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"Victoriais an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood. Daisy Goodwin breathes new life into Victoria's story, and does so with sensitivity, verve, and wit." /> â?? AMANDA FOREMAN Drawing on Queen Victoria's diaries, which she first started reading when she was a student at Cambridge University, Daisy Goodwinâ??creator and writer of the new PBS Masterpiece drama Victoria and author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunterâ??brings the young nineteenth-century monarch, who would go on to reign for 63 years, richly to life in this magnificent novel. Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world. Despite her age, however, the young queen is no puppet. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name. "I do not like the name Alexandrina," she proclaims. "From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria." Next, people say she must choose a husband. Everyone keeps telling her she's destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously. On June 19th, 1837, she was a teenager. On June 20th, 1837, she was a queen. Daisy Goodwin's impeccably researched and vividly imagined new audiobook brings readers Queen Victoria as they have never seen her before. This program includes an interview with the author, Daisy Goodwin, who is the writer and creator of Victoria, the Masterpiece Presentation on PBS. Anna Wilson-Jones, who plays Lady Portman on the show, narra… (meer)
This is a fictional account of Queen Victoria from right around when she turned 18 years old (just before she became queen) until she got engaged to Prince Albert, only a year or two after she became queen. So, it focused initially on her (strained) relationship with her mother (in part, due to her mother’s involvement with power-hungry Sir John Conroy). When Victoria became queen, the prime minister at the time, Lord Melbourne, advised her, despite his reputation with women and people worried that he would influence Victoria politically. The story then shifted to her meeting her cousins Ernst and Albert.
I listened to the audio and thought this was very good. In the past few years, I’ve read some about Victoria, so I don’t think anything in this book came as a surprise, but it was interesting and I feel like the author’s writing style is easy to “read” (or, in my case, listen to!). ( )
Light reading I fell into because of watching The Crown and then wanting to watch the PBS series about Queen Victoria.
I have no idea how legit the info is in the book but I don’t know anything at all about English history so to me this might as well be a random romance novel.
It feels like it has been awhile since I read a book that felt strictly like pleasure reading, and Victoria was perfect in that regard. Goodwin's storytelling is wonderful - - I felt transported to the 19th century and captivated by the story of an 18 year old Queen who simultaneously must contend with the responsibilities and politics of her position and the normal coming of age problems. The story has historical detail, enough to set the scene, but not too much to bog you down, romance, a bit of fashion, and some political challenges - - all of which are presented in a completely engaging way.
Victoria takes the throne as an 18 year old, and her first challenge is contending with her Duchess mother's boyfriend's power grabbing ways. She finds a confident in her adviser, Lord Melbourne, and her reliance on him grows as she deals with the challenges of being such a young, petite ruler. The question of her marriage is, as you might expect, a huge deal and a large focus of the book.
I'm not normally a person who reads romance, but I really did enjoy the sweet way Goodwin portrays Victoria's coming of age, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one to people looking for a light, very enjoyable historical fiction read. I believe it is going to be made into a mini series too, so that should make it extra fun!
The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that it isn't very literary nor original, and I save my fifth stars for something that makes a book out of the ordinary. Something that makes me go "wow". This book didn't have that, but it was completely enjoyable.
Recommendation: Watch the Masterpiece series of Victoria (still ongoing at the moment, and only about halfway through the episodes). Get the delicious voice of Rufus Sewell in your head (surely I'm not the only one thinking this, right?). Then, after two or three episodes, dig into this novelization, which can now probably be found at most libraries.
This book follows the PBS series extremely closely, and indeed was written at the same time the show was being put together. I don't know that I would have enjoyed it quite so much without the visuals and the voices being fresh in my mind from the TV show. It's straightforward, easy reading, but not particularly thought-provoking.
The book doesn't have the downstairs storylines that the show does (the servant characters are mentioned and have a little dialogue, but you don't get their back stories). Instead, as the title suggests, this book is centered squarely on the young queen. ( )
"Victoriais an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood. Daisy Goodwin breathes new life into Victoria's story, and does so with sensitivity, verve, and wit." â?? AMANDA FOREMAN Drawing on Queen Victoria's diaries, which she first started reading when she was a student at Cambridge University, Daisy Goodwinâ??creator and writer of the new PBS Masterpiece drama Victoria and author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunterâ??brings the young nineteenth-century monarch, who would go on to reign for 63 years, richly to life in this magnificent novel. Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world. Despite her age, however, the young queen is no puppet. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name. "I do not like the name Alexandrina," she proclaims. "From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria." Next, people say she must choose a husband. Everyone keeps telling her she's destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously. On June 19th, 1837, she was a teenager. On June 20th, 1837, she was a queen. Daisy Goodwin's impeccably researched and vividly imagined new audiobook brings readers Queen Victoria as they have never seen her before. This program includes an interview with the author, Daisy Goodwin, who is the writer and creator of Victoria, the Masterpiece Presentation on PBS. Anna Wilson-Jones, who plays Lady Portman on the show, narra
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4
I listened to the audio and thought this was very good. In the past few years, I’ve read some about Victoria, so I don’t think anything in this book came as a surprise, but it was interesting and I feel like the author’s writing style is easy to “read” (or, in my case, listen to!). (