Harry and I have been watching the PBS series Victoria - and thoroughly enjoying it!
After reading a few Wikipedia pages, I decided I needed to read the real thing, so I got the current biography of her, and it was a really great read. It is thoroughly researched and annotated - but reads like a novel.
As a BYU English major, I managed to completely avoid the Victorian era - and didn't even know much about Queen Victoria - guess I avoided English history too!
She is a fascinating, complex woman. I may try another bio - there are many out there - I have been reading the reviews.
We really love the series - but will have to wait awhile, since they haven't even started filming Season 3 yet!
Of particular interest to me is the information that after her death, Queen Victoria's daughter Beatrice went through and edited and transcribed her mother's letters and journals - and then destroyed the originals! It's referred to as the worst case of censorship ever.
One reviewer, though, said that we needed to realize that Beatrice believed that she needed to do it - she had not been instructed to do so by her mother - to preserve her mother's legacy.
Questions abound about Victoria - her relationship to John Brown for starters - and those destroyed pages could probably answer them!
Will keep you posted on what I find out!!
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