Alexander of Russia

Troyat, the French biographer of Tolstoy and Gogol, turns his attention here to Alexander I, the young, liberal czar who in later years became a religious recluse, muzzled journalists, increased police surveillance and felt disenchanted and melancholy even after defeating Napoleon. Troyat demonstrates that Alexander drowned himself in the cause of empire in order to forget the patricide that brought him to power. PW called this a ""briskly moving, richly illustrated, flesh-and-blood portrait.'' (April)