"The Life and Times of Queen Victoria" Book Review

The Life and Times of Victoria by Dorothy Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A biography of Queen Victoria, including pictures of the royal family.

I was using this book as an introduction to the icon that is Queen Victoria and it did that perfectly. There was a lot of information to cover what with her reign being so long and her being related to nearly everyone remotely royal. I still think she is an interesting character, but I feel like Prince Albert was the much more intriguing person.

He's in a foreign country with people who don't seem to respect him all that much throughout his whole career and life there. And still, he goes at the governing of this place with such gusto it makes me wonder if Queen Victoria did anything.

It seemed like she was just the signature on the paper. I mean, her childhood didn't allow her to learn how to do her job and know people, but still, she could have been active and learned about her countrymen. I liked how fond she was of the soldiers and awarded them all equally and in person. She seemed like a decent woman and wasn't a bad ruler. It's hard to really get her character with only a glimpse at her, so I will definitively read more about her.

The book itself was full of pictures of the monarch and her family. But they are of the usual variety, you have probably already seen them.

The only thing I had a problem with was how British it was. Every once in a while the author would mention something only a British, and at this point, an older British person, would know and that was sort of annoying. Usually, I really don't like it when the author inserts herself into the biography of someone I highly doubt she met at all in real life. But since this book was so short it didn't bother me too much.

Overall, a nice introduction to a monarch whose main contributions was having graced the world stage for so long, producing so many royal heirs, and a really big museum. But who knows, maybe with more reading I will change my opinion of her.


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I knight thee four out of five stars.