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Lynne Vallone

Becoming Victoria Hardcover – May 29, 2001

by Lynne Vallone (Author)

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Just eight months old when her father, Edward, duke of Kent, died unexpectedly, the princess Victoria moved significantly closer to England’s throne. The task of raising a potential female monarch assumed critical importance for the nation, yet Victoria’s girlhood and adolescence have received scant attention from historians, cultural critics, and even her biographers. In this engaging and revealing book, Lynne Vallone shows us a new Victoria—a lively and passionate girl very different from the iconic dour widow of the queen’s later life.
Based on a thorough exploration of the young Victoria’s own letters, stories, drawings, educational materials, and journals—documents that have been under appreciated until now—the book illuminates the princess’s childhood from her earliest years to her accession to the throne at age eighteen in 1837. Vallone presents a fresh assessment of “the rose of England” within the culture of girlhood and domestic life in the 1820s and 1830s. The author also explores the complex and often conflicting contexts of the period, including Georgian children’s literature, conventional childrearing practices, domestic and familial intrigues, and the frequently turbulent political climate. Part biography, part historical and cultural study, this richly illustrated volume uncovers in fascinating detail the childhood that Victoria actually lived.

Print length

276 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

May 29, 2001
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0300089503
ISBN-13

978-0300089509
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Exuberant," "creative" and "playful" are not words that typically come to mind when one thinks of Queen Victoria, but, as Texas A&M English professor Vallone (Disciplines of Virtue: Girls' Culture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries) ably demonstrates, youthful Victoria was notably different from the staid, dignified monarch who gave her name to what has often been viewed as one of the most stolid ages in modern history. By analyzing Victoria's girlhood diaries, drawings and fiction, as well as records of her education and scores of accounts of her childhood, Vallone not only constructs a revisionist account of the princess's youthful persona but also traces the process by which Victoria was molded into the "right" kind of adult: capable of assuming the throne and also a clear embodiment of all that was womanly and pure. Vallone calls this a study of both Victoria and the various ideological imperatives that undergirded early 19th-century child-rearing; the latter achievement is more compelling. Victoria is, in Vallone's account, a fascinating, complex figure. But she also serves here as an example of the way girls' personalities were subject to various social and cultural pressures en route to adulthood. And because Victoria the feminine icon was deemed at least as important as Victoria the ruler, her upbringing had much more in common with those of other girls than one might imagine. Well-researched, and with sophisticated cultural criticism, this sound scholarship will engage the interest of academics and nonacademics alike. Illus.

From Library Journal

This pleasant read, written by a Texas A&M literature scholar and expert on 18th- and 19th-century girlhood, focuses on Queen Victoria (1819-1901) as princess. Vallone's case study in Georgian child-rearing among elites depicts the future queen's formative years, often neglected in studies of Victoria's life. When William IV became King of Great Britain in 1830, his 11-year-old niece, Victoria, became heiress presumptive. Drawing on Victoria's lesson schedules, sketches (many here reproduced), journals, surviving fiction, and correspondence with her mother, the widowed Duchess of Kent, Vallone reveals how the girl was shaped by strict education and upbringing under an obsessively controlling parent. Covering her life from birth until just after she gained the throne (June 20, 1837), the text is packed with details of Victoria as infant, girl, and adolescent, increasingly torn between inculcated loyalty to the duchess and her increasingly independent temperament. For a wide audience, especially royalty and British history buffs; recommended for public and academic libraries. Nigel Tappin, Lake of Bays P.L., Huntsville, Ont.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed edition (May 29, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 276 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300089503
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300089509
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.68 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,319,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,501 in Royalty Biographies
- #8,315 in Historical British Biographies
- #17,879 in Women in History

