Queen Victoria: A Personal History

by Christopher Hibbert

In this surprising new life of Victoria, Christopher Hibbert, master of the telling anecdote and peerless biographer of England's great leaders, paints a fresh and intimate portrait of the woman who shaped a century. His Victoria is not only the formidable, demanding, capricious queen of popular imagination—she is also often shy, diffident, and vulnerable, prone to giggling fits and crying jags. Often censorious when confronted with her mother's moral lapses, she herself could be passionately sensual, emotional, and deeply sentimental. Ascending to the throne at age eighteen, Victoria ruled for sixty-four years—an astounding length for any world leader. During her reign, she dealt with conflicts ranging from royal quarrels to war in Crimea and rebellion in India. She saw monarchs fall, empires crumble, new continents explored, and England grow into a dominant global and industrial power. This personal history is a compelling look at the complex woman whom, until now, we only thought we knew.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Royalty, Victorian, British Literature, Biography Memoir

554 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2000

About the author

Christopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS (5 March 1924 - 21 December 2008) was an English writer, historian and biographer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads.

Described by Professor Sir John Plumb as "a writer of the highest ability and in the New Statesman as "a pearl of biographers," he established himself as a leading popular historian/biographer whose works reflected meticulous scholarship.

Reviews

[Dawnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is not a bad book but it could have used someone that made the facts and historical events more fun to read about since reading this book a lot like a history school book: as many facts, information and actual quotes crammed into the pages as possible without ever pausing to stop and make it actually readable or enjoyable to learn it all.

don’t get me wrong, the author clearly did his work!
this book is full of interesting facts and a lot of direct quotes taken from letters or other writings either from the queen or people in direct contact with her.

so it really gives a view how her life was like.

but the entire book fells like dried up ashes!

there is no live it it at all.

and while i don’t mind just getting facts and informations about history or people that lived it... it’s always nice to actually have an author that manages to make the past feel as if it’s actually something that was alive and happening instead if just droning on and on.

if you love the victorian area and need to read everything about it and/or want to learn basically all the information about queen victoria: this is the book for you!

if you need a bit more, not just a book that feels and more or less reads like a bulletpoint facts of everything that happens in queen victorias life: might want to skip this one or just skim this book and try something else.

i would have loved to get a bit more of what kind of behavior this clearly disturbed queen showcased outside the official moments. maybe speculate a little bit based on facts? not to make it fiction but just taking a bit of an opinion on what kind of person this queen was.
i would have loved to see that, but i didn’t get it. which is fine but also didn’t make it overly enjoyable to read this book, for me personally!

as already said it’s not a bad book, it’s just not one of those historical nonfiction books that takes you into the history and makes the people it talks about seem alive!

[Starling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got about half way through the book and only scanned the rest of it. That might have more to do with me than with the author.

Basically this is an unusually readable book about a very unlikable woman. The 19th century was a rotten time to be a child. Victoria's childhood was pretty miserable, but her children's childhood was probably equally miserable.

I found myself cheering for her when she stood up to her mother on the day she became Queen, but it was also obvious from the book that she had been working on that and thinking about it for months, and possibly years, before it happened.

But as she got older, especially during the years of her widowhood, she became more and more abusive to her children and to the women who served her. Basically she was a bully who was certain that the world ought to revolve around just one person - herself.

I don't know how the author felt about Queen Victoria, but I didn't want to spend any more time in her presence so the book is getting returned to the library.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Queen Victoria was, as A.N. Wilson described her, a 'loveable monster', wilful, stubborn, capricious, demanding, but also capable of great charm and insight, compassionate, utterly without prejudice as to class, caste, race or religion but insistent to the nth degree on the minutiae of court protocol and precedent. She was a tremendously contradictory figure, and yet even today her influence lingers on. Modern Britain is still very much Victoria's Britain.

In this engaging biography, Hibbert really manages to capture her personality so that she becomes more than just the symbol of an Empire and an age, but a real vital and vivid individual. This is not a history of Victoria's time or reign; as the title states it is very much a personal history of Victoria herself. Few of the great events of the age are dealt with in any in-depth fashion, and monumental personalities such as Wellington, Gladstone and Disraeli appear solely in relation to their dealings and relationship with the Queen. Light as it may be, it is nonetheless an enjoyable and undemanding read.

[RC deWinter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot and thought Hibbert's account was well-researched and, unlike many scholarly biographies, not dull or too footnote-laden.

[Latricomtoise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read many books written on Victoria, and I took many courses on her and her reign throughout my university years, so I am always a bit picky when it comes to biography.

I was recommended this one by some friends, and it is definitely one of the best I have read so far.

Christopher Hibbert knows what he talks about, it is researched and he relies on various sources. It is also very entertaining to read - if you fear boring biographies, this one is definitely far from annoying!

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and very enjoyable biography of Queen Victoria.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 really enjoyed this. Dropped half a star as some parts felt like they had been skipped over and not much more than a passing mention of key figures and certain occasions.

