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berenikeasteria 's review for:
Victoria
by Daisy Goodwin
Since I disagree with a great many of my friends on this book, I will be blunt: Victoria is a frothy, lightweight read.
That does not mean it is bad. The prose is competent if nothing spectacular, the protagonists are likable, the portrait of some intimate friendships enjoyable to read. I even don’t mind the Victoria/Melbourne pairing too much – deeply inaccurate though it is, I can appreciate a good mentor/protégé romance, though I wish Goodwin had provided an author’s note explaining why she chose to take their relationship in this fictional direction. Reading the book is enjoyable – in a pleasant, inoffensive, low stakes kind of way where you don’t have to think too hard about it. I should note also that it closely matches the first season of Goodwin’s show, and having watched that I recognised scenes that matched line for line.
But a masterpiece this is not. In terms of presenting a portrait of the real Victoria, it only provides a surface impression – it does not go into depth about a great deal of the years it covers, tending to gloss over anything heavy and political. Where political events are incorporated, they are extremely simplified and the book avoids discussing anything grim or serious for longer than half a second. It instead shows us a very narrow and superficial slice of Victoria’s life, and reads like more of a historical romance than a historical fiction; an idyll where obstacles are minor and there’s no doubt of a happy ending. I would hardly describe it as ‘detailed’ or ‘compelling’, and the style of writing doesn’t elevate this fictional froth into anything dazzling either.
All in all, I would say that this is a pleasant, enjoyable read, but overrated.
5 out of 10
That does not mean it is bad. The prose is competent if nothing spectacular, the protagonists are likable, the portrait of some intimate friendships enjoyable to read. I even don’t mind the Victoria/Melbourne pairing too much – deeply inaccurate though it is, I can appreciate a good mentor/protégé romance, though I wish Goodwin had provided an author’s note explaining why she chose to take their relationship in this fictional direction. Reading the book is enjoyable – in a pleasant, inoffensive, low stakes kind of way where you don’t have to think too hard about it. I should note also that it closely matches the first season of Goodwin’s show, and having watched that I recognised scenes that matched line for line.
But a masterpiece this is not. In terms of presenting a portrait of the real Victoria, it only provides a surface impression – it does not go into depth about a great deal of the years it covers, tending to gloss over anything heavy and political. Where political events are incorporated, they are extremely simplified and the book avoids discussing anything grim or serious for longer than half a second. It instead shows us a very narrow and superficial slice of Victoria’s life, and reads like more of a historical romance than a historical fiction; an idyll where obstacles are minor and there’s no doubt of a happy ending. I would hardly describe it as ‘detailed’ or ‘compelling’, and the style of writing doesn’t elevate this fictional froth into anything dazzling either.
All in all, I would say that this is a pleasant, enjoyable read, but overrated.
5 out of 10