Queen Victoria

Book categories: Victoria, Employees, Letters, Journals and Travels, Victoria's Family, Albert, Offspring, Crime, Edward VII, Victoria's Parents, Hanoverians, Politics, Victorian Era, Jack the Ripper, Fiction, Children's Books, Movies & Documentaries

Queen Victoria by Walter L. Arnstein. This biography explores neglected aspects of Victoria's life, including her religious views and her political initiatives.

Victoria: The Queen by Julia Baird. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, this biography reveals a woman who struggled with marital strife, anxiety, and finding an identity.

Victoria: A Life by A. N. Wilson. This biography portrays Queen Victoria as a woman battling with demons and overcoming them, largely alone.

Queen Victoria: A Life of Contradictions by Matthew Dennison. This biography assesses Victoria's mercurial character and her reinvention of the monarchy.

Queen Victoria by Elizabeth Longford. This well-known biography gives a full account of Victoria's life right up until her death in 1901.

Victoria: Queen, Matriarch, Empress by Jane Ridley. A concise biography of the diminutive queen who became one of the most powerful women in the world.

Victoria: Portrait of a Queen by Richard Mullen and James Munson. This biography grew out of a BBC radio series. Its emphasis is on Victoria's personality, showing how she was good, human, likeable, and peculiar.

Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey. A classic account of Victoria's life.

Her Image & Images

Victoria: A Celebration of a Queen and Her Glorious Reign by Deborah Jaffe. With more than 200 photographs, this book provides an overview of Queen Victoria's life and era.

Queen Victoria: Her Life in Pictures. Originally published for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1888, this book is now being re-issued using much of the original text and all the hand-painted colour plates.

Queen Victoria's Equestrian Portrait Statues by Philip Ward-Jackson. Around 1850, sculptors battled for the commission for a statue of the queen. For the winner, it was a Pyrrhic victory.

Victoria, Queen of the Screen: From Silent Cinema to New Media by Leigh Ehlers Telotte. The evolution of Queen Victoria's on-screen image, from satirical cartoons and silent films to 21st century media.

Victoria's Youth

The Adventures of Alice Laselles by Alexandrina Victoria. This story was written and illustrated by the future Queen Victoria when she was 10 years old.

The Young Victoria by Deirdre Murphy. A portrait of Queen Victoria's childhood. It concludes that she was less sad and isolated than is generally thought.

The Young Victoria by Alison Plowden. Fatherless from the age of eight months, future queen Victoria was brought up in an atmosphere thick with family feuds.

Victoria: The Heart and Mind of a Young Queen by Helen Rappaport. This book follows the early years of the young queen's reign, based closely on her own letters and journals. (Official companion to the 2016 TV drama.)

Becoming Victoria by Lynne Vallone focuses on Queen Victoria's girlhood and adolescence.

Drina & Lilibet: Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II From Birth to Accession by Julia P. Gelardi. This book compares and contrasts the two British royals as they went from princess to queen.

Her Court & Home

Queen Victoria at Home by Michael De-La-Noy. Using anecdotes and extracts from letters and diaries, the author provides insight into daily life in the houses the queen inhabited or built.

Queen Victoria's Buckingham Palace by Amanda Foreman and Lucy Peter. This gift book accompanies a Buckingham Palace exhibition and illustrates how Victoria transformed the palace from a lavish bachelor pad to a family home.

Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year by Greg King. Explores Victoria's splendid palaces, grand banquets and balls, and her perpetual state of mourning for her husband.

Other Books About Victoria

Queen Victoria: This Thorny Crown by Michael Ledger-Lornas. This biography focuses on the importance of religion to Queen Victoria, and how religious communities viewed her.

An Audience With Queen Victoria: The Royal Opinion on 30 Famous Victorians by Ian Lloyd. Queen Victoria met everyone from Charlotte Bronte to Buffalo Bill. She had opinions on all who graced her parlor -- and some who didn't.

Curtain Down at Her Majesty's by Stewart Richards. The death of Queen Victoria in the words of those who were there.

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life by Lucy Worsley. Recreates the most important days in Victoria's life. Each day gives a glimpse into the identity of this powerful, difficult queen.

Victoria's Friends and Employees

Queen Victoria and the European Empires by John Van Der Kiste. An account of Queen Victoria's relationships with kings and queens, emperors, empresses, and other royals of France, Germany, Austria and Russia.

