Victoria: A Life

Wilson (The Elizabethans) is convinced of the greatness of Queen Victoria (1819–1901), and his admiration for the long-reigning female monarch is evident in this comprehensive, highly accessible work. Although rooted in the complex political and international details of the era, the biography's focus remains squarely on Victoria, who, Wilson argues is fascinating because of her intricate inner life. Victoria escaped a melancholy and solitary childhood by writing and journaling, a practice she continued throughout her life and some of which she had the temerity to publish. Hence Wilson asserts she was, in certain ways, a modern royal who wanted the public to "feel her pain," most notably after the passing of her beloved consort Albert. Readers will revel in the details of her relationships with her children, grandchildren, private secretaries, successive prime ministers, and servants John Brown and Abdul Karim. While the author admits that the precise nature of her affairs, especially that with Brown, remain uncertain, he concludes that Victoria needed people who were solely special to her. Wilson is most successful in identifying and highlighting the monarch's paradoxes: the contrasts between the "little woman in a bonnet" and the queen who proudly controlled the British empire.