Approaches to Reading in the Second Half of the 19th Century). 362 pp. Sofia: St. Kliment Okhridski University Press, 2008. ISBN-13 978-9540725765. The Bulgarian scholar Angelina Vacheva's work is evidence of the high quality of contemporary East European research in Russian studies. (1) Her book is an interdisciplinary study of the autobiography of Catherine II. Incorporating many insights from her earlier publications, it also draws on the latest advances in Western and Russian literary criticism while remaining grounded in the historical context. Although focusing on the role of the memoirs in legitimating Catherine's power, Vacheva also pays attention to their reception at the time of their first publication in 1858. The monograph is divided into an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion.