In the original dustsheet. Black spine with green title. Green boards.

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A “vivid” and multilayered biography of Queen Victoria chronicling the life of the longest-reigning British monarch who ruled for sixty-four years, offering an intimate portrait of a woman who after losing her beloved husband went on to fulfill her duties as mother, grandmother, and queen of England.

Review: Great book……very interesting and easy reading……one of the best books I have ever read.

Earliest known photograph of Victoria, here with her eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, c. 1845

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days is known as the Victorian era and was longer than any of her predecessors.

                               Extent of the British Empire in 1898

It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father’s three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. Victoria, a constitutional monarch, attempted privately to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Marriage of Victoria and Albert, painted by George Hayter

Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe”. After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, British republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond jubilees were times of public celebration. Victoria died in 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, at the age of 81. The last British monarch of the House of Hanover, she was succeeded by her son Edward VII of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

About the Author – Carolly Erickson is a prize-winning historian and biographer who has written over twenty nonfiction books and novels, including The Tsarina’s Daughter, which won the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. She lives in Hawaii.