Anastasia

Was Anna Anderson of Charlottesville, Va., who died in 1984, the princess Anastasia, survivor of the Bolshevik massacre of the Russian imperial family, as she claimed to be? In the fullest account of the Anastasia mystery to date, freelance writer Lovell unconvincingly argues that she was indeed the daughter of Nicholas II and Alexandra. In 1976 the author met Anastasia and her husband, John Manahan, eccentric scion of a wealthy Virginia family. Drawing on interviews and on unpublished materials, including some 100 hours of taped dialogue with Anastasia recorded in the 1960s by a Russian investigator, Lovell pieces together this temperamental, reclusive woman's sad, bizarre life, which encompassed stays in German asylums, several breakdowns, depression, paranoia, poverty and endless court cases against her detractors. This chronicle, which reads like a detective novel, presents an often shocking portrait totally at odds with the sugar-coated Anastasia legend of stage and screen. Photos. Author tour. (Sept.)