- Hardcover: 557 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins (2 Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002558262
- ISBN-13: 978-0002558266
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.3 x 5.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
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- #47 in Books > Biography > British Royalty > Victoria
Queen Victoria: A Personal History
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Heir to the throne at the age of 11, queen at 18, mothering her own heirs at 21, and both a widow and a grandmother by the time she was 42, Queen Victoria's was an extraordinary life, even for a British monarch. Centuries collided in her life and times. She was a quaint survival of a medieval age--preserving the dynasty by marrying off her children and observing court ritual to the letter. But she was a thoroughly modern monarch too--she loved rail travel at high speed, had an unusually insouciant attitude towards religion, and despite her reputation for not being amused, she was, at least until Prince Albert's death, a woman to whom gaiety and mischief came naturally. Christopher Hibbert, the biographer and popular historian, has already produced a selection from Victoria's journals and letters. Now he has written a full biography, which is a light and enjoyable tour through a familiar landscape. But with 66 chapters in 500 pages there is not much space for depth. The world beyond Victoria's court and family life does not feature very much. And on the outstanding questions of her reign--for example, her relationship with John Brown, her unrealistic sense of her own constitutional position, or the remaking of the image of the monarchy which took place after 1870--the author's verdict is either missing or inconclusive. --Miles Taylor
Review
‘This book is, I think, his masterpiece…he has portrayed her as physically and imaginatively passionate, a loveable monster who, for all her extreme oddness, came to embody the aspirations and character not only of a nation, but of an Empire which embraced half the globe.’ A. N. Wilson, Daily Mail
‘A splendid book in every respect.’ Simon Heffer, Country Life
‘[Hibbert] succeeds in weaving a vast tangle of sources into a driving story. It is a testimony to his skill that he manages to make his 557-page book feel, If anything, a tad too short… it meticulously fleshes out the little butterball of a woman who came to dominate not only her own time, but ours as well.’ Kathryn Hughes, Daily Telegraph
‘Full of scholarly references and splendidly produced.’ Robert Blake, Sunday Telegraph
‘A deliciously gossipy but thoughtful biography…an exceptional portrait of a homely, formidably strong-willed woman who used her power both admirably and abominably.’ Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times
‘A lively, episodic account of a remarkable woman's life…particularly strong on the stifling dullness of court life, Victoria's extraordinary relations with her Scottish and Indian servants, and her absolute domination of her children.’ Evening Standard
‘An unrivalled portrait of a marriage…she emerges from his compelling narrative a more real, complex and fascinating figure than ever before.’ Financial Times
‘This personal history provides as much food for thought as it does narrative energy and excitement.’ Scotsman
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
delightful, delectable and easily digestible,
By david.green@email.labour.org.uk (North Wales) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Queen Victoria: A Personal History (Paperback)
Christoper Hibbert once again shows himself to be one of the best popular historian writing today. In this personal portrait - for that is what it is, there are no complex political analyses here - he truthfully and intimately depicts one of the most significant world leaders of the post industrial world. By showing Victoria through the eyes of her family, household and ministers, Hibbert manages to deal impartially with the many "grey areas" of Victoria's life - the "John Brown" rumours, for example, are dealt with in a very informative and unbiased manner. Hibbert's method of using short, succinct chapters of no more than about 15 pages makes this an good book to read in bits to get a general feel for the issues and themes of Victoria's life and reign. A right good read!
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hibbert notches up another admirable achievement,
By A Customer
This review is from: Queen Victoria: A Personal History (Paperback)
Christopher Hibbert, now aged 77, has 34 books to his credit. This staggering total presumably includes one or two lemons, but this reviewer has yet to find any. Hibbert's latest volume belongs with his very best, and defies anyone to read a single chapter without immediately gobbling up the next half-dozen.It might be thought that Queen Victoria's two finest pre-Hibbert biographers, Elizabeth Longford and Stanley Weintraub, had between them exhausted their theme. Hibbert, though, draws on Royal Archives material which no previous book-length study has used. While the result compels no spectacular revisions of accepted verdicts, it periodically shines instructive new beams of light. How did Victoria survive? Partly through luck: she died just before Hearst- or Pulitzer-style gutter-journalism had emerged with the aim of routing all political authority save its own. Partly through the sheer strength of monarchism's position throughout Europe in the half-century before World War I: a period when only Switzerland, Portugal (after 1910), Spain (1873-75) and Third Republic France (itself crypto-monarchist) formally eschewed kingship. But partly through that most elusive of personal attributes: a charm that could, when she chose, thaw the frostiest critics. It thawed them posthumously as well: above all in the case of Lytton Strachey, who began his account of her life with every intention of dancing the Charleston on her grave, but whose reflexive sniggers she eventually silenced. It has clearly won over Hibbert too.
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Victoria, warts and all,
By Anonymous (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Queen Victoria: A Personal History (Paperback)
After reading some glittering medieval and Tudor biographies, I wanted to fill in the gaps closer to our own day. Christopher Hibbert's comprehensive, readable biography is a good starting-point. However, as detractors have pointed out, it is short on political analysis. The emphasis is on "royal". Hibbert sets the stage for Victoria's accession with a marvellous summary of how her various royal forebears failed to provide an heir, so that she succeeded by default. He delineates Queen Victoria's complex relationships with several Prime Ministers: her neediness with Lord Melbourne and Disraeli, antipathy towards Palmerston and Gladstone, respect for Salisbury. Unfortunately he does not clearly enough differentiate between Whigs and Tories. But he does acquaint the reader with the major political personalities and put you in a position to explore further. A useful reference alongside this book is "The Prime Ministers from Walpole to Macmillan" (possibly only available in the UK, and in danger of going out of print). Skilfully interweaving Victoria's personal history with national and international landmark events, Hibbert provides handy, if underwritten, overviews of the Indian Mutiny, the Crimean War, the Great Exhibition, and Chartism. He also sketches contemporary European royals like Napoleon III, exploring tensions between France, Italy and Austria. Co-dependency, egotism and self-pity characterised Victoria's personal contacts. Her henpecking of her intelligent, unpopular consort Albert, and later selfish blocking of her children's marriages in order to keep them around, echo her own repressive childhood. But Victoria's households at Balmoral and Osborne were beacons of domesticity, and she was well-travelled and sophisticated. She hated pregnancy, resented her children, and was scathingly dismissive of the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII). After Prince Albert's untimely death, she avoided official engagements for years, to the consternation of her government and people. She fostered obsessional bonds with her Scottish and Indian servants. Her prolific writings reveal a needy, infantile and self-obsessed woman. Her USE of CAPITALS in an age before the telephone, is a way of SHOUTING (not unlike the internet), and italics give her prose stridency. So what were Queen Victoria's merits, if any? By dint of longevity she was the epoxy glue of the Age which took her name, and her progeny peopled the Royal houses of Europe. Surviving several assasination attempts, Victoria held her family and household in thrall, and the country in awe. Somehow she inspired the loyalty, if also exasperation, of her Governments. Henry VIII or Elizabeth I she ain't, but the story is worth reading. Christopher Hibbert gives an urbane, accessible account, with mercifully short chapters.
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