Victoria : a life by Wilson, A. N., 1950- author instant download

Victoria : a life by Wilson, A. N., 1950- author instant download

xiv, 642 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : 25 cm, When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years. She was mother of nine and grandmother of forty-two, and the matriarch of Royal Europe, through the inter-marriage of her children. Her destiny was thus interwoven with millions of peoples - in Europe, and the ever-expanding British Empire. Her face adorned postage-stamps, banners, statues and busts all over the known world. This was the era when Britain rose, for a few decades, to be supremely the most powerful nation on earth, and Victoria is the embodiment of this golden age.0Victoria was also a prolific, almost compulsive diarist and correspondent. At her death she left 122 volumes of journals, which her daughter Princess Beatrice transcribed, burning the originals. Her son Edward VII recovered and destroyed her letters, even paying a blackmailer, and this material - and speculation over what was concealed - have added to the myth and mystique surrounding Britain's longest reigning monarch.0A. N. Wilson's far reaching, exhaustively researched and definitive biography 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 intimate friendship with John Brown. He sets this against the backdrop of this most momentous political and historical epoch in Britain - and Europe's history, Includes bibliographical references (pages 606-619) and index, Monarchs of the United Kingdom, 1760 to the present day -- Authors -- Zoology -- 'It is one step' -- 'White little slavey' -- 'The ignorant little child' -- 'Too hasty and passionate for me' -- I Puritani -- Hallelujah Chorus -- 'Godlike men' -- At war -- 'Scolder and scolded' -- Nerve damage -- 'Arme Frau' -- 'The Queen's grief still sobs' -- 'I could die for ye' -- 'Mein guter treuer Brown' -- A people detached from their sovereign -- 'You have it, Madam' --…