[H. P. Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Hibbert has definite opinions about Queen Victoria's behavior. He also has meticulous documentation to back up those opinions. There's none of those "She must have thought...(or felt or been)" dreary sentences presuming on a mental connection he didn't have to his subject. He presents this woman who, with her husband Prince Albert, put her moral and middle-class stamp on an age, as a very complex and flawed human being. Smothered, isolated and verbally abused as a child, Victoria grew into a woman who guarded her prerogatives fiercely. Mr Hibbert displays her against the background of her times, letting us see for ourselves her prejudices, regality, self absorption, humor, mad love for her spouse and yet her mistreatment of him, her coldness to many of her children and yet the heat of her passions for England and justice.
This was, despite its size, an easy read because of Mr Hibbert's clear, plain writing. And also because, while often a boring host at dinner, Victoria's behavior was neither common nor dull.

I plan on reading more of Christopher Hibbert's work.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deligthfully written and constructed, lengthy biography of Victoria.

Christopher Hibbert has that knack fo drawing the reader in at a very early stage (page one!) and keeping the attention with some stylish, informative writing.

This biography is a standard format, ie from cradle to grave, but is formatted with chapters on different aspects of Victoria's life, not neccesarily directly chronologically. But it loses nothing for this because each chapter is so carefully blended with the next that nothing strikes the reader as being out of place.

There are fascinating facts on Victoria's relationship with John Brown and also on her fascination for her Indian Munchie. Obviously her love for Albert shines through and her relationship with her children and grandchildren is fully explored.

There is not a moment when the interest flags and it is something of a disappointment when Victoria dies and the book ends.

[Kimberley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stopped at chapter 27. In the beginning it was interesting and I understood what was going on but after awhile it just droned on and on and on and I got really bored of it. It is an interesting book but you really have to be committed to finish reading it. I think if there were a few less adjectives and maybe not so many really long and detailed footnotes, it might be a bit shorter.

[Bryan]

A readable biography on England's unamused queen. The title leads one to long for more salacious details on her sprog-churning conjugal life with Albert and her extra-curricular exploits with John Brown and the Munshi...

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Book about a very important person in the get this-- VICTORIAN period. Her grief upon Albert's death is interesting to read about as well as her relationships with the different prime ministers who served her. She was on the throne during prime time imperialism.

[Vickie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well researched. Very informative

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best book on Queen Victoria that I have read. It is a very factual account. You will leave this book with a very personal feel of who she was and why she made her choices in her life.

[Lynne Stringer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the first I'd read about Victoria, and I enjoyed its detail and the way it presented the information. Well done.

[Ajay Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a long book about a long life lived under intense scrutiny, even when she withdrew from public view. I especially appreciated the insights into the contradictions of her attitudes, such as being against women's suffrage while being, herself, one of the most powerful women on earth. The inclusion of so many of her own words made her seem accessible as an actual person rather than an historical personage.

I've been fascinated with the Industrial Revolution for a very long time, ever since I realized it wasn't the boring classroom topic with all the human drama squeezed out of it. I've been interested in these years of the high watermark of the British Empire and how the English could be so carefully polite at home but wreak terror on the people of other nations. The years of approximately 1830-1930 hold the most interest for me historically. HM Queen Victoria lived during most of this time and left her stamp on everything. Everything.

Hibbert's book is very readable and deeply researched. I didn't read anything in it that made me think, "Now, I don't think that's accurate." So, as far as my amateur status can state with confidence, I think it's marvelous.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim because I’m in a Victorian literature class this semester. So, I didn’t look for reviews or descriptions like I normally do and I was expecting to trudge through a very dry biography.

It wasn’t like that at all. It was super easy to read and felt like it flowed in that anecdotal way that I’m seeing in the description now (lol). Sometimes the sentence structure/style became difficult, but that’s a pretty lowkey complaint compared to what I was honestly expecting.

Definitely loved and recommend it!!

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love well-written and obviously thoroughly researched biographies. Making such a biography readable is a gift. Five stars, except there were some times when the source of a quoted excerpt was confusing. I also had to refer back to the family tree sometimes when the author would use the royal title of a person (like Duke of Whoville) when a first name would have been more clear. I’d find myself asking, “Now who was the Duke of Edinburgh? Was that Alfred? Archie?” And then sometimes, he’d use the first name and not the title. Overall, I learned a lot about this curmudgeonly queen.

[Judith Gunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

One might question the need for another biography of Queen Victoria, but this one is well written and gives you some idea of what it was like to live in the palace at that time. It does focus more on her personal life than on the business of government and the decisions she made and spends considerable time on her great love for her husband, who died rather young. She never recovered from his loss.

[David Anthony Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is subtitled “A Personal History,” and that is a fair description. If you are looking for a biography that includes the political, sociological, diplomatic, and military contexts in any detail, this book will be a disappointment. If you are most interested in the family and other relationships, the happenings of court dinners, and wardrobes and such, this is the biography for you.

[Sara Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired by a recent visit to Balmoral, I picked up this book, hoping to learn a few things and be entertained. I was quite surprised to find myself immediately drawn in to this brief but adequately detailed history of Queen Victoria. It was well-crafted, educational, and genuinely interesting. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in reading more about the Queen and the Victorian era.

