Victoria: Portrait of a Queen

Victoria: Portrait of a QueenVictoria: Portrait of a Queen by Catherine Reef

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads

Catherine Reef brings history vividly to life in this sumptuously illustrated account of a confident, strong-minded, and influential woman.


My Review

Very enjoyable to listen to. I enjoyed the quotes taken from the writings of the people actually involved in the events. It was a very brief look at Queen Victoria’s whole life and left me wanting more information about what came before and after her.

I felt this book didn’t do a very good job of helping me understand what about Victoria’s reign made her so influential or so loved. I felt the author’s explanation was simply that Victoria reigned for a long time and a lot of changes happened in technology, culture, and rights during her time. I felt the author didn’t portray Victoria as really having been a vehicle for those things. More that she just happened to be alive and the queen as all those changes happened around her, sometimes with no connection to her actions and sometimes actually in spite of her actions. I wonder if another author or a more in depth look at Queen Victoria would be able to show she was more involved in the changes of the times? I’d be interested in a perspective that might be able to show me why her people loved her so much, what good she actually did for them and for the world.