Queen Victoria and the Bonapartes by Theo Aronson. Queen Victoria was completely bowled over by Napoleon III's quiet charm and buccaneer looks. His wife, Empress Eugenie, became almost an honorary member of the British royal family.

Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household by Kate Hubbard. Follows the lives of six members of Queen Victoria's household -- including her chaplain, her personal physician, a maid of honor, and a governess -- drawing on their letters and diaries, many previously unpublished.

John Brown: Queen Victoria's Highland Servant by Raymond Lamont Brown explores the truth behind the rumors that Victoria had an affair with servant and close friend Brown.

Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queens' Closest Confidant by Shrabani Basu. How a young Indian Muslim became Queen Victoria's personal attendant and a powerful figure at her court.

Heart of a Queen: Queen Victoria's Romantic Attachments by Theo Aronson. Queen Victoria's relationships with Lord Melbourne, Prince Albert, Napoleon III, John Brown, Disraeli, and her Indian servant Munshi.

Henry and Mary Ponsonby: Life at the Court of Queen Victoria by William M. Kuhn. Henry Ponsonby was Queen Victoria's private secretary.

Victoria's Correspondence, Journals and Travels

My Dearest, Dearest Albert by Karen Dolby. Queen Victoria's life through her letters and journals.

Censoring Queen Victoria: How Two Gentlemen Edited a Queen and Created an Icon by Yvonne M. Ward. In 1901, two men were appointed to edit Queen Victoria's correspondence. Their decisions -- and distortions -- influenced perceptions of Victoria for generations to come.

The Letters of Queen Victoria: 9 Volume Set by Victoria, edited by A. C. Benson and Viscount Esher. The volumes are arranged chronologically from Victoria's first known letter, written when she was nine, to her last journal entry, nine days before her death in 1901.

The Letters of Queen Victoria is a selection of the queen's letters. The book is over 500 pages long.

Our Highland Home: Victoria and Albert in Scotland by Jeanne Cannizzo. Explores Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's love affair with Scotland, discussing their early journeys there and their stays at Balmoral.

Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera by Michael Nelson. The Queen fell in love with the Riviera in 1882. This book paints a portrait of Victoria's dealings with officials, statesmen, and the constant stream of visiting crowned heads to the Riviera.

Victoria's Family

Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch by Kate Williams. How the untimely death of King George IV's daughter shaped the reign of Queen Victoria.

The Coburgs of Europe by Arturo E. Beéche. A royal biography of the Saxe-Coburg & Gotha dynasty and all its branches in Great Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Bulgaria and Coburg. Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort were both Coburgs and they feature prominently in each of the dynasty's branches. Includes more than 500 photos.

Queen Victoria's Family by Charlotte Zeepvat. Photos of the queen's family, accompanied by anecdotes and quotations.

Unsuccessful Ladies by Jane-Eliza Hasted. An intimate account of the aunts (official and unofficial) of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria's Gene by D. M. Potts and W. T. W. Potts is about the hemophilia gene Queen Victoria passed down to her descendants and how it affected European history. The book suggests that Victoria may have been illegitimate.

Queen Victoria's Parents

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent: Father of the Canadian Crown by Nathan Tidridge. Queen Victoria's father, Prince Edward Augustus (1767-1820.) lived in Canada and became commander-in-chief of British North America.

Queen Victoria's Mother by Dulcie M. Ashdown. A biography of the German princess (also named Victoria) who married the Duke of Kent and gave birth to a future queen.

The Prince and His Lady by Mollie Gillen. The love story of Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, and Madame de St Laurent, the mistress he abandoned when he married Victoria's mother.

Prince Albert

Biographies

Albert: A Life by Jules Stewart. According to this biography, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, defined the culture of 19th century Britain more than any other British royal or politician.

Uncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert by Stanley Weintraub. Chronicles every aspect of Albert's life - from the political to the sexual - in lively, accessible prose. (This review © Amazon.)

Prince Albert: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy by A.N. Wilson. This biography argues that it is impossible to understand 19th century England without knowing about Queen Victoria's husband. A composer, engineer, soldier, politician, linguist, and bibliophile, he influenced almost every aspect of national life.

