As the 18-year-old queen assumes her regal duties, Victoria discovers the limitations of her governmental powers even as she spreads her wings as a woman who has escaped out from under her mother's thumb and can finally rule herself. Daisy Goodwin, author of The American Heiress, spotlights Victoria's earliest moments on the throne, from the days before her coronation, to her first clash with Parliament and the venerable Lord Wellington, and finally the moment when she proposes to her cousin, Prince Albert. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.Īn Amazon Best Book of November 2016: For a monarch, there's perhaps no greater historical compliment than to have a time period named after you. Daisy Goodwin’s impeccably researched and vividly imagined new book brings readers Queen Victoria as they have never seen her before. 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.

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. Next, people say she must choose a husband. “From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria.” “I do not like the name Alexandrina,” she proclaims. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name. 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.ĭespite her age, however, the young queen is no puppet. Daisy Goodwin breathes new life into Victoria's story, and does so with sensitivity, verve, and wit.'ĭrawing on Queen Victoria’s diaries, which she first started reading when she was a student at Cambridge University, Daisy Goodwin―creator and writer of the new PBS Masterpiece drama Victoria and author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter―brings the young nineteenth-century monarch, who would go on to reign for 63 years, richly to life in this magnificent novel.Įarly 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. 'Victoria is an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood.

Victoria book by daisy goodwin