“We will not have failure – only success and new learning.”
When you have a whole era named after you, you know that you’ve left a serious imprint on history. Queen Victoria ruled the United Kingdom from 1837-1901. At sixty-four years, she was the longest-ruling monarch in British history until Elizabeth II surpassed that record in 2015 and her time on the throne coincided with some of the most profound transformations in the technological, cultural, economic and political landscapes both in her dominions and across the globe.
From her devoted marriage to Prince Albert, and her sprawling extended family, to the complexities in her personality as a monarch and as a woman in the nineteenth century, check out the best Queen Victoria books at What We Reading!
Victoria The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire – Julia Baird
Kicking off our list of the best Queen Victoria books is Julia Baird’s Goodreads nominated biography, Victoria The Queen. Drawing on numerous unpublished papers and other materials, Baird attempts to reveal the true figure behind the stereotypical image history normally presents. Bold, glamorous and unbreakable, Baird traces the path of Victoria from fifth in line to the throne to take the crown during a period of incredible and turbulent shifts both in her kingdom and beyond.
Through her compelling storytelling, Baird vividly brings Victoria to life, humanising her by exploring some of the relatable challenges and obstacles she was forced to endure and overcome.
Victoria: A Life – A.N. Wilson
Award-winning biographer A.N. Wilson presents an exhaustingly researched and definitive overview book on Queen Victoria in Victoria: A Life. Featuring a wealth of new material and never-before-utilised sources, Wilson’s biography explores everything from the strange series of circumstances that led to her coronation, her isolated childhood, devoted marriage to Albert to her intimate friendship with Highland servant John Brown.
A Life successfully takes on the long-held presumptions about the woman and her reign and presents a far more colourful character with far more complexities than most realise.
Empress: Queen Victoria And India – Miles Taylor
As the first Empress of India, Queen Victoria’s reign has become as synonymous with the subcontinent as it has with her home isles. In Empress: Queen Victoria and India, Miles Taylor dissects Victoria’s relationship with India. In what is undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic and engaging Queen Victoria books, he argues that the queen and her husband Albert were passionately fascinated by the domain long before her final years.
He also argues that the influence of Victoria played a significant role in the cultural, political and economic modernisation of India, making this one of the most engaging works on Victoria, India and imperial rule.
My Dearest, Dearest Albert: Queen Victoria’s Life Through Her Letters And Journals – Karen Dolby
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s marriage has become one of the greatest love stories in history. However, it is only through the personal letters and memoirs curated by Karen Dolby in My Dearest, Dearest Albert do we get a real insight into how passionate this relationship is.
Using extracts from 122 volumes of Victoria’s diaries written from the age of 13, My Dearest, Dearest Albert gives readers the most intimate illumination on what Victoria felt about her husband, children and family, the people she came into contact with as well as her private opinions on both domestic and global affairs.
Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow – Dr. Lucy Worsley
Another one of the best Queen Victoria books for understanding the personality behind the crown comes from Dr Lucy Worsley in Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow. In it, Worsley explores the various family roles Victoria played during her lifetime.
Examining how society’s values affected how a queen behaved in a domestic environment, the book covers 24 days of Victoria’s life. It uses diaries, letters and other primary sources to demonstrate how the queen was from the dour-faced and glum figure history has led us to picture.
Serving Victoria: Life In The Royal Household – Kate Hubbard
Looking for a Queen Victoria book from the perspective of those closest to her? Kate Hubbard’s Serving Victoria is for you! Using letters and diary entries from six members of the queen’s household, this book takes readers behind the scenes of Osbourne house, illuminating what Victoria’s home and family life was truly like.
Unlike other books on the monarch, Serving Victoria is a unique perspective thanks to its decidedly un-royal or academic narrators.
Check Out The Best British Monarchy Books
Grandmama Of Europe: The Crowned Descendants Of Queen Victoria – Theo Aronson
On the back of producing well over 700 descendants, Queen Victoria’s title as the ‘grandmama of Europe’ is a fitting one. With many of those descendants sitting in powerful positions across the continent, Theo Aronson breaks down the lasting legacy of Victoria in his biography, Grandmama of Europe.
In it, he looks at the many families of mainland Europe that can trace their bloodlines back to Victoria, exploring the complicated relations among the royal houses of Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
