56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gem of a book that transports the reader back in time!, September 24, 1999
By A Customer
As a passionate "devourer" of all books pertaining to European history, I had very high expectations of this work before actually picking it up. Was I ever surprised! Not only did it meet my expectations, but surpassed them by far! Thoroughly researched, Packard offers for the most part, a sympathetic view of his subjects; however, he does balance things out by touching on their less stellar qualities, as well. I became more emotionally caught up with each of Victoria's daughters, in turn, as well as with Victoria herself, than I ever thought I possibly could, since I usually tend to view Britain's royal family with a critical eye. Packard really made me feel with the family's triumphs and tragedies and I came away from this reading experience with a greater appreciation of just how much more difficult life was in the 19th century than it is today. Packard also illustrated that even royalty is not immune to life's disappointments. For instance, while I tended to be impatient with eldest daughter, Vicky's, lack of understanding about Prussian life and customs, and her arrogance in thinking that the British way could quite easily be forced down the throats of Europe's other countries, I did pity her frustration at the disintegrated relationship with primarily her 2 eldest children. Many of the dysfunctions that existed in Victoria's immediate family have managed to stay with the family through the present generation, which explains a lot about the present-day group. I highly recommend this book for afficianados of European history. The moment you crack the cover, you won't be able to put it down until you read the very last word!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating study of Queen Victoria's legacy., August 12, 2001
This review is from: Victoria's Daughters (Paperback)
When most of us think of the daughter's of Queen Victoria, we think of the tragedy wrought throughout the royal families of Europe by the hemophiliac gene passed by the queen's female descendents. "Victoria's Daughters" amply proves that there is much more to learn about these 5 fascinating and very different women. Jerrold Packard explores their lives from cradle to grave and offers much insight into how their formative years shaped the destiny of modern Europe. Victoria and her husband Albert raised their elder daughters with the expectation that they would marry into other royal families and help spread their father's conception of a constitutional monarchy across the Continent. Despite (or perhaps because of) their earnest efforts, quite the opposite happened. In many ways, the younger daughters had an even more difficult task. They were expected to devote their lives to the service of their demanding widowed mother and each had to struggle for a measure of independence, including the right to marry. All five did eventually marry and several bred offspring that would rule throught the courts of Europe in the early 20th century.
Packard is an adept historical biographer, and he skillfully compares and contrasts the lives of the 5 daughters. His research has been extensive. Given the voluminous correspondence between Victoria and her daughters, this was no doubt a daunting task. However, he frequently opines as to what any one of the daughters was thinking in response to a given incident; it is difficult todistinguish which come from his suppositions and which are based upon actual statements in the historical records. In the same vein, Packard tends to state his congectures about how the daughters might have changed history as given facts. For example, he is quite definitive in stating that if Vicki had been less demanding of "Willy" (Kaiser Wilhelm II) during his childhood, the course of the 20th centrury would have been drastically different. While that might be true, there's also reason to believe that Willy's mental instability and Bismark's political maneuvering would have yield the same results regardless. Nevertheless, this is a thoroughly readable and very enlightening book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fantastic way to learn more about history, February 14, 2004
This review is from: Victoria's Daughters (Paperback)
This was a fantastic way to learn more about the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. I have to admit that although I have a master's degree in history, my major focus has always been ancient history, particularly ancient Near Eastern history (I was one of those people who felt that "modern history" meant everything after 1200 BC.--yes, BC.). Only just lately have I begun to follow up intriguing trails through other periods. Some time ago, I began to realize that one could really gain incredible insight into the events of an era by studying peripherals: the history of countries peripheral to the main stage, side issues like trade, crafts, and long distance contacts, and the women and others behind the main historical figures, etc. Jerrold Packard's book Victoria's Daughters seemed to be just the book I needed to learn about a period in time about which I knew next to nothing, the late 19th Century.
At first it seemed as though the book would be more about Queen Victoria herself than about her daughters. As I read on, though, I realized that the oddity of Victoria's succession to the throne had much to do with the lives of her daughters, as did her early life and her own upbringing. Furthermore, it is against her long life and protracted reign that not only the events in her daughters' lives were measured and chronicled but those of most of the lives of the world's population. There was a reason that most of the 19th Century was labeled "the Victorian era!"
In the past I had given very little thought about the connections that existed throughout European history or about what actually brought about the events that occurred during the turn of the century. I knew of course that the Tsarina of Russia was "Victoria's granddaughter" and a "Prussian princess," but I hardly gave thought to what that really meant. Nicholas and Alexandra were charismatic historical figures in their own right. They were a fairy tale couple, much in love, with a cozy little family living the life of a Russian folktale, and their poetic tale came to a tragic but colorful and certainly very memorable finish. End of story, or so it seemed to me. One knows about World War I, I suppose, and all the people that died in trenches of disease and exposure and mustard gas and enemy fire. One has heard of Bismark and Wilhelm II and Lord Mountbattan, but they're all just interesting names, names one memorizes to answer our world history tests, right? Not when one reads Mr. Packard's story of the children of Queen Victoria.
Each of the daughters, Victoria, Alice, Helena, Louise, and Beatrice had a unique relationship with their mother. Because of whom and what she was, Victoria's was not a particularly warm and maternal presence in their lives. When she was a presence at all, she was distant, self-centered, imperious, and controlling. Unfortunately some of this early relationship translated into problems with parent-child interactions when the girls had children of their own. Lest anyone think that women do not have an impact on the course of history because they don't lead armies into battle--often anyway--one only need read about the relationships between some of these women and their children. That between Victoria, "Vicky," and her eldest son, Willy--later Wilhelm II--will quickly disabuse one of the notion.
Furthermore, the five girls were married into some of the key families of Europe. The titles of each and their in-laws read like a who's who of European nobility, and their sons and daughters became kings, queens, and dukes, many of whom ended up on opposite sides of wars in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century. The tangled web of personal relationships, treaties, and ambitions ultimately brought about World War I.
I was especially entranced with the intimate detail woven into the stories of each of the women. The author mined diaries, extensive family correspondence, and biographies written about each to create very personal characterizations. The reader becomes as engaged in the story of their lives as in those of fictional characters; one just does feels connected.
FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS: in history, anthropology, political science, sociology. One might use this book to discuss the limitations of women of the upper classes at the time and their effects on history. One might look at individuals like Alice, who became a follower of the practices of Florence Nightengale, or her sister Louise, who was an accomplished and professional sculptor, who attempted to break out of the social mold of the time to create an identity and existence of their own. What types of role models did they make for others? What changes did they bring about in society? How did they set the stage for our own era? Might the events of WWI been less likely to have happened if the relationships between countries had been based on less personal grounds? Did the relationships between these women and their children and spouses affect the course of events significantly? Or would they have happened anyway? Would they have happened for the same reasons? How was this era a transitional time?
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
