Product Description

Just eight months old when her father, Edward, duke of Kent, died unexpectedly, the infant princess Victoria moved significantly closer to England's throne. The task of raising a potential female monarch assumed critical importance for the nation, yet Victoria's girlhood and adolescence have received scant attention from historians, cultural critics, and even her biographers. In this engaging and revealing book, Lynne Vallone shows us a new Victoria - a lively and passionate girl very different from the iconic dour widow of the queen's later life. Based on a thorough exploration of the young Victoria's own letters, stories, drawings, educational materials, and journals - documents that have been underappreciated until now - the book illuminates the princess's childhood from her earliest years to her accession to the throne at the age of eighteen in 1837. Vallone presents a fresh assessment of "the rose of England" within the culture of girlhood and domestic life in the 1820s and 1830s. The author also explores the complex and often conflicting contexts of the period, including Georgian children's literature, conventional childrearing practices, domestic and familial intrigues, and the frequently turbulent political climate. Part biography, part historical and cultural study, this richly illustrated volume uncovers in fascinating detail the childhood that Victoria actually lived.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #691308 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 276 pages

From the Publisher
Review
'[a] clever, subtle book...Lynne Vallone has written a stunningly good book. Intellectually sophisticated, it is none the less packed with debunking information about Victoria's early years...As much cultural history as biography, Becoming Victoria tells us not just about the making of Britain's greatest queen, but about the shaping of several generations of British women.' - Kathryn Hughes, Daily Telegraph

About the Author
Lynne Vallone is associate professor of English at Texas A & M University. She is the author of Disciplines of Virtue: Girl's Culture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, published by Yale University Press.

Customer Reviews

A SUBSTANTIAL WORK OF SCHOLARSHIP
While much has been written about the monarch who gave an era its name, few words have been devoted to Queen Victoria's girlhood. That oversight has been rectified with this edifying and thoughtful account of Victoria's early years.

She was a woman never remembered for her youth, the author notes, "but for her seemingly never ending old age: her years of mourning, her black dress, her dour expression, her iconic stature...........yet Victoria was a young queen and once popularly called 'the rose of England.'"

We learn how this "rose" was formed by the children's books she read; we gain insight into her early ardor and stubbornness from her letters, stories, and drawings. Nonetheless, above all, she was a royal child who at a scant eight months of age edged closer to the throne with the unexpected death of her father, Edward, duke of Kent.

"Becoming Victoria" details her life from birth until June 20, 1837 when she ascended to the throne. Even more this well illustrated volume is a remarkable picture of Georgian childhood among the privileged, a commentary on that period's political climate and mores. It is a substantial work of scholarship, one that will be especially enjoyed by those with an interest in history and the royals.