The Romanovs: 1613-1918SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE Anecdotal, gossipy, irreverent, focused on personalities rather than broad historical movements: this sumptuous, old-fashioned narrative history is wonderful entertainment.From its earliest days in the seventeenth century to its brutal downfall during the First World War, Simon Sebag Montefiore is an observant, fluent and knowledgeable guide to the Romanov dynasty. As he said in an interview some years ago: “I love the flamboyance, the melodrama, the bloody theatre of Russian history.” The Romanovs is its author’s Russophilia writ large.We start in the Time of Troubles, when a reluctant Michael Romanov, “barely literate, sickly and unintelligent”, has to be persuaded to ascend the throne, and pass through the lon