Victoria: Queen, Monarch, Empress
This compact biography of Queen Victoria, part of the Penguin Monarchs series, covers the whole length of her life, from her birth, as a result of the race between the younger brothers of George IV to conceive a legitimate heir after the death of Princess Charlotte, to Victoria’s touching deathbed reconciliation with her eldest son Edward, the child of whom she was most harshly critical. For such a short book, it packs in a lot of information, dispelling myths, weighing up contradictory theories where original sources have been destroyed by Victoria’s offspring and unearthing quirky facts that either I didn’t know or had forgotten – like the soap opera that was Prince Albert’s family background, or the fate of Edward VII’s wet-nurse.
Jane Ridley demonstrates that many of Victoria’s flaws were the result of a traumatic childhood and the inherent contradiction between her roles as a monarch and as a wife, supposedly subservient to her husband. There are plenty of suggestions for further reading for those wishing to delve more deeply into any aspect of Victoria’s life and reign. A book that punches above its weight.
