The story of Catherine the Great is an extraordinary one. Born Sophia Augusta zu Anhalt-Zerbst, a German princess in a family of modest means, she became one of the greatest rulers of the vast Russian Empire in the eighteenth century. But this was no romantic story of a fairytale princess....

This is one title in a series of short, illustrated biographies, telling the stories of those who have shaped our present and our past. They range from Beethoven to Dietrich and from Einstein to Churchill. Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) lived and loved with unconventional passion, enthralling men and women alike....

This is one title in a series of short, illustrated biographies. They tell the stories of those who have shaped our present and our past, from Beethoven to Dietrich, from Einstein to Churchill. Suitable for students and the general reader, they contain a chronology, full index, and guide to further reading....

Dimitri Shostakovich was the most popular Soviet composer of his generation. Internationally esteemed, his reputation has increased since his death in 1975. He is now widely considered to be the last greatest classical symphonist. He wrote his First Symphony aged only nieteen and soon embarked on a dual career as a concert pianist and composer....

Rosa Luxemburg was one of the great tragic female figures of the 20th century. Her brilliance as an agitational journalist and theorist won her a commanding position in the male-dominated German Social Democratic Party and the admiration of European socialists. She was murdered in 1919 in the turmoil of an insurrection she had argued against....

James Joyce (1882-1941) is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. As a young man he rejected his country and its religion, but went on to carefully recreate the Dublin of his youth in his fiction. Ulysses was banned in Britain and the United States, but has since been recognised as a masterpiece that revolutionized the modern novel....

This is one title in a series of short, illustrated biographies. They tell the stories of those who have shaped our present and our past, from Beethoven to Dietrich, from Einstein to Churchill....

Che Guevara (1928-1967) embodied the utopian dreams of a whole generation of left-wing theorists and activists.His burning and relentless ambitions combined with his fearlessness have all contributed to his status as a modern day political idol....

Sen Sheehan looks at V.I. Lenin\'s extraordinary life and his enduring significance, revealing the creator of one of the twentieth century\'s most influential, yet most bloodstained, ideologies. Studied in the light of the politics of his age, this thorough biography examines the idea and legacy of Lenin in the West today....

Napoleon Bonaparte has been compared to Alexander the Great, with whom he shared the qualities of youth, daring and unbridled ambition, to Julius Caesar, another soldier-politician with a genius for propaganda, and to Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire....