Originally written in 1921, Strachey's biography of Queen Victoria is warm, portraying the young queen as a real person, not simply "the monarch". We see Victoria as a temperamental and willful child, managed by her mother and Sir John, as they attempt to control the power the heir will have as queen. We see her as the eighteen-year-old queen of the most powerful nation on earth, increasingly aware of how her current decisions will affect her power and her reign. We watch as she grasps the import of political maneuvering and tactfully holds off the men who would control her. Strachey's shows us the young woman deeply in love with her husband, Prince Albert, and that husband's powerful influence over her and eventually British politics. Finally, we see her in her long widowhood, managing the powers that be in parliament and around the world.
Exceptionally well written, Queen Victoria, A Life, created a new kind of biography, one that portrays the whole of a famous life, a genuine human picture where Victoria is more than the queen; she is a wife, a mother, a woman and a queen who matured, changed her mind, and shaped a entire era.
Magnificent in it's details and profound in it's exploration, Strachey's writing captures the complexity of Victoria, her relationships, her personality. Moreover, we are allowed to not only meet , but also to engage with the people surrounding Victoria: Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Galdstone, Disraeli and her devoted servants, governess "Lehzen" and later John Brown.
I thoroughly enjoyed this biography. It never got bogged down in minute details. The story was beautifully told and expertly presented.
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