It wasn’t always easy for women to make big money, but these ladies of centuries past did it in style. What was the secret of ...

While The Great explores the life of the real Empress, Catherine the Great, it begins with a major difference, as the historical figure met her husband multiple times before marriage, not days prior.

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Elle Fanning in "The Great.

The history of the formation of the personality of the Catherine the Great from the moment of her arrival in Russia as the bride of Grand Duke Peter Fyodorovich to her ascension to the Russian throne.

Robert K. Massie, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (New York: Random House, 2011), 656 pp., $35.00. THE SUBTITLE of Robert K. Massie’s biography announces the book’s keynote: it is to be a ...