Queen Victoria

Book categories: Victoria, Employees, Letters, Journals and Travels, Victoria's Family, Albert, Offspring, Edward VII, Victoria's Father, Hanoverians, Politics, Victorian Era, Jack the Ripper, Fiction, Children's Books, Movies & Documentaries

Queen Victoria by Walter L. Arnstein. This biography explores neglected aspects of Victoria's life, including her religious views and her political initiatives.

Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey. A classic account of Victoria's life.

The Young Victoria by Alison Plowden. Fatherless from the age of eight months, future queen Victoria was brought up in an atmosphere thick with family feuds.

Becoming Victoria by Lynne Vallone focuses on Queen Victoria's girlhood and adolescence.

Queen Victoria: Her Life in Pictures. Originally published for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1888, this book is now being re-issued using much of the original text and all the hand-painted colour plates. From young girl to grieving widow, each picture of the milestones in the Queen's long life is framed with delicate flower painting in typical Victorian style.

Queen Victoria at Home by Michael De-La-Noy. Using anecdotes and extracts from letters and diaries, the author provides insight into daily life in the houses the queen inhabited or built.

Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year by Greg King. Explores Victoria's splendid palaces, grand banquets and balls, and her perpetual state of mourning for her husband.

Queen Victoria by Elizabeth Longford. This well-known biography gives a full account of Victoria's life right up until her death in 1901.

Queen Victoria's Employees

John Brown: Queen Victoria's Highland Servant by Raymond Lamont Brown explores the truth behind the rumors that Victoria had an affair with servant and close friend Brown.

Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queens' Closest Confidant by Shrabani Basu. How a young Indian Muslim became Queen Victoria's personal attendant and a powerful figure at her court. Available from Alibris.

Henry and Mary Ponsonby: Life at the Court of Queen Victoria by William M. Kuhn. Henry Ponsonby was Queen Victoria's private secretary.

The Queen's Knight: The Extraordinary Life of Queen Victoria's Most Trusted Confidant by Martyn Downer. Biography of Howard Elphinstone, who was appointed guardian to Queen Victoria's favourite son, Prince Arthur. Available from Alibris.

Victoria's Correspondence, Journals and Travels

The Letters of Queen Victoria is a selection of the queen's letters. The book is over 500 pages long.

Dear and Honoured Lady edited by Hope Dyson. The queen's correspondence with Alfred Tennyson.

Our Highland Home: Victoria and Albert in Scotland by Jeanne Cannizzo. Explores Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's love affair with Scotland, discussing their early journeys there and their stays at Balmoral.

A Queen's Country by Robert Smith is about Queen Victoria's visits to Royal Deeside in Scotland.

On the Trail of Queen Victoria in the Highlands by Ian Mitchell.

Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera by Michael Nelson. The Queen fell in love with the Riviera in 1882. This book paints a portrait of Victoria's dealings with officials, statesmen, and the constant stream of visiting crowned heads to the Riviera.

Victoria's Family

Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch by Kate Williams. How the untimely death of King George IV's daughter shaped the reign of Queen Victoria.

The Houses of Hanover and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha by John Clarke, Jasper Ridley, and Antonia Fraser. The history of Queen Victoria's family from George I to Edward VII.

Queen Victoria's Family by Charlotte Zeepvat. Photos of the queen's family, accompanied by anecdotes and quotations.

Queen Victoria's Sister: The Life and Letters of Princess Feodora by Harold Albert.

Unsuccessful Ladies by Jane-Eliza Hasted. An intimate account of the aunts (official and unofficial) of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria's Gene by D. M. Potts and W. T. W. Potts is about the hemophilia gene Queen Victoria passed down to her descendants and how it affected European history. The book suggests that Victoria may have been illegitimate.

Prince Albert

We Two - Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gill. An account of the passionate, complicated marriage of feisty Queen Victoria and brilliant, fragile Prince Albert.

Albert: A Life by Jules Stewart. According to this biography, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, defined the culture of 19th century Britain more than any other British royal or politician.

Uncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert by Stanley Weintraub. A man of intelligence, pride, and ambition, Queen Victoria's husband Albert was forced to move behind the scenes. Weintraub chronicles every aspect of Albert's life - from the political to the sexual - in lively, accessible prose. (This review © Amazon.)

The Albert Memorial by Chris Brooks. The Prince Consort National Memorial's history and conservation.

Books About the Royal House of Hanover

Victoria's Children & Grandchildren

Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard. Incisive character studies of Queen Victoria's five daughters: vivacious, intelligent Vicky; sensitive, altruistic Alice; dutiful, dull Lenchen; artistic, rebellious Louise; and shy baby sister Beatrice. (This review © Amazon.)

Queen Victoria's Children by John Van Der Kiste. Queen Victoria had nine children. As they married into European royal families, their loyalties were divided and their lives dominated by political controversy.

An Uncommon Woman: The Empress Frederick, Daughter of Queen Victoria, Wife of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Mother of Kaiser Wilhelm by Hannah Pakula. Biography of Victoria's eldest daughter, Vicky.

Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz by John Van Der Kiste is about the tragic love story of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter and the German emperor Frederick III.

The Four Graces: Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters by Ilana D. Miller. The lives of four tragic daughters of Queen Victoria's daughter Alice -- Victoria, Elisabeth, Irene and Alix (Empress Alexandra of Russia). Includes photos and family trees.

Helena: Princess Reclaimed by S. Chomet. The life and times of Queen Victoria's third daughter. Out of print, but sometimes available from Albris.

Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Unconventional Daughter by Jehanne Wake. From Alibris.

