Queen Victoria: A Portrait

by Giles St . Aubyn (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1992

  $3.25

  This portrait of Queen Victoria is a study of her personality, her family life, her relations with her Ministers, her traits of character, her taste and her beliefs. In tracing the development of the Queen's personality between 1819 and 1901, the author distinguishes six Victorias: the frustrated prisoner of Kensington Palace; the Young Queen rejoicing in her freedom and enchanted by Lord Melbourne; the young bride, devoted to Prince Albert but not prepared to share her royal duties; the submissive wife who made her Consort all but King in name; the shattered helpless widow after Albert's death in 1861 and finally, her confidence restored, Queen Empress and doyenne of Europe's Sovereigns.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1991

  $3.25

  This book attempts to portray Queen Victoria as she was, not as icons and caricatures have depicted her. The copy-book sovereign of pious propaganda bears little resemblance to the flawed but endearing mortal who governed half the world. If they only knew what I am really like , she remarked ruefully on being shown an absurdly extravagant tribute. Many of her contemporaries carried idolatry too far, and after the First World War a reaction set in. Her detractors, however, got little nearer the truth in their anxiety to disparage her. To maintain that she was an hypocritical kill-joy demanded a perversity bordering on total ignorance. The Queen was born in the last year of George III's reign, and died a couple of months before Hitler's 12th birthday. She corresponded with Tennyson, was taught drawing by Edward Lear, and had singing lessons from Mendelssohn. Not only was she a dominant force in British politics for most of the 19th century, but wielded an influence over the rulers of Europe unprecedented in history. It has often been argued that Queen Victoria was a representative figure, but in many respects she was also a nonconformist. Her views on class and race were far in advance of her time, and her churchmanship was positively heretical. Greville described her as possessing the most interesting mind and character in the world , and the more one learns of her richly ambivalent nature, the more one falls under her spell.