Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey (sites to read books for free TXT) ๐
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The publication of Lytton Stracheyโs Eminent Victorians in 1918 was a tremendous success. In it, Strachey looked at four iconic figures of the Victorian Age and punctured the hagiographical illusions surrounding them. It seems only fitting that he should follow up in 1921 with a similarly unsentimental but fair biography of the person at the pinnacle of that era, Queen Victoria herself.
Thoroughly researched, with his references documented in hundreds of footnotes, Strachey looks at the life of the young woman who, when she was born, was by no means certain to become the British monarch. He also spends considerable time on her consort, Prince Albert, who, in Stracheyโs telling, develops from a careless youth to becoming a truly remarkable and effective figure in British society, while continuing to be generally perceived as an outsider.
Stracheyโs sardonic and witty style makes this account of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert an entertaining and very informative read.
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- Author: Lytton Strachey
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A few months later the crisis came. King Leopold determined to make a bold push, and to carry Victoria with him, this time, by a display of royal vigour and avuncular authority. In an abrupt, an almost peremptory letter, he laid his case, once more, before his niece. โYou know from experience,โ he wrote, โthat I never ask anything of youโ โโ โฆ But, as I said before, if we are not careful we may see serious consequences which may affect more or less everybody, and this ought to be the object of our most anxious attention. I remain, my dear Victoria, your affectionate uncle, Leopold R.โ120 The Queen immediately despatched this letter to Lord Melbourne, who replied with a carefully thought-out form of words, signifying nothing whatever, which, he suggested, she should send to her uncle. She did so, copying out the elaborate formula, with a liberal scattering of โdear Unclesโ interspersed; and she concluded her letter with a message of โaffectionate love to Aunt Louise and the children.โ Then at last King Leopold was obliged to recognise the facts. His next letter contained no reference at all to politics. โI am glad,โ he wrote, โto find that you like Brighton better than last year. I think Brighton very agreeable at this time of the year, till the east winds set in. The pavilion, besides, is comfortable; that cannot be denied. Before my marriage, it was there that I met the Regent. Charlotte afterwards came with old Queen Charlotte. How distant all this already, but still how present to oneโs memory.โ Like poor Madame de Lieven, His Majesty felt that he had made a mistake.121
Nevertheless, he could not quite give up all hope. Another opportunity offered, and he made another effortโ โbut there was not very much conviction in it, and it was immediately crushed. โMy dear Uncle,โ the Queen wrote, โI have to thank you for your last letter which I received on Sunday. Though you seem not to dislike my political sparks, I think it is better not to increase them, as they might finally take fire, particularly as I see with regret that upon this one subject we cannot agree. I shall, therefore, limit myself to my expressions of very sincere wishes for the welfare and prosperity of Belgium.โ122 After that, it was clear that there was no more to be said. Henceforward there is audible in the Kingโs letters a curiously elegiac note. โMy dearest Victoria, your delightful little letter has just arrived and went like an arrow to my heart. Yes, my beloved Victoria! I do love you tenderlyโ โโ โฆ I love you for yourself, and I love in you the dear child whose welfare I tenderly watched.โ He had gone through much; yet, if life had its disappointments, it had its satisfactions too. โI have all the honours that can be given, and I am, politically speaking, very solidly established.โ But there were other things besides politics, there were romantic yearnings in his heart. โThe only longing I still have is for the Orient, where I perhaps shall once end my life, rising in the west and setting in the east.โ As for his devotion to his niece, that could never end. โI never press my services on you, nor my councils, though I may say with some truth that from the extraordinary fate which the higher powers had ordained for me, my experience, both political and of private life, is great. I am always ready to be useful to you when and where and it may
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