Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion

by Helen Rappaport

This resource covers the life, times, and relationships of Queen Victoria, providing information about her children, her personal interests, the historic times in which she ruled, and the leaders she influenced.

In this fascinating guide to every aspect of Queen Victoria's life, author Helen Rappaport analyzes the queen's personality, celebrates her achievements, and details the shortcomings of her empire, both in Britain, with its continuing divide between rich and poor, and overseas, where Britain's great empire was won by repression and exploitation.

A–Z entries―including topics barely touched in standard biographies―cover things like the various assassination attempts on her life, her interest in dancing and Jack the Ripper's murders, and how her husband Prince Albert introduced the celebration of Christmas to England. Queen Victoria also describes individuals such as her companion Lady Jane Churchill, her physician Sir James Clark, and politicians such as William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli; events like the Irish potato famine; inventions like steam power; and issues such as missionary activity and prostitution. It also includes bibliographies both for each entry and overall, and a chronology.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Royalty, Womens, British Literature, Autobiography

488 pages, Library Binding

First published May 5, 2003

About the author

Helen Rappaport is a historian specialising in the Victorian period, with a particular interest in Queen Victoria and the Jamaican healer and caregiver, Mary Seacole. She also has written extensively on late Imperial Russia, the 1917 Revolution and the Romanov family. Her love of all things Victorian springs from her childhood growing up near the River Medway where Charles Dickens lived and worked. Her passion for Russian came from a Russian Special Studies BA degree course at Leeds University. In 2017 she was awarded an honorary D.Litt by Leeds for her services to history. She is also a member of the Royal Historical Society, the Genealogical Society, the Society of Authors and the Victorian Society. She lives in the West Country, and has an enduring love of the English countryside and the Jurassic Coast, but her ancestral roots are in the Orkneys and Shetlands from where she is descended on her father's side. She likes to think she has Viking blood.

Helen is the author of 14 published books with 2 forthcoming in 2022:

"In Search of Mary Seacole: The Making of a Cultural Icon" - Simon & Schuster UK, 17 February 2022

"After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris through Revolution and War" - St Martin's Press USA, 8 March 2022

For her next project she is working on a biography of Juliane of Saxe-Coburg aka Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia

Follow her also on Facebook at:
HelenRappaportWriter

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars because I have to get this one for my own collection. Wonderfully well-written, Victoria's life and things around her in alphabetical order. Quite a refreshing way to read this stuff; makes it very interesting indeed. I really enjoyed the rich variety of pictures, interspersed throughout and popping up unexpectedly. GOOD READ.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy studying or reading nineteenth century European history, this book is a must. Entries dealing with people, places and things, do not skimp on the details. Highly readable!

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an encyclopedic styled index of the names surrounding Victoria. Not much of a read, more of a reference.