Customer Reviews

Queen Victoria's Gene (Pocket Biographies)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Somewhat of a departure for Alan Sutton to include in their catalogues - they shine in the department of Gloucestershire regional books, but should at least have insisted on a very thorough editing job before 'Queen Victoria's Gene' was allowed to appear.
It is too bad that the wealth of historical detail in this book didn't come across in a more polished and less divergent presentation. One might even live with the air of 'refined prurience' typical of some British authors who when faced with the whiff of scandal seem to leer even as they hold their noses. But whether a desire to present all the information at his disposal or the pressure to get a product out made the text this difficult to wade through, mucky it is.
Inconsistent spellings of names and titles (how about three variants of 'Alexei' alone?), rambling and inaccurate presentation of some well known facts and obscured main points abound. This book resembles an unfinished masters' thesis in the history of medicine more than anything else, and I would have asked the author to resubmit it when he felt it was quite more ready to grade had I been his advisor. There is some good material here, but it is hard to see for all the distractions.

This marvelous book is an informative, spectacular treat for anyone interested in the historical role played by the blood disease known as hemophilia. It is widely known that the Tsarevich Alexei suffered from it, but in these pages you'll find that it began in European royalty with the birth of Queen Victoria, who passed it on to her son Prince Leopold and two of her daughters. The disease was quickly spread thoughout the royal houses of Europe, and its effects on history amount to much more than the downfall of the Russian Empire.

This book is really partly a discussion on how Victoria passed on a gene for Haemophilia and its immense influence on later European politics, but also hugely influential, and not included in the title, were the overweening ambitions of Leopold in the scheme of European Royalty.

Following his marriage to The heir to the English throne, Princess Charlotte, in 1817 I had thought he had faded out of existence, he was hardly a major player, so to speak, in the scheme of things then. I had forgotten his connection with Queen Victoria's mother, and it was again Leopold's influence which made Prince Albert, Victoria's husband - and then he really got workin on Europe for his relatives - even Brazil and Mexico got Leopold dynastic ambitions during their brief flirtations with the monarchy.

The first chapter is really an introduction of Leopold but it is mainly in this first part that the genetics of Queen Victoria are examined. Where did the gene for Haemophilia arise and why, after generations of pophyria in the royal family (traced back for hundreds of years) was there a sudden stop to this,and rise to a completely new genetic disease. I don't know that the authors really made their point. I thought the discussion was interesting but the conclusions were a bit tenuous. In the end there was no possible candidate for the male haemophiliac who could have been Victoria's father. It is all very well discussion all the possibilities of how a gene might transfer from generation to generation but it would have been more convincing if they could have really put up some candidates - or at least one viable candidate anyway.

The influence of the gene on later generations of European royalty was quite profound and I thought that was presented well by the book. I really enjoyed the chapter by chapter presentation of the gene's movements through other royal families in Europe as well as its still possible presence in the lesser branches of the Spanish Royal family. Each royal family or incident is presented as a single chapter and the ramifications are simply discussed. Certainly the guiding hand of Leopold on each succeeding generation is still very comprehensive.

I wish the authors had used more, or better Family trees though. There were an awful lot of names and relationships to follow and not all were even represented in a family tree at all. Also finding the family trees to refer back to them was pretty awkward at times as they were scattered through the book.

I don't know that this is really an academic book for those that are interested in royal watching. It doesn't present itself as well as it might. The conclusions are often very vague - if there are conclusions at all. However as a start point for a slightly different look at the influence of Victoria, and Leopold on European royalty it is definitely worth dipping in to. I probably would have given it 3 and a half stars rather than 3 given the choice, but it isn't a brilliant book - just interesting.

You have only to look at any portrait of Edward, Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria, to see that he was her natural father. The physiognomy - everything is identical - something that Queen Victoria herself did not always appreciate. Melbourne described her as "...le Roi Georges en petticoats..." (so forcibly did she resemble George III, her paternal grandfather) and whenever people commented on her strong likeness to her father, she would reply rather hopefully, "We think we have more from our mother" - Victoire, Duchess of Kent, had been a very pretty woman in her youth. The supposition - unsubstantiated - that Victoria may have had an unknown father - i.e. that the Duchess of Kent had taken a lover - is preposterous. The book is neither satisfying nor well written. I give it two stars from charity rather than from conviction.

I think I read this book for different reasons (and got different things out of it) than most of the previous reviewers. One of the first instances of "genetic genealogy" was the investigation into the roots of the hemophilia that plagued the czarevich Alexei of Russia, the only son of Nicholas II, who probably wouldn't have lived long enough to become czar even if the Bolsheviks hadn't liquidated the imperial family. But Victoria's son, Leopold, also died of complications of the disease, and it made its way into the Spanish royal family, as well. Where did the defective gene Victoria carried come from? There are only two medical possibilities: Either she was the victim of a random mutation -- one chance in about 50,000 -- or her father was hemophiliac. And since her father, Edward, Duke of Kent, did *not* have the disease, that would mean Victoria was illegitimate, the offspring of a hemophiliac lover of the Duchess of Kent. The duchess certainly *did* have a lover, and it's also possible, from all the evidence, that the duke was sterile. In which case, the throne should rightfully have gone to King William III's next closest relative, . . . and who would that have been? This is quite a fascinating detective story, investigating in considerable depth the private lives of the Coburgs, and it leaves one to wonder how the 19th century in Britain might have been different if Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and subsequently king of Hanover (a very distasteful individual by all accounts, and a very unpopular ruler), had become king of Great Britain. (His eldest living descendant in the male line today is Ernest Augustus, Prince of Hanover and present husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco.)

This was a fascinating read, about how history was hugely influenced by this genetic anomaly.

queen victoria was the grandmother of europe who brought hemophilla to many european royal houses that ended in great tragic.