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Title details for Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird - Available

Victoria the Queen

An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire

by Julia Baird
Lucy Rayner
Audiobook
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When Victoria was born, in 1819, the world was a very different place. Revolution would threaten many of Europe's monarchies in the coming decades. In Britain, a generation of royals had indulged their whims at the public's expense, and republican sentiment was growing. The Industrial Revolution was transforming the landscape, and the British Empire was commanding ever larger tracts of the globe. In a world where women were often powerless, during a century roiling with change, Victoria went on to rule the most powerful country on earth with a decisive hand. Fifth in line to the throne at the time of her birth, Victoria was an ordinary woman thrust into an extraordinary role. As a girl, she defied her mother's meddling and an adviser's bullying, forging an iron will of her own. As a teenage queen, she eagerly grasped the crown and relished the freedom it brought her. She was outspoken with her ministers, overstepping conventional boundaries and asserting her opinions. And as science, technology, and democracy were dramatically reshaping the world, Victoria was a symbol of steadfastness and security-queen of a quarter of the world's population at the height of the British Empire's reach.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 15, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781681680750
      • File size: 608642 KB
      • Duration: 21:08:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      With impeccable phrasing and a voice rich with the style and color of nineteenth-century England, narrator Lucy Rayner captures the essence of Queen Victoria. She was Great Britain's longest reigning monarch until the contemporary Queen Elizabeth broke that record. Rayner creates mystery and intrigue with her performance of Victoria's mother, who plotted to become regent should Victoria ascend to the throne before she turned 18. Luckily for England, it didn't happen. Raynor captures Victoria's personality and emotions so well that listeners come to know her and Albert, her beloved prince, throughout their reign until his untimely death. Rayner also breathes life into the widowed Victoria, who reigned for 40 years in mourning and still continued to amaze and shock her subjects. A bravura performance! E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Books+Publishing

      August 25, 2016
      Julia Baird’s excellent and sadly out-of-print first book, Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians, was an engrossing dissection of gender, politics and power with the pace and pull of a great magazine article. These themes carry over to Victoria the Queen, a thoroughly contemporary biography of the 19th-century monarch that uses its subject to explore the social evolution of British society during her long reign—particularly that of the position of women. Victoria was a paradox: she believed that women were intellectually inferior to men, yet fiercely asserted and guarded her own political influence and was thoroughly engaged with national affairs. Her brand of gender exceptionalism bears comparison to more recent women (such as Margaret Thatcher) who distance themselves from feminism, while in many ways embodying it. Baird brings the figure of Victoria richly to life, with all her contradictions. Artistic and enquiring, passionate in her loves (and hates), alternately adhering to convention and defying it (particularly in her close relationships with servants John Brown and Abdul Karim), she comes across as something like a royal version of Jo March. This lively, intelligent biography will appeal to readers interested in gender and politics, as well as its natural audience of history buffs. Jo Case is program manager of Melbourne Writers Festival

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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