When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years.
It explores the curious set of circumstances that led to Victoria's coronation, her strange and isolated childhood, her passionate marriage, Prince Albert's pivotal influence, her widowhood and subsequent intimate friendship with John Brown, all set against the backdrop of this momentous epoch in Britain - and Europe's - history.
Victoria is a towering achievement; a masterpiece of biography by a writer at the height of his powers.
A.
To many, Queen Victoria is a ruler shrouded in myth and mystique - an aging, stiff widow, paraded as the figurehead to an all-male imperial enterprise.
She was mother of nine and grandmother of forty-two, and the matriarch of Royal Europe, through the marriages of her children.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years
