Part sociology, part royal gossip, this glossy, readable book follows Victoria from her submissive childhood through her domineering reign. Auchincloss - a Wall Street lawyer and novelist (The Winthrop Covenant) - paints the Queen as less pompous than have previous biographers. But he is really more concerned with the courtly higher-ups around her and provides a non-Victorian, savvy lowdown. With its plentiful illustrations, this is a fascinating introduction to the era.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
There's always something more to say about Victoria!,
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This review is from: Persons of Consequence: Queen Victoria and Her Circle (Hardcover)
Any monarch is associated with individuals whose influence they inevitably will feel, whether that influence is sought by either side or not. Victoria was no exception through her long reign, but the sort of people with whom she surrounded herself changed as she aged -- and especially after the death of the Prince Consort, when the Queen went into near-seclusion. Some of those who had her ear were, naturally, aristocrats, and some of those were politicians, especially Lord Melbourne during her earlier reign. Others came from the upper middle class, like Disraeli (whom she admired) and Gladstone (whom she disliked almost to paranoia). Still others were household staff and servants, including Sir Henry Ponsonby, her tactful private secretary, her doctor, Sir William Jenner (who was completely under her thumb), and John Brown, her rough-hewn "gillie" and personal servant whom both the court and her own children despised. And as her children grew up and married into European royal and noble families, Victoria began an intense correspondence, especially with her eldest daughter, Victoria, mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who also tried to influence British affairs through his grandmother in her last years. The author brings his attention to detail and sense of style to this first-rate study of the "off the record" side of a monarch's existence.
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