A great introduction book about Queen Victoria. It gives a nice summary of her life and story and gives the reader a good overview of the woman that is at least known by name throughout history.

I wouldn't recommend it for people that have already read or know a good amount about Queen Victoria - but if you are someone that is curious and doesn't know a lot or don't know where to start?

This book is a great start!

Good book, especially for those who might have not have read much about Queen Victoria or her life yet. As someone who’s read quite a few on Victoria and most aspects of her life I felt is was still good, but a bit old hat for me. Still a good book!

Queen Victoria is one of England’s most famous monarchs. She helped bring England into the modern age. While there has been much written about her, this biography sheds light into her private life. The Private Life of Victoria focuses on how the queen balances her role as a wife and a mother while struggling to rule an empire.

This biography spends a part of the book discussing her childhood. While her mother and Sir John Conroy sought to control Victoria, Victoria found solace in her tutor whom she looked up to as a mother. The Private Life of Victoria also discusses her loving marriage to Albert and his role as Prince Consort. In many ways, Prince Albert acted as the true ruler of Britain. This was apparent when Queen Victoria was in childbirth, he would do the actual ruling. The author also discusses her friendships with John Brown and Abdul Karim. While Mr. Macdonald does not go into much detail about them, it is clear that John Brown had a place in the queen’s heart because she was buried with his ring. Mr. Macdonald explains that the reason he does not go into much detail into Victoria’s relationship with John Brown was that her daughter, Beatrice, edited her diaries. He also speculates that Beatrice may have deleted some of her mother’s passages about her intimacy with Mr. Brown.

Overall, this was a short and comprehensive biography of Queen Victoria. The Private Life of Victoria does not discuss the politics of the Victorian era or her role as queen. Instead, it focuses solely on her private life. Therefore, as someone who has read many biographies on Queen Victoria, I found this to be a very pleasant and refreshing read. I was not bogged down with heavy details on politics that is often prevalent in biographies, and instead focused on the queen’s personal relationships, loves, and infatuations. While there is no new information on Victoria, The Private Life of Victoria is an excellent biography for those who want to read more about her personal life.

An interesting biography of Queen Victoria. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for an in-depth analysis of her life but it does provide an overview of her life and her legacy.

I found this a very interesting book . It gives a balanced viewpoint of Victoria's life as well as that of her family. I appreciated the nice amount of detail and explanation in the book it really helped me get lost in the book. It is very well written and hard to put down.

#ThePrivateLifeOfVictoria #NetGalley

An exhaustive biography of Queen Victoria. The book describes facts before her birth and the heritage left by her after her death. The book can be added to any history or political sciences library.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Arcturus Digital and Alexander Macdonald for the opportunity to read a copy of The Private Life Of Victoria.
I was very excited to be given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I am a huge fan of history, especially anything to do with the English Monarchy. I am happy to say that I thought it was a beautifully written account of Queen Victoria. Everything the description promised was definitely delivered. I could even imagine her pain upon the death of her husband, it was that well written.
Definitely well worth a read for history buffs.

This is a decent read if you want a quick book to cite for a paper, or a brief rundown of major events in Queen Victoria's life. Each chapter has headings about a certain event or choice in the Queen's life summarized in easy to read and quote paragraphs. Those looking for a detailed summary of events may be disappointed by the summary, but those looking for more information after watching a show or movie on Victoria may find this to be just what they need.

A clear and concise life of Queen Victoria told in her own words and the words of her contemporaries. Would not recommend to anyone looking for an in-depth biography, but a very good brief overview. Highly enjoyable hearing Victoria's thoughts on her life and times!

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The Private Life of Victoria: Queen, Empress, Mother of the Nation by Alexander MacDonald is a non-fiction book, about the Queen’s personal relationships before, and during her reign. Mr. Macdonald is a military historian and author.

I really enjoy min-biographies, always have. A biography which happens over a certain period of time, or concentrated on a specific topic. I find them easy to digest than a thousand page behemoth, impossibly trying to encompass the intricate life of an individual.

This is why I chose to read The Private Life of Victoria: Queen, Empress, Mother of the Nation by Alexander MacDonald, the second longest English monarch. Queen Victoria ruled England when she was at the height of her power, a stable world leader, and a powerful player on the world’s stage.

The author writes about the way Queen Victoria conducted her personal relationships before, and during, her reign. Not only did the Queen had to be politically savvy, but also be wary of those who want to control her, or simply get in her good graces.

