I thought that I would really love a biography on Victoria but this was just a bit too dry and boring. I liked academic texts but this was not a good one at all. There are better ones at there and the most compelling thing about this book is the cover.

VIctoria of England starts with Victoria’s childhood, explaining in detail her living situation and relationships with family and the few people she had around her as a child. This is a dense read, with a large amount of information, always in chronological order. Expect to take into the details that surrounded her life, including her many children and the sadness of her husband’s death.

This was a very comprehensive biography on Queen Victoria. It was dry at times, but the subject matter was still interesting! I recommend this for fans of PBS’s Victoria.

A utter joy to read. I love anything related to Victoria so this was a pleasure. Sitwell had a beautiful way with words.

Edith Sitwell was a poet and author first, a biographer second, if even that. Her dramatic style and poetic wording shines through in this biography, fictionalizing and romanticizing certain moments and figures throughout this book. This certainly makes for very enjoyable reading, even if it’s not always the best way to present facts or bring a clear narrative. She also tends to jump ahead sometimes, or backwards in time, whereas I’d have liked it better if she’d written in a more chronological manner.

In this day and age we expect biographers to be objective, or at the very least defend their conclusions by explaining their train of thought and citing numerous sources. This biography was written in a very different way, with Dame Sitwell’s very subjective opinions shining through via various sarcastic, at times even snide, remarks and a cynical undertone permeates the biography.
This is not to say that she didn’t do her research. In fact, she cites several valuable sources that have withstood the test of time and remain must-reads for anyone interested in Queen Victoria or the Hanoverian & Victorian era, like Lytton Strachey’s biography or Roger Fulford’s Royal Dukes. Fulford edited five wonderful volumes of letters between Queen Victoria and Vicky, the Princess Royal, but Sitwell unfortunately didn’t have the luxury of using these as they were only published from the 1960s onwards. Theodore Martin’s work regarding the life of the Prince Consort is also quoted, but this is an intimidatingly thorough work, and only for the most die-hard of history buffs. Points for effort!

It is fascinating to read about Queen Victoria through the eyes of someone living in the early twentieth century and to discover a perspective colored by the sensibilities of that time.
Things that are now accepted and well-known facts about Queen Victoria’s life are not mentioned or only very lightly alluded to.

The Kensington system for example, or the way John Conroy tried to coerce a young Victoria into appointing him as her private secretary. He was a manipulative and ambitious man, who isolated the Duchess of Kent and the young Princess from the outside world and misappropriated large sums of money from both the Duchess and the Queen’s aunt, Princess Sophia. However, Ms. Sitwell seems to be still in the dark about this and as such, is much more sympathetic towards Conroy, and even the Duchess of Kent, than might be expected. I would have expected her to have had more of an inkling of Conroy’s motives though, because the oft-quoted Lytton Strachey does seem to be in the know and, is quite severe in judging this upstart “with no judgment and a great deal of importance”, “bustling and ridiculous” and “mingling the rôles of major-domo and Prime Minister”.

The reason for Prince Albert’s ill-fated visit to Bertie, leading to his final illness, and the resulting animosity the Queen felt towards her eldest son and heir are glossed over. Perhaps so as not to offend the public’s sensibilities or the monarchy?

I think the author at times forgets the exact purpose of a biography. She leaves her subject and meanders off into something more of a diatribe against the horrors that the working class then faced due to the changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution or the inadequacies of the judicial system at that time. These are important matters, naturally, but I would have liked to have seen more of a link to Queen Victoria or her opinions on these subjects when so effusively mentioned in what is ostensibly a biography, not a more general dissertation on the Victorian era.

The author is very harsh when writing about anything to do with Victoria’s and Albert’s relationship, almost jealously mocking, which is a pity. I also disliked her disparaging attitude towards the Prince Consort, more specifically with regards to his work ethic. He was a hard worker and conscientious even on his deathbed, a case could be made that he worked himself to death, but that does not seem to be something she particularly admires or respects. She refers to his German birth, and to Vicky and Alice marrying Germans, but conveniently leaves out that Victoria herself is of German descent.

This is an interesting book, but more so because of its peculiarities, inherent to the period it was written in, than because of what we might learn about its subject.

My review has been posted to Goodreads.

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

Thank you! :c)

This book was good, full of historical knowledge and accurate which are the main things i look for in a historical book! but i was not a huge fan of the authors writing style so i give it 4/5 stars!

I used to despise history at school and dreaded each lesson but now that over a decade has passed I have come to really enjoy books on history and historical figures. This book is one of those that make learning so easy and accessible. I appreciated the extensive research carried out by Sitwell in order to create an interesting and readable title full of intriguing information on the young Victoria, including her ascension to the throne and details about her love of Prince Albert.

I cannot recommend this highly enough, a fantastic read that I learned a lot from. Sometimes history books can be tedious and boring but this is definitely not the case here - I loved it!

Many thanks to Agora Books for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This was an interesting and well researched book on Victoria. I felt like I wanted to learn more about her after reading this because the author did such a good job of writing about her life.