At birth, Victoria was fifth in the line of succession for the British crown, behind the four eldest sons of George III, including her three uncles and her father, Edward. Daisy Goodwin's impeccably researched and vividly imagined new book brings readers Queen Victoria as they have never seen her before.Born in Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819, Queen Victoria was originally named Alexandrina Victoria, after her godfather, Tsar Alexander I, but always preferred to go by her second name, or the nickname 'Drina. 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 dramaīrings 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. Is an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood.
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