VICTORIA: A LIFE Read Free

Queen Victoria - Family Tree, Children & Sister - Biography. Victoria | Biography, Reign, Family, & Facts | Britannica. Victoria: A Life by AN
Wilson – review | Books | The Guardian.

A. N. Wilson
656 pages
ATLANTIC BOOKS
9781848879584
English
London, United Kingdom
BIOGRAPHY NEWSLETTER
 Of all her kids, and actually all the personages in this book, it made me want to read more about Empress Vicky more, the mother of the Kaiser,
and by all accounts one of the most tragic doomed figures in history. Loading comments… Trouble loading? The author states Victoria was a
prolific writer and if she was a novelist she would have written novels. Booklist and Library Jornal each gave it starred reviews, and Kirkus said,
"A robust, immensely entertaining portrait from a master biographer. This work is extensively researched and noted, and I especially liked the
excerpts from Victoria's personal letters and diaries that were included. She and her husband, Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , had
nine children, through whose marriages were descended many of the royal families of Europe. I prefer a more linear history. Her excellent young
Munshi. What about her political views? In this he succeeds on all levels by focusing on Victoria's greatest and most lasting relationship: that with
her pen and paper. This is an interesting and exhaustive biography of Queen Victoria. Community Reviews. I am not satisfied by this biography
and will have to find other sources. I listened to this on audio and it was easy to lose track of Victoria's eleventy-billion relations - although it was
interesting in hindsight to see how the various family squabbles and resistance to reform in some quarters led us down the nightmare path that
became World War I and later World War II. I disagree with the author's conclusion that she was mentally ill in the s and 70s--I think that's a male
reaction to what was surely the time of her menopause. Victoria : A Life. It felt tacked on after Albert died. Detailed but very "readable. Not much
is said about her great love of music - for instance there is mention of the Queen attending a concert by Jenny Lind without any mention of the great
admiration Victoria had for Miss Lind. Other Editions William himself died in , and the eighteen-year-old princess became Queen Victoria of Great
Britain and Ireland on June twenty that year. Vale desideratissime. But one thing is clear: She loved him. When Queen Victoria died in , she had
ruled for nearly sixty-four years. Not only do you get a great sense of Queen Victoria's personality, but you also get a general political history of
19th century Britain. Prostrate though devoted. All in all, this was a competently-written that I enjoyed reading and would recommend to others.
Victoria was devastated, sleeping with a plaster cast of his hand by her side, and went into a year seclusion. For the rest of her reign, she wore
black. Despite a feisty temperament, Victoria was famously tiny in stature, measuring just 4 feet 11 inches tall. When she first took the crown at the
young age of 18 in , Melbourne helped teach Victoria the intricacies of being a constitutional monarch. Jan 29, Didi rated it did not like it. Many
elements of her life convey her outsider status, from her youth in England with only her German mother and nanny for company, to her later life
companions of the Scott, John Brown, and her 'Munshi', Abdul Karim as well as her interest in the countries they came from. The other major
influence early in her reign was her first Prime Minister William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne, of the liberal Whig party. Seven assassination
attempts were made on Victoria's life between and Error rating book. I found myself having to turn to Wikipedia often while reading this book to
try to keep the characters straight. I sought this out because I've long been fascinated by Victoria and Prince Albert, and also by the 19th century.
Too much of the time, however, the book gets bogged down by the minutia of the politics of the time-- probably inevitable given that Victoria ruled
during a pivotal time in British history. However, I found that Wilson's writing tended to be jumpy and disjointed-- a timeline, genealogical chart,
and cast of characters would have been immensely helpful in getting through this b I was a little disappointed in A. I have read other biographies of
Victoria, although it has been several years. Lewis, and Dante. Wilson's Victoria is a towering achievement, a masterpiece of biography by a writer
at the height of his powers. Wilson helped--sometimes calling people by first name, or nickname, or title, without referencing back to maybe what
branch of the family they are, since lots of Alices and Alberts and Ernsts and Leopolds. I felt the handling of her childhood and her marriage was
interesting, but everything after the death of Albert fell flat. If it had only happened a couple of times it wouldn't be that big of a deal but it
happened multiple times in the first 2 chapters that I got through. Decades earlier she had thrown in her lot with Disraeli , that other great
storymaker, who had turned her into the Empress of India, a suitably gaudy figurehead for the new age of popular, jingoistic Toryism. I thought the
book was really interesting, however I was still rather disappointed. His Cinderella-like heroine grew up fatherless, a poor relation surrounded by
warring court factions. In the s academic scholars got hold of the Queen and the results were a post structuralist Victoria. As the book details her
innumerable family members, British politicians, continental rulers etc etc - from what seemingly is just a biography of one woman, emerges a book
covering most major events in European and British history from the Parliamentary Reform Act of the early 30s to the Boer War in the This
biography is actually pretty astounding in its scope. She enjoyed late-night dancing; he kept early hours. Wilson believes that there were times,
especially in the late s, when Victoria was properly "out of her mind". In , when the future Queen Victoria was born, few observers could have
predicted that she would become the subject of several hundred biographies. Return to Book Page. Born at the very moment of the expansion of
British political and commercial power across the globe, Victoria went on to chart a unique course for her country even as she became the
matriarch of nearly every great dynasty of Europe. Victoria was married, presumably happily, to Prince Albert. I feel so bad for her. As the book
details her innumerable family members, British politicians, continental rulers etc etc - from what seemingly is just a biography of one woman,
emerges a book covering most major events in European and British history from the Parliamentary Reform Act of the early 30s to the Boer War
in the late s. Now, 20 years since that last serious flurry of biographical interest, Wilson picks up the pieces and puts the jigsaw back together
again, creating in the process a Victoria for our own times. This is an oddly structured book about a fascinating and peculiar little woman in a
bonnet. Prince Albert married his first cousin, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, at the age of 20, and after his untimely death at age 42, the
queen's memory of him guided her for the next 40 years. Seven years her junior and many ranks below her, the queen said Brown was her dearest
friend — an unthinkable relationship at the time. External Websites. Educated at the Royal Palace by a governess, she had a gift for drawing and
painting and developed a passion for journal writing. This is not one of them. Victoria strikes me as having been a foolish, stubborn and unwise
ruler and her much maligned husband is the one who enacted all the good and wonderful things that are so attributed to the wonderful "Victorian"
age of art and enlightenment. Table Of Contents. I would have liked to read more on her female friends--but beyond Eugenie, none were really
mentioned. As with any book that attempts to cover 81 years of, essentially, British history, Wilson made choices about what to include and with
how much detail she would describe events.

