Becoming Victoria [Hardcover]

Professor Lynne Vallone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2001

Just eight months old when her father, Edward, duke of Kent, died unexpectedly, the princess Victoria moved significantly closer to England’s throne. The task of raising a potential female monarch assumed critical importance for the nation, yet Victoria’s girlhood and adolescence have received scant attention from historians, cultural critics, and even her biographers. In this engaging and revealing book, Lynne Vallone shows us a new Victoria—a lively and passionate girl very different from the iconic dour widow of the queen’s later life.
Based on a thorough exploration of the young Victoria’s own letters, stories, drawings, educational materials, and journals—documents that have been under appreciated until now—the book illuminates the princess’s childhood from her earliest years to her accession to the throne at age eighteen in 1837. Vallone presents a fresh assessment of “the rose of England” within the culture of girlhood and domestic life in the 1820s and 1830s. The author also explores the complex and often conflicting contexts of the period, including Georgian children’s literature, conventional childrearing practices, domestic and familial intrigues, and the frequently turbulent political climate. Part biography, part historical and cultural study, this richly illustrated volume uncovers in fascinating detail the childhood that Victoria actually lived.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Exuberant," "creative" and "playful" are not words that typically come to mind when one thinks of Queen Victoria, but, as Texas A&M English professor Vallone (Disciplines of Virtue: Girls' Culture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries) ably demonstrates, youthful Victoria was notably different from the staid, dignified monarch who gave her name to what has often been viewed as one of the most stolid ages in modern history. By analyzing Victoria's girlhood diaries, drawings and fiction, as well as records of her education and scores of accounts of her childhood, Vallone not only constructs a revisionist account of the princess's youthful persona but also traces the process by which Victoria was molded into the "right" kind of adult: capable of assuming the throne and also a clear embodiment of all that was womanly and pure. Vallone calls this a study of both Victoria and the various ideological imperatives that undergirded early 19th-century child-rearing; the latter achievement is more compelling. Victoria is, in Vallone's account, a fascinating, complex figure. But she also serves here as an example of the way girls' personalities were subject to various social and cultural pressures en route to adulthood. And because Victoria the feminine icon was deemed at least as important as Victoria the ruler, her upbringing had much more in common with those of other girls than one might imagine. Well-researched, and with sophisticated cultural criticism, this sound scholarship will engage the interest of academics and nonacademics alike. Illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This pleasant read, written by a Texas A&M literature scholar and expert on 18th- and 19th-century girlhood, focuses on Queen Victoria (1819-1901) as princess. Vallone's case study in Georgian child-rearing among elites depicts the future queen's formative years, often neglected in studies of Victoria's life. When William IV became King of Great Britain in 1830, his 11-year-old niece, Victoria, became heiress presumptive. Drawing on Victoria's lesson schedules, sketches (many here reproduced), journals, surviving fiction, and correspondence with her mother, the widowed Duchess of Kent, Vallone reveals how the girl was shaped by strict education and upbringing under an obsessively controlling parent. Covering her life from birth until just after she gained the throne (June 20, 1837), the text is packed with details of Victoria as infant, girl, and adolescent, increasingly torn between inculcated loyalty to the duchess and her increasingly independent temperament. For a wide audience, especially royalty and British history buffs; recommended for public and academic libraries. Nigel Tappin, Lake of Bays P.L., Huntsville, Ont.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (May 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300089503
• ISBN-13: 978-0300089509
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > British > Queen Victoria

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SUBSTANTIAL WORK OF SCHOLARSHIP, August 12, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Becoming Victoria (Hardcover)

While much has been written about the monarch who gave an era its name, few words have been devoted to Queen Victoria's girlhood. That oversight has been rectified with this edifying and thoughtful account of Victoria's early years.

She was a woman never remembered for her youth, the author notes, "but for her seemingly never ending old age: her years of mourning, her black dress, her dour expression, her iconic stature...........yet Victoria was a young queen and once popularly called `the rose of England.'"

We learn how this "rose" was formed by the children's books she read; we gain insight into her early ardor and stubbornness from her letters, stories, and drawings. Nonetheless, above all, she was a royal child who at a scant eight months of age edged closer to the throne with the unexpected death of her father, Edward, duke of Kent.

"Becoming Victoria" details her life from birth until June 20, 1837 when she ascended to the throne. Even more this well illustrated volume is a remarkable picture of Georgian childhood among the privileged, a commentary on that period's political climate and mores. It is a substantial work of scholarship, one that will be especially enjoyed by those with an interest in history and the royals.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great historical and cultural study crafted around a bio, March 27, 2002

By 

Rebecca Leckman (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Victoria (Hardcover)

Lynne Vallone's 'Becoming Victoria' is a superior exploration of the complex historical, cultural, and familial influences which shaped and prepared the Princess for the roles she would assume as the future queen of England. The book explores Georgian child-rearing practices, Victoria's diversions and amusements, studies and training appropriate to her station, the children's literature she enjoyed reading (and writing), drawings and pictures (both of Victoria and by Victoria - an accomplished artist in her own right), the ever-changing political climate of the time, and key individuals who played important roles in Victoria's development. An avid journaler, the book also heavily quotes Victoria's own diaries and notebooks she kept religiously from a very young age on until her death.

Although it would be fine if 'Becoming Victoria' was your first introduction to the life of this remarkable monarch, the book works best as an companion to an existing broader biography - like Christopher Hibbert's 'Queen Victoria: A Personal History,' or any of the other carefully referenced suggestions in the book itself. 'Becoming Victoria' is a marvelous book in its own right, and the only reason I suggest another reference in addition to this one is the very specific scope and focus of this book (which is 'limited' to extensive details from Victoria's birth through her ascension to the throne at age 18 in 1837).

The hardcover book itself it lovely - an unusual yet handy size with fantastic illustrations and reproductions throughout.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not terribly exciting, October 5, 2003

By 

Mimerki "mimerki" (Port Orchard, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Victoria (Hardcover)

I think the thing I found most interesting about this book was the total screwiness of Victoria's mother, the Dutchess of Kent. I admit that the Dutchess was in kind of a rough spot: She was raising a monarch after all, and yet wanted to raise her to within the standards of ladylike behaviour. Can't have her going around refering to herself with male terminology like Queen Elizabeth I did, y'know.

But in the process, the thing the Dutchess seemed to always have her eye on was the possibility of a Regency. She *wanted* to be Regent. How screwed up do you have to be to *want* to be Regent? All the responsibility, none of the adoring crowds. Yuck!

So she was torn between the necessity of producing in Victoria a princess who could eventually take the throne (because if she failed in providing an appropriate education and upbringing the King had made it pretty clear that he *would* ensure Victoria received same, even if it meant removing her from her mother's tender care) while wanting to keep her daughter from being *able* to take the throne at 18 (there was a possibility of a regency until she reached 21), all the while hoping that King George would hurry up and die already. Which may in part be the author's spin on things, but the good Dutchess did *repeatedly* write about the possibility of a regency until Victoria was 21 even *after* Victoria was declared competent to take the throne when she reached majority at 18 (said declaration taking place several years ahead of time), which kind of points to having some serious hopes caught up in that regency.

Victoria herself just seems like a kid caught in the middle and kept from having much fun. She got to read a lot of "improving" books, which are those sort of kids books that beat you over the head with the idea that you should always do what Mommy tells you and never, ever, talk to strangers and aren't a lot of fun, and the rest of her childhood really does fit with that choice in reading material.