Queen Victoria was a
complex woman. One of the strengths of Wilson's biography is that
through the use of her letters and journals he is able to show us the
internal life of the Queen.
Victoria was
married, presumably happily, to Prince Albert. They produced nine
children, and his death left her prostrate. Albert was a strict
Victorian husband treating Victoria often as a child and using severe
methods to raise the children. Although Victoria loved Albert, her
love for her children was less pronounced. Her relationship with her
heir, Bertie, was particularly fraught with unpleasantness.
After Albert, she
engaged in two relationships that could be described as scandalous.
She spent many years with John Brown, Highland John, and may have
been married to him, but if so the record or such an alliance has
been destroyed. Her later relationship with Munshi, her Indian
Secretary, paints the picture of a lonely old woman taken in by a
successful conman. However, seeing Victoria in these three
relationships makes her more of a real person.
The author is adept
at bringing the political situation into the biography. He shows how
Victoria both shaped events and was shaped by them. For me, this was
the best part of the book.
I did learn some
interesting things about Victoria's childhood. She believed that she
had a lonely childhood, but using her journals, the author shows that
she grew up with the stepbrother and stepsister, the children of her
mother's first marriage.
This is a long book
and the writing is often scholarly to the point of dryness. However,
if you're interested in Queen Victoria or the Victorian Age, it's
well worth reading.
I reviewed this book
for the Amazon Vine Program.
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