Queen Victoria's Gene (Pocket Biographies) [Paperback]

D.M. Potts (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pocket Biographies | Publication Date: March 25, 1999

Queen Victoria's son, Prince Leopold, died from hemophilia, but no member of the royal family before his generation had suffered from the condition. Medically, there are only two possibilities: either one of Victoria's parents had a 1 in 50,000 random mutation, or Victoria was the illegitimate child of a hemophiliac man. However the hemophilia gene arose, it had a profound effect on history. Two of Victoria's daughters were silent carriers who passed the disease to the Spanish and Russian royal families. The disease played a role in the origin of the Spanish Civil War; and the tsarina's concern over her only son's hemophilia led to the entry of Rasputin into the royal household, contributing directly to the Russian revolution.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

D. M. Potts holds the Bixby chair in the School of Public Health, University of California, at Berkeley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Publishing (March 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750911999
• ISBN-13: 978-0750911993
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,549,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > British > Queen Victoria

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, October 12, 2000

By 

M. S. Butch (Katonah, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Queen Victoria's Gene (Pocket Biographies) (Paperback)

a quick read, and entertaining but doesn't really follow through on its title. very little of the book is actually about the appearance of hemophilia in victoria's line; some of it is an abbreviated story of her family, some of it is a primer on genetics, some of it is a description of family members who inherited it. but the "hook" that induced me to buy this book was the connection between victoria and hemophilia, and about this the book has only mild speculation. where did she get the gene? the author suggests maybe from an unknown "real" father; but surely such speculation is irresponsible without some evidence? of which there is none.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If you know about royalty and hemophilia, skip this book, June 26, 2000

By 

Ashley (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen Victoria's Gene (Pocket Biographies) (Paperback)

The authors are informative regarding Princess Charlotte of Wales, but everything else is either partially or totally wrong. There are too many mistakes re: royalty, not to mention basic grammatical errors, therefore the average royal reader should skip this book. Not worth the headache and hassle! (Unless you enjoy correcting mistakes on every other page.) Plus, it does not have a very well established thesis; the authors often jump form subject to subject, making the reader guess what's coming next. Nor does the book have any real endnotes or bibliography = not the book for ANY historian.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More about hemophilia and history than scandal, January 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Queen Victoria's Gene (Pocket Biographies) (Paperback)

It's too bad so many reviewers and editors chose to focus on the small part of this book which questions Queen Victoria's legitimacy, because that's not really what this book is about. It's far more about how the interbreeding of British and other European royalty had profound consequences for world history. The bulk of the book traces the competitive sexual politics prior to Victoria's birth, and the way inbreeding among royalty contributed to the spread of the hemophilia gene, causing major world upheaval (in particular, to the fall of the Russian tsar). Much has been written of the privileges of 19th century royalty, but this book brings into sharper focus the way these royals' private behavior had public consequences. An interesting treatise on an aspect of history that is often overlooked: that many European wars were family conflicts extended to a grand scale.