It is difficult to define Catherine the Great's place in literature because a long and controversial career made her into a "world-historical" figure who still seems larger than life. In ruling the immense Russian Empire as absolute sovereign or autocratrix for more than three decades of territorial, economic, and cultural expansion (1762-1796), she has been lauded for a multitude of virtues and achievements and damned for as many vices and disasters. Officially idolized throughout Russia's imperial era before the revolutions of 1917, Catherine was subsequently reviled or ignored in what used to be known as the Soviet Union. In the last few years, by contrast, her good repute has been largely reclaimed, and a series of popular historical studies has been initiated in Russia on "the golden century of Catherine the Great." In the West, scholars have recently heralded Catherine's resurgence by accenting her contributions to the Russian theater...