Victoria Victorious (1985)

Although not my favorite book by Plaidy (I prefer the Tudor era), she did a great job detailing Victoria's story. Victoria didn't always come across as the most likable of characters, but it was interesting to examine her motives. A good read. ( )

Setting: It’s 1837 and Queen Victoria has just inherited the English throne from her Uncle William and for the first time in her life she feels a since of freedom.

Synopsis: Ever since Victoria was a little girl she was constantly watched and never allowed to be a lone for a second. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, saw Victoria as her ticket to becoming the Regent of England and ruling until Victoria became of age to rule England herself. Victoria felt like a prisoner in her Kensington Palace where her mother dictated her life. Everything grew dark when Victoria’s mother brought in Sir John Conroy to take control of the household. Victoria did not trust him at all. She knew Sir John had motives of his own and wanted to rule England through her mother if she became Regent. Victoria was a very perceptive child and she knew both her mother and Sir John did not have her best interests at heart.

Once Victoria became Queen of England she rid herself from both her mother’s and Sir John’s retched grasp. She became very fond of her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, a Liberal for the Whig party. She called him Lord M out of endearment. Her reign as Queen did not start off on the right foot. It seems she became too fond of Lord M, therefore, she always trusted his advice. This led to her over throwing her own government over a disagreement about her ladies maids. The people were so outraged that a man pulled out a pistol and aimed for Queen Victoria while she was riding in her carriage one day. Fortunately the madman missed.

Things turned around for the better once she met the dashing Prince Albert of Sacs-Coburg Germany. Prince Albert was Victoria’s cousin and through the coercion of her Uncle Leopold they fell in love. The people of England did not like Albert because he was a German and looked to feminine, but of course Victoria did not care what the people thought of him. She knew he was perfect for her and they soon were married and had a grand total of nine children together.

Review: Victoria Victorious by Jean Plaidy is the eleventh novel in Plaidy’s Queens of England series. It’s told in Victoria’s point of view, which makes it sort of her memoir. I did enjoy this book to a point. However, I found it a bit dry in some parts. Mainly, I found the political aspect of this book to be boring.
What I really enjoyed most about the book was getting to know young Victoria as the Princess living under her mother’s rule in the Kensington Palace. Victoria was so quick witted as a child and she really pulled at everyone’s heart strings. You just couldn’t help but sympathize with her. She was kept in pretty much a prison and hardly ever allowed to visit her very own Uncle the King of England who became very fond of little Vicky. In her entire life there were seven attempts at her life and she tried very hard to not let it bother her. I also enjoyed the courting of young Prince Albert and Victoria. Albert was truly perfect. He put up with Victoria’s “storms” of anger and did not let it affect their marriage.

Although this is not my favorite Plaidy novel I did enjoy it. Queen Victoria was truly a strong woman and was the longest reigning British Queen. She reigned for sixty years. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the ups and downs of Victoria’s life. She really was an inspiration.
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A gorgeous work of historical fiction. The expanse of Victoria's long life and reign are wrought here in exquisite detail. You may not always precisely like Victoria, but her psyche is fascinating to examine. ( )

Honestly, this was probably my least favorite of all of Plaidy’s books I have read. However, I do not think that this was necessarily because of failings on her part. First of all, it may be possible that I simply prefer to read historical fiction with a greater historical distance from the present, I constantly found myself trying to figure out the lineage to the current British royals, and perhaps that simply is not as interesting to me. Second of all, the events in Victoria’s queenship seem to come out from nowhere and disappear back to nowhere; however, this seems to be more of a function of her not having a particularly good head for politics, nor being particularly interested in it, at least as Plaidy writes her. Third, I fairly disliked both Victoria and Albert, as well as many of the people around them. Unlike regular fiction, where it is not typically well received to write thoroughly unlikeable characters, historical fiction is trying to convey the lives of real people, many of whom are quite unlikeable. It may simply be that Plaidy found Victoria unlikeable and wrote her thus, without simply giving in to the rumors about her.

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