Queen Victoria: Born to Succeed

While I prefer Julia Baird's more recent biography, this older biography of Queen Victoria nevertheless manages to capture much about the iconic British queen. I particularly appreciated the author's note that Victoria was somewhat behind her own times on women's issues, but ahead of her times on racial issues. Towards the end of her life, Victoria brought several Indian attendants into her household (Abdul Karim is the most famous), to the displeasure of her children and ministers. She also survived multiple attempts on her life, kept a close eye on Parliamentary politics, and made matches for her children and grandchildren across Europe. Several times while I reading this, I thought of one of her descendants, who has a similar story show more of a long reign that spans the better part of a century. I would recommend this biography for those seeking to better understand Queen Victoria both as a person and as a monarch. show less

It was a long and strange path that led to my reading this book (which I read under the British title of Victoria RI), starting with the broadcast of the made-for-TV movie Longford, about the controversial relationship between Lord Longford and notorious child-murderer Myra Hindley, to a biography of Elizabeth Longford, and finally, to Elizabeth Longford's best-known work.

I was relieved to discover that Elizabeth Longford was a meticulous biographer with a pleasant, no-nonsense writing style -- an added blessing in such a long book! Longford herself was a woman of strong liberal and social convictions and she tends to highlight the more enlightened views that Victoria held, or came to hold, over her long reign. However, while this is an show more empathetic account of the queen's life, Longford strives to provide a balanced picture of this complex and emotional person, including Victoria's less-than-serene family life, and her varying relationships with her various prime ministers. (Those with even a passing familiarity with the life of Queen Victoria probably know that she got on well with Disraeli and barely got on at all with Gladstone.) The monarch's controversial friendship with Balmoral servant John Brown is also thoroughly covered. Longford is evidently keen to disprove that the latter had any connection with spiritualism and argues the point at least three times when the first time was adequate.

Very long, but very thorough, and very readable. show less

Longford assumes some fluency with nineteenth-century British government and politics, as well as the ability to keep straight the membership of several royal houses, so it's tough sledding at times. Overall not quite the Victoria biography I'd been looking for, but it's well-researched and I learned a lot.

Using private papers, journals, and letters, Elizabeth Longford has written thorough biographies of Queen Victoria several times over. Queen Victoria is more concise and compact than Longford's other books on the subject of Victoria. If you are looking for a shorter version than Strachey or Hibbert, this is it. Longford touches on all the points: born Alexandrina Victoria in 1819, Victoria went on to have a long and thrilling life. She ascended the throne at eighteen, proposed to her beloved Albert a year later, had nine children, and went on to rule Britain, India, and Ireland. After the death of Albert, widow Victoria went into seclusion for eleven years. Twenty-nine years later, she dies. Backfill with the politics of the time show more (Disraeli, Bonaparte, Crimea, Prussia, and the Year of Revolutions), and Queen Victoria is a good representation of England from 1819 to 1901. show less

Thankfully, this was a short book. I felt like I was drop-kicked right into British history. I didn't understand much of what went on because so much of the book wasn't about Victoria but the politics during her reign. If your English, then this might be more beneficial, but with my sketchy knowledge of English political history, this wasn't as helpful as I wished it to be.

864 Queen Victoria Born to Succeed, by Elizabeth Longford (read 18 Aug 1966) I finished this book and was mightily impressed by the sweep and majesty of the past--by the changes between 1819 and 1901, and between 1837 and 1901. I read a biography of Queen Victoria, and of her daughters, previously, and was dismayed I remembered so little of those books: until a check showed I read them in July of 1945--over 21 years ago, when I was only 16. I was struck by the poignancy of the deathbed scene: "At intervals the two clergymen prayed aloud....As the frosty darkness began to fall about 4 o'clock another bulletin was issued: 'The queen is slowly sinking'... Around the bed stood her children and grandchildren....As the end drew near the show more appealing voices fell silent. Then came a great change of look...and complete calmness. She died just after half past 6."
"Life's dream is past,
All its sin, its sadness.
Brightly at last,
Dawns a day of gladness." [Tennyson} show less

Very comprehensive, almost unncessarily so. Managed to keep my interest even during dry discussions of Home Rule.