Queen Victoria
Concurrently in reading this book, I also watched several documentaries on Victoria and her children, and it's interesting the many different takes
people have on her character and reign. She was raised by her mother at Kensington Palace and had a lonely childhood until she became queen at
the age of And this book has a photo section! If anything, this book seemed to be mostly centered around Victoria's relations with her prime
ministers Sloppy, disjointed and rather dismissive in parts, but revealing nonetheless. This work is extensively researched and noted, and I
especially liked the excerpts from Victoria's personal letters and diaries that were included. Sep 20, Sara Lilkas rated it liked it. The portrait that
emerges of Victoria from this book is one of an incredibly enigmatic woman, and by the time I came to the conclusion I was sad to see her go
although, obviously, I had already guessed the ending. It is now twenty years since the last serious flurry of biographical interest. She feels sorry for
 herself throughout her life, and I hate people who do that. Wilson, though, has been back to the archives in Coburg and reconnected with the tap-
root of Victoria and Albert's plan for a united, moderate Germany. Refresh and try again. Not only do you get a great sense of Queen Victoria's
personality, but you also get a general political history of 19th century Britain. This is an oddly structured book about a fascinating and peculiar little
woman in a bonnet. Her life is a jumbled mess. I'm sensing a lack of enthusiasm about this book. Diamond Jubilee. What do you wish it had done
differently? Take a Study Break. Queen Vic ruled from and actually had a love" but arranged There were however some insights into who the
Queen was and some insigh I thought the book was really interesting, however I was still rather disappointed. Perhaps more frustrating, however,
was the fact that, while a majority of the books pages are spent dealing with political maneuvering, Wilson, in many instances, does not include
quite enough detail for the casual reader to understand precisely what it going on. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high
school students. But one thing is clear: She loved him. Altogether good fun for the initiate. To see what your friends thought of this book, please
sign up. The author states she never saw Napoleon III while he was in exile in England, but Eugenie seems to pop up with some frequency--and I
found it adorable that Victoria, while hopelessly dowdy even as a young woman, didn't begrudge or was threatened by fashionable or beautiful
women. Wilson discusses British and world politics at length, but he always relates them back to Victoria. I was surprised to learn that Victoria
was an amateur painter and that she particularly enjoyed working with watercolors. Everyone was related to everyone else. This is a well written
and well researched book. This book does something frequently that I am going to start calling out in all future history books--when you reference
a picture, and analyze it, and go on to say how it's the perfect representation of a period in life, etc. The Industrial Revolution. For the rest of her
reign, she wore black. Thanks for telling us about the problem. My husband brought it home and I was looking for something to read. Ex Victoria's
reign is far too long, and too detailed to have a single, definitive biography. At times it was disjointed and jumped around a lot, so if you were not
already familiar with the history of the period it could be difficult to follow. Threads collapsed expanded unthreaded. The Elizabethan era is named
for her. However, with the help of the Conservative party's Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister in and again from to , the queen eventually reassumed
a more public and influential role in the government. Conroy thus aimed to make the princess dependent on and easily led by himself. Topping
pages and filled with detailed stories of British and European politics, this book could seem overwhelming. Thoroughly enjoyable. Dense and, to be
honest, rather dull. Oh so British! The author weaves in a clear history--social, economic, and political--of the periods of Victoria's life. Though
she detested Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone, she found ways to work with him, even during her mourning period. It wasn't bad but there
were some aspects of the audio that had already started to annoy me. This biography was heavy on talking about politics that didn't involve her.
They would also, in time, join up to form a central European hub that was rock-solid liberal. Both biographies were well written and scholarly.