[P · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason this doesn't get 5 stars is because I feel Christopher Hibbert may be much a monarchist that he doesn't relate the entire character of Victoria...i.e some of her not so desirable parts. Great use of sources and weaves the story well.

[Carrie Lord · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a tough book to stay interested in. I feel maybe 40-50% could have been cut out just based off the fact that it's just plain ordinary likes of Queen Victoria. Nothing substantial. But it did have a lot of good information in it. But overall a difficult read.

[Jonathan Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful history of a fascinating monarch. I have rarely been so entranced by a non-fiction book.

[Crystal Ellyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know about this book. I like it but then I have issues with it.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book. It was well written and like any good book made me want to know more.

[Sherry D'ambrosio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great biography of Victoria, showing a more personal side than many.

[Marita Leszczyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many interesting facts

[Chase Insteadman Mountbatten · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description of the party that managed to reach Britain from Germany on 24 April 1819, just a month before the birth of the baby girl, so that to allow her to be born on British soil and make possible her future accession to the Throne:

"[...] on the twenty-eighth of the month [of March], the Duke's party set off from Amorbach [Germany] for Calais, with several pet dogs and songbirds, in a strange, unwieldly caravan of carriages. The Duke and Duchess led the way in a phaeton, the Duke himself driving to save the cost of a coachman. They were followed by the Duke's barouche, containing the Duchess's lady-in-waiting, Baroness Späth, and Frau Siebold, a skilled obstetrician who had qualified as surgeon at the University of Göttingen. Then, trundling after them, came a spare, unoccupied post-chaise, followed by a second post-chaise containing the Duchess's daughter, Princess Fedora, her governess and the English midservants. Following these were a cabriolet with two cooks, a caravan with an English manservant looking after the royal plate, a second phaeton, two gigs (one containing the Duke's valet, Mathieu, and the Duchess's footman; the other, two clerks), and lastly a curricle with the Duke's personal phisician, Dr Wilson." page 11

"[...] she was later persuaded to tolerate the installation of gas lighting at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. But candles remained the preferred lighting at Balmoral since she considered 'this old-fashioned style cosier'. Towards the end of the Queen's life, Sarah Tooley was told that 'she does not take to the electric light and will not have it introduced into the Royal Palaces'(The Personal Life of Queen Victoria, 1901, 266). In fact, it was introduced, even in Balmoral, in the 1890s. 'It brightens up one's bedroom very much,' wrote Lady Lytton, 'but the Queen does not like it and feels the glare very much for her eyes [...]' Lady Lytton's Court Diary, 1961, 142)" page 181

"'I am learning a few words of hindustani', she wrote in her journal on 3 August. 'It is a great interest to me for both the language and the people, I have naturally never come into real contact with before.'" page 446

" [...] She was equally opposed at first to the introduction of the telephone. She commanded a private demonstration of this invention at Osborne House in 1878. Alexander Graham Bell's public relations officer, Kate Field, arrived on the island and from the nearby Osborne Cottage sang "Kathleen Mavourneen" down the line to the Queen who was 'not much impressed' (Victoria Glendinning, Throllope, 1992, 448). In 1896 however, telephone were installed at Windsor Castle.
The Queen was equally dismissive of that other invention, the motor car. 'I'm told', she commented, 'that they smell exceedingly nasty and are very shaky and disagreeable conveyances altogether'." page 465

[Jim Gallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book “Queen Victoria from the used book table at the St. Andrews-by-the-Sea library as a companion to the PBS series “Victoria. I have found it to be a through an informative account of its subject’s life.

At the begining it provides a family tree that is a helpful reference, particularly as the names and titles are sometimes confusing. The photos bring the words to life. This work explains some of the ebbs and flows in Victoria’s life, her fatherless childhood, the sometimes-stormy relationships with her mother, the men who complicated her life, including John Conroy, her mother’s comptroller, and John Brown and Abdul Karim whose service to her was controversial. The relationships between Victoria’s grandson, Wilhelm, and his English relatives is presented in a less favorable light than he sometimes liked to claim.

Her family was the centre of her world. The love she bore for Albert, her disappointment in her sons and the high goals she had for her children and grandchildren are depicted as sources of satisfaction and pride, sorrow and embarrassment. The number of children and grandchildren who predeceased her show that palace were not protected from the perils of life.

The book itself is divided into 66 relatively short chapters topically and more or less chronologically arranged. At times I found myself confused as the topics required jumping to times previously covered. I found the writing to be sufficiently fluid to keep me reading but a bit of a drudgery at times. Perhaps a British or Canadian reader would have a frame of reference that would make the text more easily followed.

Viewers of “Victoria” will find background that will be helpful in understanding the series but PBS devotes more attention to the relationship between her sister, Feodora, and her uncles, the King of Hanover and Duke of Sussex, than does this tome.

Overall I believe that author Christopher Hibbert has provided a valuable introduction to the life of the Queen who gave her name to an Age.