Victoria, a historical/biographical novel by Daisy Goodwin, showcases the life of the monarch with the second-longest reign in British history, of 63 years (1837–1901). The story starts off on June 20, 1837, the day in which 18-year-old Victoria was given the throne and title as the Queen of the United Kingdom. The book basically describes and tells her beginning journey as the queen up until she gets married.
Honestly, what I thought about the book was that it was one of the longest but yet one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. Personally, I’ve always had an interest in books and shows like these, related around period dramas, historical dramas, and biography based in the mid-18th to 19th-century in the United Kingdom. I was always intrigued by the monarchs of that time, and hearing about Queen Victoria and her long and special reign was so cool because she was such a notable icon, since there were 63 kings and queens of Britain and England, of which eight were queens.
There are a few things I dislike about this book. In general, I think it’s a good book, but there are a few things I don’t like about it.
It was about 400 pages long, and I thought it could have been much shorter. I found there to be a lot of unnecessary stories and extra details that didn’t need to be included in the book. Because of the way they talked, especially with all the formal and traditional language and vocabulary, the book sounded a lot longer than it should have, so it can be easy to just zone out while reading. Due to the fact that this is a biographical fiction story, adding it makes sense since it happened in real life, but personally I feel like it shouldn’t be too long. An example would be the fact that there’s a whole chapter where Victoria got a statue to honor her father. Yes, it was an important thing that happened in her life, but I felt that there was no point in adding that to the story, as it didn’t contribute to anything afterward.
The next thing was that I expected more from this book. When I first picked up this book, I expected it to talk about her entire reign, considering it’s 400 pages long. I thought it would showcase how and why she became so influential and loved. I just wished it would have been more than just a bit of a romance novel.
The ending was another thing I didn’t like. Victoria had repeatedly stated that she would not marry and would be a single queen, just like Elizabeth I. She hated her cousin Albert and said she would never marry him, but in the end they got married. It wasn’t the fact that they got married, but more so the fact that it felt so rushed. There was barely any buildup between them. The relationship buildup for her and her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, took two whole books out of the four in the novel, and they were the longest compared to Books 3 and 4. So all of a sudden she changed her mind because Albert matured and acted differently than the last time she saw him, which was like when they were 14. It felt like the relationship between Victoria and Albert was way too short and meaningless, like it was a love/hate relationship until they got married. I’m thinking the author most likely didn’t write it in the way she intended, or it came off differently than she expected because it was so rushed.
Apart from those, I enjoyed Victoria’s character development in this book the most. I sympathize for her at the beginning, dealing with a controlling mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. In and throughout the story, she kept acting in a way that’s like, “I’m the queen, I can do what I want.” And it was kinda annoying because it was a repeating thing. But around the middle she became more mature. She started to become more responsible and focus more on ruling England.
Around the end, Victoria still acts a bit like she used to, and I like that. It shows that even though she is more responsible now, she still keeps some of her old ways. While trying to be a proper queen, she’s still a young woman growing and changing.
Get the book! Check out Victoria by Daisy Goodwin at BMCC’s Library the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, or the Queens Public Library.
About the author Linda is a young Brooklyn native who developed an interest in books during the pandemic. Her creative mind makes her an avid reader of young adult, fiction, and romance novels.
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