Reading Victoria: Books about the Queen and Her Empire (episode 25)

She was the youngest woman to be crowned Queen of England. She
was the second queen to marry while ruling, and the first to have
children while on the throne. She oversaw extraordinary changes
in the country, as well as the establishment of the British
Empire. She became Empress of India. By the time of her death,
she had ruled longer than any monarch.

With such a long reign, covering decades of world events, there’s
no shortage of reading material about Victoria and her time. I’ve
chosen a few of my favorite books about Queen Victoria. Of
course, it’s not an exhaustive list, and it’s based on my
preferences. 

I wanted to know other things about Victoria: as a young woman
coming into power, as a new queen who made mistakes, as a working
mother who had to balance her reality against expectations, as a
daughter and a mother navigating complicated family
relationships, as a woman who finally allowed herself to
celebrate her accomplishments and broke into a big smile, belying
the old adage, “We are not amused.”

So please join me to meet this extraordinary and complicated
woman and explore some of my favorite books about the life and
reign of Queen Victoria: The Life and Times of Victoria by
Dorothy Marshall; Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird; Victoria’s
Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard and Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking:
The Royal Marriages that Shaped Europe by Deborah Cadbury.


History shows us what's possible.