59 pages • 1-hour read
I Was Anastasia: A Novel
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal death, illness, suicidal ideation, and death.
Part 1: “The End and the Beginning”
Prologue Summary: “Fair Warning”
The narrator recalls that, over the years, countless people have asked if she is truly Anastasia Romanov. She says that she will make a “confession,” and when she is finished, the listener “will have the right” to say who she is (1).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Anna: Folie à Deux: 1970, 1968”
Charlottesville, Virginia. February 17, 1970: Anna, a woman in her seventies, thinks back on how she threw herself off a bridge in Berlin 50 years ago. In the present, her husband, Jack, knows nothing of this. He is nervous as they wait for news of the verdict in Anna’s court case, which will determine whether the German court recognizes her claim that she is Anastasia Romanov. Hers has been the longest-running case in German history. Anna thinks of how she married Jack at the behest of her best friend, Gleb, who has since passed away. It is a marriage of convenience.
Prince Frederick calls from Germany, and Anna is angry at the memory of him ordering her pets to be killed and burned. She refuses to speak to him, so Jack does. Frederick conveys that the verdict is that Anna’s case is non liquet, or “not proven.” Jack has prepared a celebration, confident of victory, and disappointed, he cancels it. He thinks of how they could contest the verdict, but Anna is resigned, convinced that the court will never formally recognize her as Anastasia.
Two years earlier. Charlottesville, Virginia. December 23, 1968: Anna thinks about how she would rather marry Gleb, but he has chosen Jack Manahan for her. Jack is a professor of Russian history and is interested in Anna’s case. Gleb has arranged the marriage so Anna can stay in the United States instead of returning to Germany; he himself is widowed and ill. Anna wonders how she got to this point in her life.
Four months earlier. Charlottesville, Virginia. August 20, 1968: Maria Rasputin, daughter of Grigory Rasputin, arrives at Jack’s home with a reporter, Patte, who is writing Maria’s biography. Maria, who has inherited her father’s hypnotic eyes, inspects Anna and announces she believes Anna is Anastasia Romanov. She takes Anna out to dinner to try to persuade her to turn her story into a Hollywood film. They converse in English and German, Anna’s preferred language. Maria discovers that Anna’s tourist visa will expire soon, and Anna reflects that she “doesn’t have a home to return to, that nothing remains but a mass grave behind the cottage she once called home” (15). Maria hints that Anna take advantage of her benefactors, and Maria makes Anna pay for dinner. Anna tells Gleb that the last time Maria visited her, Anna ended up in the hospital for three days.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Anastasia: Revolution, 1917”
Alexander Palace, Tsarskoe Selo, Russia. February 28, 1917: Anastasia Romanov, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, hears shots and looks out the window to see soldiers on the palace lawn. She assures her brother, Alexey, who is 12, that they are not in danger. Alexey, who has hemophilia, is recovering from the measles and Anastasia is helping care for him. Anastasia visits her mother, Alexandra, who explains there is a revolution. Her mother still wears an amulet given to her by Grigory Rasputin, who was killed a year earlier. Many of the servants abandon the palace, and Anastasia believes that the Imperial Guard is ineffective. The captain, Viktor Zborovsky, says that Alexander Kerensky, the head of the provisional Russian Republic, has ordered the guard to stand down. Alexandra gives Viktor an icon of Saint Anna of Kashin, and Anastasia suspects it contains a message.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Anna: Departure, 1968”
Neuenbürg, Germany. August: Anna wakes in a hospital. She is told she was found ill and unconscious in her home. Anna demands to be released, and the doctor says her cottage is being cleaned. Anna has lived in Unterlengenhardt for decades. She has hoarded many things over the years, but her most valuable possessions are a photo album with pictures of the Russian imperial family, an ivory chess set, a pen knife with a golden crest, and a small icon of Saint Anna of Kashin. Anna is furious that Prince Frederick ordered that her house be cleaned and her animals put down. She returns home and finds the charred collar of her dog, Baby.
Anna calls a man to come get her and packs her remaining things. Inside the icon of Saint Anna of Kashin are “a set of carefully rolled documents—some legal, some forged” (34). She calls the driver who collects her Tartar; she likes to give people nicknames. He hands her a plane ticket to the US. Anna reflects that if Gleb had not made a mistake at Wasserburg, her case could have been proven long ago, and she would have a title, an estate, and a fortune.