Early Years of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort: Compiled Under the Direction of Her Majesty the Queen by Charles Grey. Written for private circulation among the royal family, this book was first published in 1867.

The Albert Memorial by Chris Brooks. The Prince Consort National Memorial's history and conservation.

Victoria and Albert

We Two - Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gill. An account of the passionate, complicated marriage of feisty Queen Victoria and brilliant, fragile Prince Albert.

Victoria & Albert: A Royal Love Affair by Daisy Goodwin and Sara Sheridan. The official companion to the second season of the PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria. Drawing on letters and diaries, it charts Queen Victoria's ardent marriage.

A Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy by Helen Rappaport. About the final months of Prince Albert's life and Queen Victoria's retreat from public view. It throws new light on Albert's physical condition, overturning the myth that he died of typhoid fever.

Books About the Royal House of Hanover

Victoria's Children

Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard. Incisive character studies of Queen Victoria's five daughters: vivacious, intelligent Vicky; sensitive, altruistic Alice; dutiful, dull Lenchen; artistic, rebellious Louise; and shy baby sister Beatrice. (This review © Amazon.)

Queen Victoria's Children by John Van Der Kiste. Queen Victoria had nine children. As they married into European royal families, their loyalties were divided and their lives dominated by political controversy.

Alfred: Queen Victoria's Second Son by John Van der Kiste. Biography. A patron of the arts, Prince Alfred became Admiral of the Fleet. At the age of 18 he refused the crown of Greece. His last years were overshadowed by family problems.

Prince Leopold: The Untold Story of Queen Victoria's Youngest Son by Charlotte Zeepvat. A biography of the prince, who died tragically young. Includes a discussion of Victoria's gene for hemophilia.

The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter by Matthew Dennison. Princess Beatrice was Queen Victoria's last child. Her mother depended on her and dominated her life. You can read my review of the book here.

Queen Victoria's Daughters-in-Law by John Van Der Kiste. About Danish princess, Russian grand duchess, and two German princesses who married Victoria's sons.

Grandmama of Europe: The Crowned Descendants of Queen Victoria by Theo Aronson. Covers Victoria's descendants from 1887 to 1969, focusing on their personal lives.

Books About Edward VII

Vicky

An Uncommon Woman: The Empress Frederick, Daughter of Queen Victoria, Wife of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Mother of Kaiser Wilhelm by Hannah Pakula. Biography of Victoria's eldest daughter, Vicky.

Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz by John Van Der Kiste is about the tragic love story of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter and the German emperor Frederick III.

A Most English Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria's Daughter by Clare McHugh. Fictional account of the lfie of the Princess Royal, from childhood to her final days.

Books About Frederick III

Helena

Helena: Princess Reclaimed by S. Chomet. The life and times of Queen Victoria's third daughter.

Princess Helena: Queen Victoria's Third Daughter by John Van der Kiste. This concise biography examines Helena's life, work and relationships with her family.

Princess Louise

The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious Daughter by Lucinda Hawksley. A sculptor and campaigner for women's rights, Louise's life was filled with intrigues, scandals and secrets.

Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Unconventional Daughter by Jehanne Wake.

Victoria's Grandchildren

Queen Victoria's Matchmaking: The Royal Marriages That Shaped Europe by Deborah Cadbury. Queen Victoria had over 30 grandchildren, and she was determined to maneuver them into dynastic marriages with the royal houses of Europe.

Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia P. Gelardi. Weaves together the stories of Russia's tragic last empress, Alexandra; Romania's flamboyant and eccentric Queen Marie; Spain's very English queen Victoria Eugenie; Norway's reluctant Queen Maud; and Kaiser Wilhelm II's much maligned sister Sophie.

The Four Graces: Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters by Ilana D. Miller. The lives of four tragic daughters of Queen Victoria's daughter Alice -- Victoria, Elisabeth, Irene and Alix (Empress Alexandra of Russia). Includes photos and family trees.

Queen Victoria's Granddaughters: 1860-1918 by Christina Croft. Queen Victoria showered her 22 granddaughters with an affection she seldom showed her own children. To the end of their lives, they remembered 'dearest grandmama' with love.

Queen Victoria's Grandsons (1859-1918) by Christina Croft. Born into eight very different families, Queen Victoria's grandsons were connected through the tiny Queen for whom their happiness was a constant preoccupation.