At some point in this short book, I started to sense the loneliness and isolation Queen Victoria must have felt. I imagine she found it very difficult to trust new people in her life, especially those interested furthering their personal and political fortunes.
I’m not sure I would have been able to differentiate who would I could trust, if at all. It must have been maddening.

Even though this book only focuses on Queen Victoria’s personal life, the author still includes a great amount of detail, and wonderful pictures to accompany the text. A short book about a fascinating subject which very few are privy to – the private life of a reigning Queen.

This book serves very well as an introduction to Queen Victoria as a woman rather than solely a monarch and I assume it is pitched as such given the success of the series Victoria. I loved the authors style of writing and enjoyed reading it. However if you already know anything about Victoria then this book will not offer you anything new. It is more of an overview and introduction than a in-depth look or analysis at her life, although I did enjoy the snippets of Victoria s letters that were included.
As others have mentioned the book is not yet formatted correctly and there are a lot of spelling errors which Iassume will be corrected before publication.
I was given an ARC from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

As a lover of history I really did enjoy this book. Yes there wasn’t anything that I did not already know however the book was written in a lovely way. This book would be a good read as a history aid.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves history, wants to learn more about Queen VIctoria. It’s written is a way that’s easy to understand and what I mean by that is that it’s not in old English speech

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Queen Victoria seems to be everywhere now, undoubtedly because of the Masterpiece drama "Victoria". This novel, is a very simple overview of the monarch's "private" life. I say "private" because there really aren't any details or anecdotes in this volume that haven't been disclosed elsewhere, in fact, if you watch Victoria, you'll recognize quite a few events in this book. If you are a history buff looking for more details, this is not the book for you. When I say that the author glazes over details, I'm not kidding. Victoria gave birth to 9 children and all 9 of these pregnancies fit on maybe 2 pages of this book. What we do know is that Victoria loved Albert greatly and mourned him the rest of her life. She also hated being pregnant and was not fond of children, which makes me wonder if she would have reigned in the present day, when attitudes about birth control are so different, how many children would she have had? The book also mentions how hard she was on her children, and honestly was a bit of a bully, calling them ugly and stupid, and dishing out corporal punishment.

If you are looking for a starter book on Queen Victoria, this is a good place to get your feet wet. She did reign for over 60 years, and after her death her daughter "edited" the Queen's journals and burned many of her private papers in an attempt to rid them of anything untoward or negative about Victoria and Albert.

The one thing that I've always found difficult is keeping track of her children and grandchildren and who they marry, and how basically most of the European royal families were and are connected. A family tree to refer to would have been helpful.

I received the kindle version, and I hope it goes through another editing. There were quite a few typos that started to get distracting.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it was easy to read, and I would recommend this for someone as a starter book on Queen Victoria.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

As a lifelong Anglophile, I was really excited to receive an ARC of The Private Life of Victoria from Netgalley. I'm delighted to say this book didn't disappoint.

Before reading the book, I knew the basic facts of Queen Victoria's 81-year reign. But this book is an excellent chronicle of her private life.

I especially appreciated the excerpts from her private correspondence. It helped to "hear" Victoria's amazing story in her own voice.

Overall, an excellent introduction to a truly extraordinary woman. I highly recommend this book.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

My review has been posted to Goodreads.

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

Thank you! :c)

I really enjoyed this book. It gives a balanced viewpoint of Victoria's life as well as that of her family. I appreciated the great amount of detail and explanation in the book. It is very well written and hard to put down.

Queen Victoria started her reign at the age if 18. She died at the age of 81. She was the longest serving monarch at that time. A whole era, the Victorian age was named after her. It was a time of more concentration on home and family. She gave birth to numerous children, even though she didn't care for babies.
She was strong and dedicated.
This is a remarkable read. Very detail oriented without drowning you in minutia. The illustrations are very nice, giving a depiction of what people looked like. Very enjoyable.

A well researched account of the private life of one of the most fascinating and powerful women in history. Queen Victoria, who came to the throne at the age of 18 following a very sheltered childhood, and went on to be one of the longest reigning monarchs in British history, presided over an empire during a time of unprecedented change. While her public role is well known and amply recorded in the annals of history, it is the woman, and her life, rather than the queen, which is the focus of this book.
While I enjoyed the book and found it generally easy to read, apart from a couple of early chapters which read almost like a list of names, with only the briefest of explanations of context, I will say it is really more of a broad overview, rather than an in-depth account, and as such would make an ideal introductory book for someone interested in Victoria and her life, but it does not have much to offer those already familiar with the subject.
One of the nicest features of the book is the selection of illustrations and photographs, while another good idea was the use of excerpts from Victoria's correspondence and diaries.