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TooManyHobbies

Not a biography of Victoria's early life

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2002

Verified Purchase

I was expecting a biography on Victoria's early life, but I would not classify this book as such. It was more a dissertation on how the child rearing practices of Georgian England ultimately affected the personality of the future Queen Victoria.
You can tell after skimming just a few pages of this book that a huge amount of research went into it (there are more that 40 pages of footnotes and references), but I found it very difficult to read and even harder to follow. It concentrated almost exclusively on the mundane facts of how she lived, rather than on who she was. There are hundreds of detailed descriptions of the clothes she wore, the books she read, the food she ate, and the toys she played with. There were even more descriptions on how the people around her influenced the food she ate, the books she read, the toys she played etc, etc.
So don't get this book if you are looking for a biography about Victoria's early life, but check it out from the library if you want to see some truly beautiful illustrations (some by Victoria's own hand) and some outstanding photographs.

6 people found this helpful

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Katherine Woodbury

Fascinating Princess

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2002

Princesses have become an item of interest in the past few years. Possibly they always have been, but series such as The Royal Diaries--fictional diaries by true life princesses-- are filling library and bookstore shelves.
In this aristocratic climate, Becoming Victoria by Lynne Vallone stands out. Becoming Victoria examines the girlhood/teenagehood of the young woman who became Queen Victoria and consequently, the enduring symbol of an era. Ms Vallone has undertaken the remarkable task of examining how Victoria was reared, comparing her upbringing to the upbringing of contemporaries (not princesses), chronicling Victoria's relationship with her mother and illustrating the gap between the portrayal of Victoria's youth, both at the time and retrospectively, and how Victoria herself truly felt and acted.
The reader leaves this book convinced that truth is indeed stranger than fiction or at least as strange and as remarkable. Although Becoming Victoria is not necessarily geared towards teens (and is more expositive than books such as The Royal Diaries), the insight into a princess' curriculum, familial relationships, day-to-day activities should fascinate the readership that delves into Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries and Gail Levine's The Princess Tales.
Becoming Victoria ends, rather disappointingly, at Victoria's ascension to the throne. This is, however, in accordance with the task set by the author. Victoria the child and teenager is Ms Vallone's focus, and she ends once her subject passes into a different stage. Consequently, the reader's appetite is whet to do further study on a most fascinating woman and queen.
Recommendation: The price is not too bad. It is a beautifully bound book and may be worth buying new. However, if your interest is in the content, not the appearance, try used.

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Interesting but not terribly exciting

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2003

I think the thing I found most interesting about this book was the total screwiness of Victoria's mother, the Dutchess of Kent. I admit that the Dutchess was in kind of a rough spot: She was raising a monarch after all, and yet wanted to raise her to within the standards of ladylike behaviour. Can't have her going around refering to herself with male terminology like Queen Elizabeth I did, y'know.
But in the process, the thing the Dutchess seemed to always have her eye on was the possibility of a Regency. She *wanted* to be Regent. How screwed up do you have to be to *want* to be Regent? All the responsibility, none of the adoring crowds. Yuck!
So she was torn between the necessity of producing in Victoria a princess who could eventually take the throne (because if she failed in providing an appropriate education and upbringing the King had made it pretty clear that he *would* ensure Victoria received same, even if it meant removing her from her mother's tender care) while wanting to keep her daughter from being *able* to take the throne at 18 (there was a possibility of a regency until she reached 21), all the while hoping that King George would hurry up and die already. Which may in part be the author's spin on things, but the good Dutchess did *repeatedly* write about the possibility of a regency until Victoria was 21 even *after* Victoria was declared competent to take the throne when she reached majority at 18 (said declaration taking place several years ahead of time), which kind of points to having some serious hopes caught up in that regency.
Victoria herself just seems like a kid caught in the middle and kept from having much fun. She got to read a lot of "improving" books, which are those sort of kids books that beat you over the head with the idea that you should always do what Mommy tells you and never, ever, talk to strangers and aren't a lot of fun, and the rest of her childhood really does fit with that choice in reading material.

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Becoming Victoria Hardcover – May 29, 2001

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