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone by Theo Aronson. Daughter of Victoria's son Prince Leopold, Princess Alice was renowned for her beauty, elegance and vivacity. She lived until 1981.

Books About Europe's Royal Families

Victoria & the Romanovs

The Imperial Tea Party: Family, Politics and Betrayal by Frances Welch. After the 1894 marriage of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to future tsar Nicholas II, three meetings took place between British and Russian royalty that were beset by misunderstandings and misfortunes.

Queen Victoria and the Romanovs: Sixty Years of Mutual Distrust by Coryne Hall. Traces 60 years of family feuding that included war, marriages, and assassination.

Crimes Against Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria's Stalker: The Strange Case of the Boy Jones by Jan Bondeson. As a young woman, Queen Victoria was pursued by a teenager, Edward "the Boy" Jones, who had an uncanny ability to sneak into Buckingham Palace. Once he stole her underwear. He became a media celebrity.

Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy by Paul Thomas Murphy. During Queen Victoria's 64-year reign, no fewer than eight attempts were made on her life. This book follows each would-be assassin and the repercussions of their actions.

Kill the Queen! The Eight Assassination Attempts on Queen Victoria by Barrie Charles. Each chapter captures the drama of the attack and the would-be assassin's motives, trial and sentence, and what became of him afterwards.

Monarchy and Politics

Queen Victoria's Little Wars by Byron Falwell discusses Victoria's attitude toward and influence over Britain's wars and battles during her reign.

The Contentious Crown: Public Discussion of the British Monarchy in the Reign of Queen Victoria by Richard Williams. A study of comment on the monarchy in Victorian newspapers, journals, pamphlets, and parliamentary debates.

The Royal Throne of Mercy and British Culture in the Victorian Age by James Gregory. A study of royal mercy during Queen Victoria's reign. (New paperback edition.)

Fenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria by Christy Campbell. About the "Jubilee Plot" to blow up the queen, her family, and most of the British Cabinet.

Prime Minister to the Queen by Anne Somerset. Queen Victoria's political life.

Mistress of Everything: Queen Victoria in Indigenous Worlds edited by Sarah Carter and Maria Nugent. How indigenous people across Britain's settler colonies incorporated the Queen into their political repertoires.

Books About the British Empire

Victoria and Her Era

The Greedy Queen: Eating With Victoria by Annie Gray. Voracious and adventurous in her tastes, Queen Victoria reigned during a revolution in how people ate.

A Royal Passion: Queen Victoria and Photography by Anne M. Lyden. Essays about Victoria's role in shaping the history of photography as well as photography's role in shaping her image. Includes more than 150 color images, several rarely seen.

Queen Victoria: First Media Monarch by John Plunkett. Studies the role of the media in Victoria's reign and reveals how the royal family benefitted from the growth of the media.

The Right to Rule and the Rights of Women: Queen Victoria and the Women's Movement by Arianne Chernock. Victoria captured the imaginations of 19th-century feminists, who routinely used her to assert their own claims to citizenship.

Dominion: The History of England From the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria's Diamond Jubilee by Peter Ackroyd. Takes readers from the accession of the profligate George IV to 'Sailor King' William IV to the enormous innovation of Queen Victoria's reign. This is the fifth book in Ackroyd's History of England series; for the other books, click here.

Victoria and Britain

Queen Victoria by Paula Bartley. Examines Victorian Britain from the perspective of the queen, drawing from her own diaries and other contemporary sources.

Royal Representations: Queen Victoria and British Culture, 1837-1876 by Margaret Homans.

Remaking Queen Victoria edited by Margaret Homans and Adrienne Munich. A collection of essays about Victoria's importance to her era.

Queen Victoria's Secrets by Adrienne Munich explores Victoria's importance in her era.

Victoria and Other Countries

Empress: Queen Victoria and India by Miles Taylor. Shows how India was central to the Victorian monarchy from as early as 1837.

Victorian Yankees at Queen Victoria's Court: American Encounters With Victoria and Albert by Stanley Weintraub. Americans developed a love-hate relationship with Queen Victoria that lasted all her sixty-four years on the throne.

Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera by Michael Nelson and Asa, Lord Briggs.

Books About the Royal Family & Jack the Ripper

Fiction

Victoria Victorious by Jean Plaidy. Novel in which Queen Victoria tells her life story.

