Life in a palace may sound romantic and
exciting, but in Victoria's household, boredom seemed to be the
prevalent emotion. Kate Hubbard gives us a view of the household as
six of Victoria's intimates described it in diaries and letters. The
members of the household range from Sarah Lyttleton, who started as a
lady in waiting and moved on to become superintendent of the royal
nursery, to Sir James Reid, who became Victoria's personal physician
after Albert's death.
My favorite character was Sarah
Lyttleton. She was very sensible and rather retiring. She preferred
her own room, a glass of wine and a book, to sitting in the royal
salon where, according to her, the conversation was generally banal.
Charlotte Canning was another favorite. Rather different from Sarah,
she was very beautiful and while she was also bored by the stuffy
atmosphere of the court, she tolerated the boredom better than Sarah.
The men were less interesting until
after she became Empress of India when she added Indian servants to
the household. Abdul Karim was an Indian Muslim who created a number
of minor scandals. He was clearly a conman who after stealing and
selling one of her brooches, made up a story that he picked it up and
it was an Indian custom to keep something he found and say nothing
about it. This ruse got him off the hook with Victoria, but angered
the rest of the household. At the end of her life, Victoria became
very attached to this rogue, possibly because of her disappointment
in her children and the fact that her early life had been so
reserved.
I enjoyed the book. The picture of
people living with a demanding, sometimes petulant monarch, was very
realistic. Although it was an honor to serve the Queen, it took a
serious toll on families and the courtiers health. The book is rather
long and since most of the commentary, at least in the early part of
the book, is about how boring life is, it makes the reader yawn also.
If you're interested in Victorian
England and particularly how the court functioned, the is an
excellent book. I highly recommend it.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon
Vine Program.
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