Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Kindle Edition (2012), 167 pages
Description
Lytton Strachey's acclaimed portrayal of Queen Victoria revolutionised the art of biography by using elements of romantic fiction and melodrama to create a warm, humorous and very human portrait of this iconic figure. We see Victoria as a strong-willed child with a famous temper, as the 18-year-old girl queen, as a monarch, wife, mother and widow. Equally fascinating are the depictions of her relationships: with her governess ""precious Lehzen"", with Peel, Gladstone and Disraeli, with her beloved Albert and, in later life, her legendary devotion to her Highland servant John Brown, all of whic
User reviews
LibraryThing member kaulsu
Quite readable. I need to research why it was republished in 2013.
Strachey made it quite plain that he didn't think much of Victoria R. But was quite happy with Albert. Coming to this book with not having read anything else about her, I am loathe to buy everything in this book wholesale.
I found
Strachey, if I am not mistaken, was part of the Bloomsbury group with Virginia Wolfe, Bertrand Russell, and others.
Strachey made it quite plain that he didn't think much of Victoria R. But was quite happy with Albert. Coming to this book with not having read anything else about her, I am loathe to buy everything in this book wholesale.
I found
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Strachey's profiles of the Prime Ministers interesting, but again, I have nothing to base my reactions upon. Strachey, if I am not mistaken, was part of the Bloomsbury group with Virginia Wolfe, Bertrand Russell, and others.
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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
The biography of Queen Victoria opens with the unhappy life of Princess Charlotte who is in the care of her father. She is betrothed to a man of her father's choosing but has fallen in love with a married man. O the scandal! As a result Charlotte is exiled to Windsor Park. When all the other
This was a time when impulsive marriages could be made void with the stroke of a pen and uncles could fancy their nieces for matrimony. All marriages were open political and economical strategies. Marriage could alter friendships between entire nations. With arranged marriages it is usually the bride who feels trapped. Not so with the wedding of Albert and Victoria. It is the groom who does not want to go through with it. Too bad Victoria ended up marrying someone who wasn't all that popular. She had to deal with a "foreign" husband who could not be accepted by her ruling nation. After Albert's death, widowed at forty-two years old, she tried to bolster Albert's reputation posthumously. What she succeeds in accomplishing is a nation in love with her. She becomes one of the most adored royalty of all time.
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suitors fall away due to her absence she ends up marrying Prince Leopold and having a baby girl. Thus begins Victoria's royal lineage. Victoria became queen in 1837 at the age of eighteen. Much like any new political leader, there were high hopes for Queen Victoria's honest and scrupulous rule: the abolishment of slavery, the elimination of crime, and the improvement of education. Funny how some things never change.This was a time when impulsive marriages could be made void with the stroke of a pen and uncles could fancy their nieces for matrimony. All marriages were open political and economical strategies. Marriage could alter friendships between entire nations. With arranged marriages it is usually the bride who feels trapped. Not so with the wedding of Albert and Victoria. It is the groom who does not want to go through with it. Too bad Victoria ended up marrying someone who wasn't all that popular. She had to deal with a "foreign" husband who could not be accepted by her ruling nation. After Albert's death, widowed at forty-two years old, she tried to bolster Albert's reputation posthumously. What she succeeds in accomplishing is a nation in love with her. She becomes one of the most adored royalty of all time.
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Subjects
Awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Winner — Biography — 1921)
Language
Original publication date
1921