Free shipping on orders over $99
Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

A Life of Contradictions

by Matthew Dennison
Hardback
Publication Date: 15/08/2013

Share This Book:

 
$29.99
'Queen Victoria had a very complicated and psychologically fascinating personality and only a very talented biographer could get to the key of her character. Fortunately in Matthew Dennison's pithy, well-researched, beautifully written and very accessible book, she has found one' Andrew Roberts In this brilliant, concise new biography Queen Victoria is shown as Britain's queen of contradictions. In her combination of regal vehemence and wifely submission; deep sentimentality and bombast; cultural imperialism and imperial compassion; fear of intellectualism and excitement at technology; romantic longing and prudishness, she became a spirit of the age to which she gave her name. Victoria embraced photography, railway travel and modern art; she resisted compulsory education for the working classes and recommended for a leading women's rights campaigner 'a good whipping'. She detested smoking and believed whole-heartedly in the health-giving properties of fresh air, strong draughts and cold. She may or may not have been amused. Melbourne and Disraeli wooed her; Peel and Palmerston infuriated her; fatally Gladstone failed to 'pet' her.
She loved dancing and the opera and, in her mourning of Prince Albert, sought consolation in the poetry of Tennyson and a long exchange of letters between sovereign and Laureate. Meanwhile she reinvented the monarchy and wrestled with personal reinvention. She lived in the shadow of her mother and then under the tutelage of her husband: during her protracted widowhood she belatedly embraced self-reliance. Fresh, witty and accessible, this brilliant new book from Matthew Dennison gives a compelling assessment of Victoria's mercurial character and her impact, written with the irony, flourish and insight that this Queen and her rule so richly deserve.
ISBN:
9780007504572
9780007504572
Category:
Biography: royalty
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
15-08-2013
Language:
English
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Pages:
208
Dimensions (mm):
222x141x24.64mm
Weight:
0.36kg
Matthew Dennison

Matthew Dennison is the author of three critically acclaimed works of non-fiction: The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter, written with the full assistance of the Royal Archives and published in nine UK editions to date, Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia, and The Twelve Caesars.

Described in The Independent as one of those rare marvels, a historical biographer whose work has reached the bestseller lists, he is also a regular contributor to Country Life, Telegraph Magazine, The Times and Majesty.

Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available

Reviews

Be the first to review Queen Victoria.