Queen Victoria

Rating:
Summary: Sociological analysis of Victoria's reign
Review: This book is best read after a biography such as Hibbert's "Queen Victoria: a personal history", although Dorothy Thompson opines that Elizabeth Longford's biography of Victoria is the one of choice.

Be that as it may, Thompson's book is a useful analysis of Victoria's reign divided under various topics. Both Victoria's major heterosexual relationships, are covered, with Albert and John Brown, respectively.

Thompson writes from a feminist and leftist perspective without stridency or dogma. The plentiful contemporary political thought retailed here is illuminating and provides a handy introduction to political philosophy. There are two chapters on republicanism, one examining Victoria's accession through to the mid-century and the other coming up as far as Keir Hardie and the foundation of the Labour party.

The many primary sources include songs, cartoons, and prose of politicians, courtiers and writers, as well as the Queen herself.

This book makes a good companion after a biography and a side benefit is that it elucidates the social climate of Victorian novels by, e.g. Mrs Gaskell, George Eliot, etc.