Prince Leopold: The Untold Story of Queen Victoria's Youngest Son by Charlotte Zeepvat. A biography of the prince, who died at a tragically young age. Includes a discussion of Victoria's genealogy and how she acquired the gene for hemophilia. From Alibris.

The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter by Matthew Dennison. Princess Beatrice was Queen Victoria's last child. Her mother depended on her and dominated her life.

Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia P. Gelardi. Weaves together the stories of Russia's tragic last empress, Alexandra; Romania's flamboyant and eccentric Queen Marie; Spain's very English queen Victoria Eugenie; Norway's reluctant Queen Maud; and Kaiser Wilhelm II's much maligned sister Sophie.

Books About Edward VII
Books About Europe's Royal Families

Queen Victoria's Father

The Prince and His Lady by Mollie Gillen. The love story of Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, and Madame de St Laurent, the mistress he abandoned when he married Victoria's mother. Out of print, but available from Alibris.

Julie: The Royal Mistress by McKenzie Porter. A biography of Julie de St Laurent. From Alibris.

Victoria and Politics

Queen Victoria's Little Wars by Byron Falwell discusses Victoria's attitude toward and influence over Britain's wars and battles during her reign.

Fenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria by Christy Campbell. The "Jubilee Plot" to blow up the queen, her family, and most of the British Cabinet was uncovered by Scotland Yard with just a few days to go. According to this book, the conspiracy was masterminded by a clandestine British agency reporting to the Prime Minister.

Books About the British Empire

Victoria and Her Era

Queen Victoria's Stalker: The Strange Case of the Boy Jones by Jan Bondeson. As a young woman, Queen Victoria was relentlessly pursued by a teenager, Edward Jones, who had an uncanny ability to sneak into Buckingham Palace. Once he stole her underwear, and twice he sat on the throne. The Boy Jones became a media celebrity. This is the first full-length account of the case.

Queen Victoria and the Theatre of Her Age by Richard Schoch. Shows Victoria as enraptured spectator, bountiful patron, and tyrannical director of private theatricals.

Royal Representations: Queen Victoria and British Culture, 1837-1876 by Margaret Homans.

Remaking Queen Victoria edited by Margaret Homans and Adrienne Munich. A collection of essays about Victoria's importance to her era.

Queen Victoria's Secrets by Adrienne Munich explores Victoria's importance in her era.

Victorian Yankees at Queen Victoria's Court: American Encounters With Victoria and Albert by Stanley Weintraub. Americans developed a love-hate relationship with Queen Victoria that lasted all her sixty-four years on the throne.

Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera by Michael Nelson and Asa, Lord Briggs.

Queen Victoria: First Media Monarch by John Plunkett. Studies the role of the media in Victoria's reign and reveals how the royal family benefitted from the growth of the media.

Queen Victoria's Skull by David Stack. Biography of phrenologist George Combe, who influenced many important Victorians, from Prince Albert to George Eliot. (Phrenologists thought that personality traits could be detected by examining a person's skull.)

Books About the Royal Family & Jack the Ripper

Fiction

Victoria Victorious by Jean Plaidy. Novel in which Queen Victoria tells her life story.

A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron. Suspense novel centered around Queen Victoria's troubled court -- and a secret so dangerous it could topple thrones.

The Royal Mob by Theresa Sherman. The story of the four Princesses of the House of Hesse, granddaughters of Queen Victoria. Victoria marries Prince Louis of Battenberg (later Mountbatten). Elisabeth is swept off to the Romanov court by Grand Duke Serge, while Iréne takes her place at the court in Berlin. Alix, the youngest, marries Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by A. E. Moorat. London, 1838. Queen Victoria is crowned and receives an arsenal of bloodstained weaponry. But her thoughts are occupied by Prince Albert. Can she dedicate herself hunting demons when her heart belongs elsewhere?

Children's & Young Adult Books

Victoria and Albert Paper Dolls by Tom Tierney.

Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria by Kyra E. Hicks, illustrated by Lee Edward Fodi. The true story of Martha Ann Ricks, an ex-slave who spent 50 years saving spare coins to fulfill her dream of meeting Britain's Queen Victoria.

At Her Majesty's Request: An African Princess in Victorian England by Walter Dean Myers. The true story of an apparently royal girl who was slated to be sacrificed in the African kingdom of Dahomey, but was rescued by a British sea captain. Young "Sally" was taken to England, where she became a protegee of Queen Victoria. The book includes excerpts from Victoria's diary and portraits of Victoria and Sally. For children ages 9-12.

Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl. Fiction. England's Victoria becomes queen with the help of her maid, a reporter, and a scoundrel. For young adult readers.

Victoria and Her Court by Virginia Schomp. Nonfiction for young adult readers.

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Movies and Documentaries

These DVDs are formatted for North American audiences.

Queen Victoria's Empire. This PBS documentary explores the vital role Victoria played in the 19th century.

Victoria & Albert. Miniseries starring Victoria Hamilton as the queen and Jonathan Firth as Prince Albert.

The Young Victoria. 2008 movie starring Emily Blunt as Victoria and Rupert Friend as Prince Albert. The movie won an Oscar for costume design.

Mrs. Brown. This excellent 1997 film about Victoria's relationship with manservant John Brown stars Judi Dench as the queen. From Amazon.

Family Tree. In this fascinating feature-length documentary about modern genealogy investigations, a British historian traces two deadly genes through the European royal family to solve a decades-old mystery surrounding Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria: Evening at Osborne. Prunella Scales (famous for playing Sybil on "Fawlty Towers") portrays Victoria in a one-woman show that draws on the queen's journals and letters. (Available on video, not DVD.)