Queen Victoria
A Life of Contradictions
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Queen Victoria is Britain's queen of contradictions. In her combination of deep sentimentality and bombast; cultural imperialism and imperial compassion; fear of intellectualism and excitement at technology; romanticism and prudishness, she became a spirit of the age to which she gave her name.
Victoria embraced photography, railway travel and modern art; she resisted compulsory education for the working classes, recommended for a leading women's rights campaigner ‘a good whipping' and detested smoking. She may or may not have been amused.
Meanwhile she reinvented the monarchy and wrestled with personal reinvention. She lived in the shadow of her mother and then under the tutelage of her husband; finally she embraced self-reliance during her long widowhood. Fresh, witty and accessible, Matthew Dennison's Queen Victoria is a compelling assessment of Victoria's mercurial character and impact, written with the irony, flourish and insight that this Queen and her rule so richly deserve.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this brief yet thorough work, bestselling biographer Dennison (The Last Princess) examines the life of Britain's longest reigning and arguably best-known royal. The contradictions in Victoria's life are plentiful, particularly how her own emotional personality clashed with the accepted norms of the era she ruled and which bears her name. As Dennison notes, "Her education had been shaped by precepts which would become a mania as the century advanced: the importance of regulating the passions, securing morality and establishing a sound religion.' " He also focuses heavily on the queen's relationship with her husband, Prince Albert. Through the pair's combined history, Dennison constructs a remarkable portrait of the queen. Victoria was enamored with Albert from the moment they met, but she was a stubborn woman and initially kept him out of her decision making. Albert proved himself resourceful, however, eventually mentoring his wife during political and military affairs, and she mourned his death the last 40 years of her life. Despite the book's brevity, it may take readers some time to grow accustomed to Dennison's language; his syntax and diction can prove frustrating at first, though he does find his rhythm. Readers' confidence in Dennison will also grow as he illuminates the tribulations in the royal life of "the Grandmama of Europe."
