Overview
“They think I am still a little girl who is not capable of being a Queen.”
Lord Melbourne turned to look at Victoria. “They are mistaken. I have not known you long, but I observe in you a natural dignity that cannot be learnt. To me, ma’am, you are every inch a Queen.”
In 1837, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria – sheltered, small in stature, and female – became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Many thought it was preposterous: Alexandrina — Drina to her family — had always been tightly controlled by her mother and her household, and was surely too unprepossessing to hold the throne. Yet from the moment William IV died, the young Queen startled everyone: abandoning her hated first name in favor of Victoria; insisting, for the first time in her life, on sleeping in a room apart from her mother; resolute about meeting with her ministers alone.
One of those ministers, Lord Melbourne, became Victoria’s private secretary. Perhaps he might have become more than that, except everyone argued she was destined to marry her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. But Victoria had met Albert as a child and found him stiff and critical: surely the last man she would want for a husband….
Drawing on Victoria’s diaries as well as her own brilliant gifts for history and drama, Daisy Goodwin, author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter as well as creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria, brings the young queen even more richly to life in this magnificent novel.
Review
Ooooooh!! First off….COVER LOVE ❤️!!!
I confess, I know very little ablout Queen Victoria. Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth are more my time period. So, when I started this read I, of course, had to do a little research on Queen Victoria. I love a book which teaches me something!
Queen Victoria was only 18 years old when she took the crown. This was a tumultuous time for her, her family and her country. Can you imagine? 18 years old and ruling a country. Some thought she could not do it. Some thought she needed a reagent to help her rule.
She was very much a sheltered child. She had a lot to learn about life in general as well as how to rule a nation. With the help of Lord Melbourne, she tackles these tasks with strength and gusto. She was determined to do her very best despite some very serious challenges from areas of her family.
Most of this book covers her Reign from the beginning to when she is married. I would have loved more of her later years and less about balls and other trivial matters. I also had some trouble with bits of the conversations. Especially the conversations between Queen Victoria and her mother. They were overly dramatic and stilted. This does not take away from the read. It is still a well researched, classic, historical tale which leaves the reader wanting more.
I received this novel from Netgalley for a honest review.
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