cover image Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Dorothy Thompson. Pantheon Books, $18.95 (167pp) ISBN 978-0-394-53709-2

In this biography of England's longest-reigning monarch, crowned at age 18 in 1837 to rule until her death in 190l, the person, not just the personage, emerges. The focus is on Victoria as devoted wife, mother of nine, grieving widow and the always self-assured queen-empress. Although proud of her feminism, she also relied on her husband, Prince Albert, and trusted male prime ministers to help her guide England to greatness. While on the whole dealing justly with the woman whose character won the affection and respect of her subjects, Thompson, a history lecturer at Birmingham University in England, diminishes the excellence of her book by repeating rumors of Victoria's affair with Scottish gillie John Brown. (Sept.)