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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
4.5. Slightly problematic; likely historically inaccurate. But it was addicting. My only complaint was the abrupt ending.
The book was highly fictionalized, so if you enjoy historical romance and drama you may like it better than I did. In retrospect I would have much preferred just reading a true biography.
Very enjoyable!
Daisy Goodwin does a satisfying job in the writing of this book. Queen Victoria is an unusual woman, but she knows what she wants and what she doesn't want. I felt sorry for her, because her entire upbringing sounds very lonely, isolating, and perhaps emotionally abusive. Sir John Conroy may have been able to control the Duchess, but he met his match in the young Victoria! I do wish she had a better relationship with her mother, but with Sir John Conroy around, I don't think it was even possible. All in all, this book was good. I hope to read more books by this author.
Daisy Goodwin does a satisfying job in the writing of this book. Queen Victoria is an unusual woman, but she knows what she wants and what she doesn't want. I felt sorry for her, because her entire upbringing sounds very lonely, isolating, and perhaps emotionally abusive. Sir John Conroy may have been able to control the Duchess, but he met his match in the young Victoria! I do wish she had a better relationship with her mother, but with Sir John Conroy around, I don't think it was even possible. All in all, this book was good. I hope to read more books by this author.
I was granted an ARC by St. Martin's Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion.
The book is basically the TV show with just some added scenes. Well, the book only covers the first four episodes and the plot of the servants downstairs were missing, but still. Also, I believe even the dialogue is the same as in the series. So there wasn't much of a background story which I had partly hoped for but I didn't mind that, though, 'cause I still loved it.
But as much as I love Melbourne, I had to desperately wait 'til Albert made his entrance at the 70 % mark, why did it have to take so long??
That aside, this book made me want to learn more about Queen Victoria and her reign, and British history in general.
I also look forward to the second series! Cannot wait!
The book is basically the TV show with just some added scenes. Well, the book only covers the first four episodes and the plot of the servants downstairs were missing, but still. Also, I believe even the dialogue is the same as in the series. So there wasn't much of a background story which I had partly hoped for but I didn't mind that, though, 'cause I still loved it.
But as much as I love Melbourne, I had to desperately wait 'til Albert made his entrance at the 70 % mark, why did it have to take so long??
That aside, this book made me want to learn more about Queen Victoria and her reign, and British history in general.
I also look forward to the second series! Cannot wait!
Finishing season 4 of "The Crown" has put me on a bit of a British Monarchy bender, and this was a really fun listen. I'm going to watch the tv show now.
If you’re a fan of the series, you can skip the book. I mean, it’s fine. It’s okay. It’s the rare example of the tv show being better than the book. The clue as to why this is comes in the acknowledgements: the author says she wrote this *while* filming the series. I suspect a publisher saw dollar signs and wanted a book to sell along with the tv show’s popularity. If this wasn’t for a book club, I wouldn’t have finished it. I do enjoy the show though!
CW: emotional neglect and manipulation, gaslighting, emotionally abusive childhood, 19th century typical sexism
This book is about Queen Victoria of England at the start of her reign, right when she first becomes queen in 1837 at the age of 18, gets used to her new position as a constitutional monarch while dealing with her complex relationship with her mother and her new relationship with her Prime Minister Lord Melbourne.
Essentially, Victoria goes through a coming-of-age in this novel, where she encounters scandal for the first time, has her first crush and first love, learns to play the politics game with parliamentary politicians and monarchs, and meets Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha for the second time. Victoria and Albert's courtship wasn't exactly a meet-cute (it never left my mind that they were first cousins and that their marriage led to more inbreeding in European royal families and the spread of hemophilia, in particular it made me remember Alexei Romanov's hemophilia and the eventual downfall of the Romanov dynasty) but it did leave me wondering how close the world was to not having them get married if one or both or them had been just slightly more stubborn or awkward.
Considering how isolated, lonely and restrictive her childhood was, I would say Victoria ended up doing okay for herself as queen. Ruling for 63 years as a woman is an accomplishment. Does that make her without flaws? Hell nah, she had many like any other ruler of a colonial empire. But for the purpose of this novel I appreciate how the author reminded us that even though most of the world pictures her as a matronly figure in a crown and gown, she was once a young, naive but spirited woman once too, who wanted to rule if only to escape the clutches of the "Kensington System" designed by her mother and her mother's comptroller.
