Victoria (Penguin Monarchs)

by Jane Ridley Book 6 in the Penguin Monarchs series.

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2.5(5)

Jane Ridley presents Victoria as sovereign, wife, mother and empress across a reign that became synonymous with nineteenth-century Britain. The biography follows her sheltered upbringing, difficult accession, political education and intense marriage to Prince Albert, as well as the family tensions that shaped her private life.

After Albert’s death, Victoria withdrew before gradually returning to public prominence as the symbolic head of a global empire. Ridley examines her relations with ministers, her views on monarchy and empire, and the carefully cultivated domestic image through which she became both a national matriarch and an international dynastic figure.