It is a heartbreaking lesson as the new monarch navigates the palace and political intrigues under the guidance of her charming and lovelorn prime minister, Lord Melbourne. To be a queen, you have to be more than a little girl with a crown,' scolds a dying lady of the court whom Victoria has cruelly shamed. 'Your subjects are not dolls to be played with. Inspired by the diaries of Queen Victoria, British TV producer and author Goodwin (The American Heiress) mines a rich vein of royal history with the ascension of the impetuous and imperious 18-year-old whose sole companions were dolls and a lapdog to the English throne in 1837. Daisy Goodwin’s impeccably researched and vividly imagined new book brings readers Queen Victoria as they have never seen her before. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously. Everyone keeps telling her she’s destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. Next, people say she must choose a husband. “From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria.” “I do not like the name Alexandrina,” she proclaims. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world.ĭespite her age, however, the young queen is no puppet. Daisy Goodwin breathes new life into Victoria's story, and does so with sensitivity, verve, and wit.'ĭrawing on Queen Victoria’s diaries, which she first started reading when she was a student at Cambridge University, Daisy Goodwin-creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria and author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter-brings the young nineteenth-century monarch, who would go on to reign for 63 years, richly to life in this magnificent novel.Įarly one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. 'Victoria is an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood.

Daisy goodwin author