Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria: All Volumes

by Sarah Tytler

England has had no shortage of influential monarchs, but among its queens only Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria had the age they lived in literally named after them. Both the Elizabethan era and Victorian era have come to symbolize a golden age of peace and progress in every aspect of British life, with the long reigns of both queens also providing stability. Of course, there was a critical difference between those two Elizabeth I still wielded great power in the 16th century, whereas Victoria was a constitutional monarch who had to deal with more limited power over the workings of the British government. But in a way, that made Victoria even more unique, as she still proved able to mold the cultural identity of a nearly 65 year long epoch. Furthermore, Victoria established some of the ceremonial customs of the British monarch and became both the forerunner and role model of subsequent queens, a legacy that continues to endure with her great-great granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Though Britain’s longest reigning monarch is now mostly associated with conservative values (particularly strict morality and traditional social and gender roles), Victoria and her era oversaw the cultural and technological progress of Britain and the West in general, architectural revivals, and the expansion of imperialism. While some of these developments have been perceived negatively over a century later, Britons of the 19th century and early 20th century often viewed the Victorian Era as the height of their nation’s power and influence.

Genres: Biography, History

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 27, 2012

About the author

Sarah Tytler was the pseudonym under which the Scottish authoress Henrietta Keddie (1827 - 1914) wrote her novels. Her domestic realism became popular with women, as did her conduct books for girls.

As a prolific writer of novels under the name Sarah Tytler, Keddie was an exponent of domestic realism, which was notably popular among female readers. Her first novel, The Kinnears. A Scottish Story (1852) went unnoticed, but she began to build up a following, particularly after her move to London. Many of her novels had an 18th-century background, including Citoyenne Jacqueline (1865) set in the French Revolution. In relation to her novel Beauty and the Beast (1884), about a private soldier who inherits a baronetcy, the literary biographer Rosemary Mitchell writes, "Although the plot is sensational, her talent for original and sympathetic characterization is considerable and her perception of the problems of social divisions keen and realistic." Saint Mungo's City (1884, about Glasgow) was unusual in focusing on urban, rather than rural Scotland. Perhaps her most famous book was Logie Town (1887), set in her home village of Cupar.