I finished the book today. I enjoyed the style as well. I liked the personal, psychological approach at presenting the biography and the incorporation of the diary entries. It was easy to understand the political background and drew you right into the historical tale as if you were in the room with Queen Victoria and her ministers. It was also witty and made me laugh out loud at times. I have previously read other books regarding Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and I wondered if this biography was a source for these authors. The book presented personal strengths and weaknesses. And, I like that the perspectives of her ministers and the public's changing attitudes of adoration and discontent were portrayed.
I liked the detail regarding her childhood. I had never really thought about the psychological impacts of the lack of a male influence on her early development which surely influenced her relationships. Her mother had such absolute control over her. It is also interesting that she did not support the woman suffrage movement as women had a duty to be protected and supported by men and to maintain their female differences.
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No father, no brother, was there to break in upon the gentle monotony of the daily round with impetuosity, with rudeness, with careless laughter and wafts of freedom from the outside world
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What an amazing age in history her reign spanned with so many political, social and technological advancements that the 19th century is my favorite time period to study. Yet the book makes the point that the Queen herself seems outside of the period and did not change very much in her perspectives. I felt the book bogged down a bit in the middle with too much Albert, but he was such overwhelming force in her life and behind the Crown as her personal advisor that one does wonder how history would have been different had he not died so young.
I liked these quotes that sum up the history nicely for me. We have the benefit of hindsight to know how history played out in the 20th century on the global stage and how the role of the monarchy and relationship with its people progressed. Who could have guessed there would be another Queen who with the celebration of her recent Diamond Jubilee (and what appears to be still robust health) may outlive the length of Victoria's reign.
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From 1840 to 1861 the power of the Crown steadily increased in England; from 1861 to 1901 it steadily declined. The first process was due to the influence of the Prince Consort, the second to that of a series of great Ministers....
Then, with the rise of imperialism, there was a change. For imperialism is a faith as well as a business; as it grew, the mysticism in English public life grew with it; and simultaneously a new importance began to attach to the Crown.....
Thus it happened that while by the end of the reign the power of the sovereign had appreciably diminished, the prestige of the sovereign had enormously grown.
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