I think the novel does a good job of putting us inside 18-year-old Victoria's head, and the emotional that a young woman such as herself would be feeling. I would have appreciate more time stamps in the chapters so I would have known when this and that happened, because the flow of the writing makes it seem like the entire story happens in a year or even less. When in fact, Victoria became queen in 1837 but didn't meet and then propose to Albert until October 15, 1839.
We do get other POVs other than Victoria's, which was a surprise to me but didn't turn out to be unpleasant. It livened up the story to hear from the people around the queen: Lord Melbourne, Victoria's ladies, King Leopold I of Belgium, Victoria's mother the Duchess of Kent, Sir John Conroy, The Duke of Cumberland (even though him and Conroy are disgusting men), and Prince Albert and his brother Ernest.
Imagine how the world would be if Victoria's early reign had gone quite different.
This book is about Queen Victoria of England at the start of her reign, right when she first becomes queen in 1837 at the age of 18, gets used to her new position as a constitutional monarch while dealing with her complex relationship with her mother and her new relationship with her Prime Minister Lord Melbourne.
Essentially, Victoria goes through a coming-of-age in this novel, where she encounters scandal for the first time, has her first crush and first love, learns to play the politics game with parliamentary politicians and monarchs, and meets Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha for the second time. Victoria and Albert's courtship wasn't exactly a meet-cute (it never left my mind that they were first cousins and that their marriage led to more inbreeding in European royal families and the spread of hemophilia, in particular it made me remember Alexei Romanov's hemophilia and the eventual downfall of the Romanov dynasty) but it did leave me wondering how close the world was to not having them get married if one or both or them had been just slightly more stubborn or awkward.
Considering how isolated, lonely and restrictive her childhood was, I would say Victoria ended up doing okay for herself as queen. Ruling for 63 years as a woman is an accomplishment. Does that make her without flaws? Hell nah, she had many like any other ruler of a colonial empire. But for the purpose of this novel I appreciate how the author reminded us that even though most of the world pictures her as a matronly figure in a crown and gown, she was once a young, naive but spirited woman once too, who wanted to rule if only to escape the clutches of the "Kensington System" designed by her mother and her mother's comptroller.
I think the novel does a good job of putting us inside 18-year-old Victoria's head, and the emotional that a young woman such as herself would be feeling. I would have appreciate more time stamps in the chapters so I would have known when this and that happened, because the flow of the writing makes it seem like the entire story happens in a year or even less. When in fact, Victoria became queen in 1837 but didn't meet and then propose to Albert until October 15, 1839.
We do get other POVs other than Victoria's, which was a surprise to me but didn't turn out to be unpleasant. It livened up the story to hear from the people around the queen: Lord Melbourne, Victoria's ladies, King Leopold I of Belgium, Victoria's mother the Duchess of Kent, Sir John Conroy, The Duke of Cumberland (even though him and Conroy are disgusting men), and Prince Albert and his brother Ernest.
Imagine how the world would be if Victoria's early reign had gone quite different.
I was a little leery starting "Victoria" because I was not in love with "The American Heiress," also written by Goodwin. But I needn't have worried; "Victoria" is so much different in the way it pulls you into the story. Perhaps it loses the aspect of trying too hard that TAH had because the fairytale is assured; you're just trying to see how they gets there. After reading Goodwin's book the first episode of the PBS Masterpiece adaptation paled. That's impressive.
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was SO EXCITED to get this review copy! I love the film Young Victoria, and was able to visit Kensington Palace earlier this year during my trip to England, so I have an affinity for Queen Victoria, and was so pleased to read this. A lot of it focuses on Victoria's relationship with her mother and Conroy, and definitely on her relationship with Lord Melbourne, taking it to depths I'd not previously seen. Albert doesn't feature as prominently in it, and I found the portrayal of that relationship different than what I was lead to believe. But that really only makes me want to read a non-fiction account of Victoria's early years to get more info.
All in all, I found this a sweet read, getting to view Queen Victoria as a young woman as well as a young monarch, and certainly gaining more context for what I've already learned about her.
All in all, I found this a sweet read, getting to view Queen Victoria as a young woman as well as a young monarch, and certainly gaining more context for what I've already learned about her.