Victoria by Daisy Goodwin. A fictional account of Queen Victoria's youth, based on her diaries.

An Indiscreet Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria's Defiant Daughter by Georgie Blalock. Princess Louise seeks an unconventional life.

The Wild Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria's Defiant Daughter by Mary Hart Perry. Proud and impetuous, Princess Louise married outside the circle of European royals.

Seducing the Princess by Mary Hart Perry. Painfully shy and lonely, Princess Beatrice devotes herself to her mother, Queen Victoria. Then she meets dashing Henry Battenberg.

A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron. Suspense novel centered around Queen Victoria's troubled court -- and a secret so dangerous it could topple thrones.

The Royal Mob by Theresa Sherman. The story of the four Princesses of the House of Hesse, granddaughters of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by A. E. Moorat. London, 1838. Queen Victoria is crowned and receives an arsenal of bloodstained weaponry. But her thoughts are occupied by Prince Albert. Can she dedicate herself hunting demons when her heart belongs elsewhere?

Screenplays

Victoria & Abdul by Lee Hall. This is the screenplay of the Judi Dench movie about Queen Victoria and her manservant. If you're looking for the nonfiction book of the same name, click here.

Children's Books

Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Prince Albert comes up with a solution to Queen Victoria's modesty concerns in this fictional account based on a true story. For children ages 5 to 8.

Who Was Queen Victoria? by Jim Gigliotti, illustrated by Nancy Harrison and Max Hergenrother. Victoria was raised in near isolation until she became Queen at the age of 18. She married her first cousin, Albert, and had nine children. She became a national icon, but who was she in private? For children age 8 to 12.

Queen Victoria's Christmas by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley. This picture book tells the story of the first 'traditional' Christmas from the point of view of Queen Victoria's dogs.

Victoria and Albert Paper Dolls by Tom Tierney.

Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria by Kyra E. Hicks, illustrated by Lee Edward Fodi. The true story of Martha Ann Ricks, an ex-slave who spent 50 years saving spare coins to fulfill her dream of meeting Britain's Queen Victoria.

At Her Majesty's Request: An African Princess in Victorian England by Walter Dean Myers. The true story of an apparently royal girl who was slated to be sacrificed in the African kingdom of Dahomey, but was rescued by a British sea captain. Young "Sally" was taken to England, where she became a protegee of Queen Victoria. The book includes excerpts from Victoria's diary and portraits of Victoria and Sally. For children ages 9-12.

Young Adult (Teen) Books

Victoria: Portrait of a Queen by Catherine Reef. Victoria woke one morning at the age of eighteen to discover that she was Britain's queen. She went on to reign for 63 years. This biography includes a bibliography and a royal family tree.

Victoria Rebels by Carolyn Meyer. A first-person novel about Queen Victoria based on her real-life journals. For ages 12 and up.

My Name Is Victoria by Lucy Worsley. For young adult readers. The story of future queen Victoria's unhappy early years as seen through the eyes of her childhood companion, Victoire Conroy.

Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl. Fiction. England's Victoria becomes queen with the help of her maid, a reporter, and a scoundrel. For young adult readers.

Victoria and Her Court by Virginia Schomp. Nonfiction for young adult readers.

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Movies and Documentaries

These DVDs are formatted for North American audiences.

Queen Victoria's Children. This three-part BBC series exposes Queen Victoria's insensitive and overbearing treatment of her nine children. Recommended.

Queen Victoria's Empire. This PBS documentary explores the vital role Victoria played in the 19th century.

Victoria & Albert. Miniseries starring Victoria Hamilton as the queen and Jonathan Firth as Prince Albert.

The Young Victoria. 2008 movie starring Emily Blunt as Victoria and Rupert Friend as Prince Albert. The movie won an Oscar for costume design.

Mrs. Brown. This excellent 1997 film about Victoria's relationship with manservant John Brown stars Judi Dench as the queen. From Amazon.

Family Tree. In this fascinating feature-length documentary about modern genealogy investigations, a British historian traces two deadly genes through the European royal family to solve a decades-old mystery surrounding Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria: Evening at Osborne. Prunella Scales (famous for playing Sybil on "Fawlty Towers") portrays Victoria in a one-woman show that draws on the queen's journals and letters. (Available on video, not DVD.)