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A review by annikahipple
Victoria Victorious: The Story of Queen Victoria by Jean Plaidy
2.0
I quite enjoyed the first part of this book, detailing Victoria's childhood and ascension to the throne. But after she married Prince Albert I found myself increasingly frustrated. The marriage of Victoria and Albert is one of history's most famous love stories, but it irked me the way Victoria (the book is written in the first person as a journal) idealized Albert, always believing him to be right and herself to be wrong. I cringed every time she called him "perfect" or "a saint." This may well be a historically correct reflection of Victoria's attitude - from what I've read elsewhere she did indeed let Albert's ideas and behavior rule her own, and his early death reinforced this by setting him up as a sort of martyr, the tragically lost hero without a flaw. Victoria was constantly asking herself, "What would Albert have done?"
This over-the-top adoration and admiration were grating not only because they made Victoria seem weak and unable to think for herself, but also because Albert was far from saintly, at least from a modern perspective. He was constantly criticizing Victoria's character and "teaching" her things in a patronizing manner. Worst of all was Albert's attitude toward the Crown Prince, Bertie. His treatment of the boy was cruel and abusive as he sought to "correct" the boy's character flaws, "for his own good." As for Victoria, she had occasional doubts about Albert's methods but quickly subdued these by reminding herself that "Albert was always right." Both Albert and Victoria (guided by Albert) refused to recognize any of Bertie's good qualities, which - as others in the book tried to tell his parents - were numerous, even if they were not academic. Poor Bertie! Again, this is probably quite accurate historically, but it just made Victoria's constantly calling Albert a "saint" all that more irritating.
The pacing of the book was good at the beginning, but after Albert's death it seemed to race through the remaining 40 years of Victoria's reign, often with entire years going by in a single paragraph, and often without any details of context for the historically significant events taking place. Big chunks of the second half of the book read simply as "Then this happened, and then this, and then this," with little plot or character development. Rarely was there any mention of a specific year's date, making it hard to keep track of how much time had passed between events.
Despite all of this, there was still something about this book that made me want to finish it rather than just giving up on it. But overall it was disappointing. Given Victoria's long and eventful reign, this could have been a dazzling book. Unfortunately, it fell short.
This over-the-top adoration and admiration were grating not only because they made Victoria seem weak and unable to think for herself, but also because Albert was far from saintly, at least from a modern perspective. He was constantly criticizing Victoria's character and "teaching" her things in a patronizing manner. Worst of all was Albert's attitude toward the Crown Prince, Bertie. His treatment of the boy was cruel and abusive as he sought to "correct" the boy's character flaws, "for his own good." As for Victoria, she had occasional doubts about Albert's methods but quickly subdued these by reminding herself that "Albert was always right." Both Albert and Victoria (guided by Albert) refused to recognize any of Bertie's good qualities, which - as others in the book tried to tell his parents - were numerous, even if they were not academic. Poor Bertie! Again, this is probably quite accurate historically, but it just made Victoria's constantly calling Albert a "saint" all that more irritating.
The pacing of the book was good at the beginning, but after Albert's death it seemed to race through the remaining 40 years of Victoria's reign, often with entire years going by in a single paragraph, and often without any details of context for the historically significant events taking place. Big chunks of the second half of the book read simply as "Then this happened, and then this, and then this," with little plot or character development. Rarely was there any mention of a specific year's date, making it hard to keep track of how much time had passed between events.
Despite all of this, there was still something about this book that made me want to finish it rather than just giving up on it. But overall it was disappointing. Given Victoria's long and eventful reign, this could have been a dazzling book. Unfortunately, it fell short.