I, Victoria [Hardcover]

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996

A thoroughly researched and historically accurate fictionalized autobiography of Queen Victoria offers an intimate and moving chronicle of a woman whose life was marked by power, loneliness, and an all too brief love.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Harrod-Eagles (Grave Music, LJ 3/1/95), who also writes as Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennett, has written 40-plus titles in the fields of romance and mystery. Her latest effort is a fictionalized autobiography of Queen Victoria. The fictional Victoria, writing during her last year, looks back to her childhood and onward to the death of her husband, Prince Albert. Each chapter also includes a bit about her present, largely tidbits about children, grandchildren, and contemporary political situations. The real Victoria was such a prolific letter and journal writer that much exists even today about her personal life. Unfortunately, I, Victoria doesn't break any new ground and the constant political references may discourage readers wanting a portrait of the queen as a woman, wife, and mother. Only large fiction collections need consider.?Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Harrod-Eagles pens a novel based on Queen Victoria that presents her in a quite different light than the popular conception of a staid and conservative matriarch. The time is 1900, and Victoria begins with a look back at a childhood full of the stresses of royal life. Instinctively, young Victoria wants to cavort, but she's constantly being tutored in the dignity of her position. Her home at Kensington Palace is a "royal asylum" of mean and tragic relatives, and she sees firsthand the political intrigues and back stabbing that will become a daily distraction when she ascends the throne. Yet the political history of her long reign is more of a backdrop. The real focus is Victoria the person, a strong-willed and passionate woman. Yes, passionate. For example, her initial attraction to her husband, Albert, is quite sexual, and this and all other emotions are frankly revealed. A surprising picture of one of history's most powerful women that takes liberties, to be sure. Brian McCombie

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 415 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312135165
• ISBN-13: 978-0312135164
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,149,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars a beautiful love story, September 23, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (L.I. NEW YORK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I, Victoria (Hardcover)

This is the loveliest love story I have ever read. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is the master of the historical novel. Her Dynasty books are a MUST READ. I, Victoria, is a wonderfully rich account of what we wished Queen Victoria's life with Prince Albert was like. My favourite author without a doubt

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Incoherent. A very poor work of literature, December 6, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Arlington VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I, Victoria (Hardcover)

This autobiography is not to be compared with Rosalind Miles "I, Elizabeth" or any of the novels by Margartet Georges ("The Memoirs of Cleopatra" "Mary Queen of Scots" and "Henry VIII") or Robert K. Massie's "Peter the Great"(non fiction). I was under the impresion that I was going to read a well organized story like the ones I mentioned. I was wrong. Suddenly she talks about her looks, then about some relatives that does not like pictures, then she talks about some relatives, about her husband etc. etc.etc. Why can't the book start with something like "I was born in ...." and then keep a chronological sequence of events, and introduce all the characters in that order? Very poor literature.