One month earlier. Unterlengenhardt, Germany. July: Anna looks at two letters, one from Maria Rasputin and one from Gleb inviting her to come to the United States to meet Jack Manahan, who has offered her a place to live. Jack believes he can set the record straight and prove her identity as Anastasia. Anna arranges for a travel visa. When Maria visits, Anna avoids her, and Maria reports Anna to the health department. Anna falls ill and thinks of the long list of people who want her dead.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Anastasia: Citizen Romanov, 1917”
Alexander Palace, Tsarskoe Selo, Russia. March 9, 1917: Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov II or Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, returns to the palace in a common carriage under guard. The family unites, led by Anastasia’s mother, who was born Alix of Hesse and by Rhine and is a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. She took the name Alexandra and converted to the Russian Orthodox religion when she married. Anastasia, who is 15, has three older sisters: Olga, Tatiana, and Maria. Kerensky tells them they are all citizens now and prisoners. Her father explains that soldiers stopped his train and forced him to abdicate the throne. Their mother believes that Grigory Rasputin healed Alexey, who is supposed to be the next ruler. Anastasia reflects that her mother, who has always known beauty and power, can’t understand that Kerensky rules Russia now.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 4 Analysis
The Prologue introduces the conceit of the novel: Anna says she will first narrate her history and then allow the reader to conclude whether she is the Grand Duchess Anastasia or, as she puts it, “the thief of another woman’s legacy” (1). The Prologue invokes the literary device of direct address, which positions the reader as an active participant in the act of judgment. Anna’s appeal to the reader’s sympathy is one way she positions herself as a truth teller, and it also draws attention to the theme of Memory as a Constructed Narrative: In Anna’s story, narrative structure and emotional resonance—rather than facts alone—have the power to shape belief.
Anna’s warning that the reader may not like her story foreshadows the novel’s conclusion that reveals her true identity. However, she invites the reader’s interaction with her story, which, as she points out in the Epilogue, makes the reader complicit in the creation of the fantasy that Anna is actually Anastasia. Her second-person address is a device often used in persuasive speeches and here it also implicates the reader. This narrative strategy aligns with the novel’s investigation of not just memory but also The Foundations of Identity as Anna presents both her recollections and her selfhood as subject to interpretation.
The inclusion of Anastasia’s story within this supposed biography acknowledges that Anastasia and Anna’s stories are deeply entwined, if not contiguous. The alternating points of view build connections between the women’s experiences and creates suspense around the question of how deeply connected they are. The question of whether Anna actually is Anastasia drives the novel, and much of the suspense hinges on whether Anna’s story is true. Anna’s insistence that the reader can decide who she is further emphasizes that identity is a matter of narrative persuasion rather than empirical fact.
The novel’s dual timeline structure reinforces these themes. Anastasia’s chapters begin in early 1917, at the beginning of the Russian Revolution, and move forward, chronicling the events that upend her world. While her country is concerned with fighting the Great War and facing pressures to reform the government, Anastasia’s primary concerns are domestic, focusing especially her brother Alexey, who is recovering from the measles.
Anna’s story, in contrast to Anastasia’s, moves backward in time, from the 1970s toward a point of convergence with Anastasia’s story. This reverse chronology doesn’t emphasize resolution but reconstruction: Anna is not offering her linear life story, instead focusing solely on her identity claim. Anna’s narrative begins not with her death, because the events of Anna’s life are not the real subject of her narrative; rather, it begins with the settlement by a German court of law on the question of Anna’s identity. Anna’s lawsuit to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov was, as Lawhon notes, the longest-running court case in German history, lengthened by repeated appeals. Lawhon shows, in this initial chapter, that the case also affects the people around Anna: this includes Jack, a university professor who has a professional interest in her case; Gleb Botkin, her longtime friend; and Prince Frederick, who has a complex relationship with her.
Though others like Jack are excited about the verdict and anticipate a positive solution, Anna doesn’t weigh in. Rather, she appears exhausted by the prolonged debate. The verdict of non liquet or “not proven” is anticlimactic because it resolves nothing though it ends the lawsuit. Anna’s indifference to the verdict suggests that those around her who are advocating or denying her claim have more of an emotional stake in the argument than Anna herself. For Anna, her identity is something she lives privately. Her attitude further aligns with the novel’s theme that identity is not a fact to be proven but a narrative that is asserted and lived.
The precariousness of Anna’s position parallels Anastasia’s fragile situation. Anna’s hermit-like life in the Black Forest with only her dog, Baby, for company, is an echo of Anastasia’s secluded life in Alexander Palace. After Anna leaves Black Forest, she moves to Virginia, where she leads a life of dependency. Her need for refuge parallels Anastasia’s situation: Despite Anastasia’s privilege, her safety is tenuous. She is constantly worried about Alexey’s hemophilia, which is a metaphor for the risky situation the Romanov family is in. Hemophilia is a genetic disorder that impedes the body’s ability to create blood clots, and this is a physical manifestation of the family’s vulnerability. The forced abdication of Nicholas II and the family’s loss of power and status is the wound that begins a slow and prolonged bleeding that ends in their death. Anna’s illness in her home in Unterlengenhardt parallels this deterioration. These metaphors reinforce the idea that trauma links both women, highlighting the theme of the Persistent Effects of Trauma.
Unlock all 59 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs