Victoria of England

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.

Finally a new idea! An amazing main character and a surprisingly fresh plot lead to a good ending which leaves a lot of place for new approaches. I had a lot of fun, Ms. Sitwell! Thank you!

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.

I enjoyed reading this portrayal of the Young Victoria, a great read.  A lovely insight into her life before and after ascending to the throne.

This was a well-written and thoughtful biography of Victoria that is great for the casual reader who enjoys historical biography. I think it spends a lot of time on her youth.

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!

It is rare that one's principal interest when reading a biography is associated more with the biographer than with the subject of it but for me this was certainly the case here. Recognised now as a pioneering avant garde genius Edith Sitwell is primarily remembered for her poetry but she also produced non fiction work which included two biographies of Queen Elisabeth I. I remember first encountering a dusty hardback edition of Victoria of England (first published in 1936) in the school library more than fifty years ago and this together with  other books there by the now almost forgotten Geoffrey Trease helped to kindle a fascination for history and biography that remains. 

In recent years there have been a plethora of books, films and television work devoted to the life of Queen Victoria so why should one now read something over eighty years old when there are more recent alternatives available? The answer is simply the wonderful prose style that is displayed which is both concise and descriptive. Although not a member of the Bloomsbury Set Sitwell was clearly influenced by them and Lytton Strachey is referred to and quoted throughout the book.  The biography is well researched and comprehensive with all the salient aspects of Victoria's life covered. The only omissions are possibly not mentioning her young Indian attendant Abdul Karim by name although he is referenced here and the scandals concerning her daughter  Princess Louise although perhaps the full details were not so well known then. The personalty of Sitwell shines through here especially when writing sometimes acidly about Victoria's relationships with her various Prime Ministers. She constantly uses the epithet "the hero of Tolpuddle" when referring to Lord Melbourne and remarks that the only thing that she agreed with Gladstone on was their joint antipathy to women's suffrage. 

Time is taken from the chronological narrative to devote a chapter to the prevailing social conditions of the time suffered by the poor.  The biography can therefore be viewed as part social history and succinctly places Victoria in a political and indeed geo political context as the great powers of Europe positioned themselves against each other to gain predominance. Victoria was of course related to almost all the reigning monarchs at the time.

The reissuing of this book will hopefully not only provide pleasurable and informative reading but will ensure that Edith Sitwell's legacy is preserved and enhanced.

My review has been posted to Goodreads. 

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

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You don’t often read a biography that has such lyrical language as Victoria of England by Edith Sitwell. Instead of a straight life story, each chapter paints a picture that, by the end, is as nuanced as it is compelling. I did get bogged down by context setting about the time and political climate at times though.