Thursday, March 5, 2015

Book Review: Victoria's Daughters

by Jerrold M. Packard
 
Victoria's Daughters
 
 
A Partial Synopsis from Bas Bleu:  Queen Victoria bore four sons, but it's her five daughters who are of interest here. They lived privileged lives yet were "married off" politically all over Europe and faced the kind of family turmoil and intrigue we associate with soap-opera sagas
 
My Thoughts:  Wow!  Did I learn a lot about European history!  The book begins with Victoria's marriage to Albert.  As each child is born into the palace, it is interesting to consider the low state of medicine in the early nineteenth century.  Child bearing was quite dangerous, even for the Queen of England.  They had four sons and five daughters.  Their nine children would fill their hearts as well as their castle.  Queen Victoria would later arrange each marriage as a strategic political move.  These nine descendants can be found in the family trees of monarchs across Europe and Russia.  The author references several letters written between the five daughters and their mother.  It is absolutely fascinating how the sisters interact not only with the royal family, their new husbands, but with their subjects as well.  As the girls have their children, once again, Queen Victoria actively participates in carefully arranged marriages.  The influence of Queen Victoria and her direct lineage is astounding. 

So, if you like books about drama, castles, politics, history, parenting or even war (whew!) this book just might be for you!  I loved it!

What are you reading?

;-)  -Marci
 


17 comments:

  1. Hi Marci, looks like a fab book! How about adding your review to the Books You Loved collection over at Carole's Chatter? Cheers

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  2. I love history and especially royalty.

    This sounds like a book I definitely want to check out.

    Thanks so much for your great post. Nice blog.

    Stopping by from Carole's Books You Loved March Edition. I am in the list as #10.

    My book entry is below. A Memory of Violets is going to be a favorite for this year.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Book Entry

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  3. I love history! This looks like an interesting book. Right now I'm reading "The Covenant"

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  4. Wow, history, politics, women and castles. This is a book that I will have to read.

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  5. Hello. I have this book and I've read it too! It was quite fascinating as I love anything Victorian. And, if I remember correctly, one of her daughters lived well into the 1900's. I highly recommend this book for those who are history addicts!

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  6. This looks like an awesome book!

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  7. This looks like a very interesting book.

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  8. Sounds like a great book! I love reading about history, especially European history. Thanks for sharing with Idea Box link party :) Look foward to what you share next time!

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  9. This sounds very interesting and right up my alley. I've been interested in Queen Victoria for some years. I read a rather large biography about her a few years ago. I'm sure this would interest me!

    I'm reading a couple of youth fiction books at the moment along with a couple books for research purposes. One of the latter is called "Marriage and the Family In the Middle Ages".

    I came in from The Enchanting Rose link up. :-)

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  10. Oh, I love history too! This book sounds wonderful! The cover even drew me in :) So glad you shared this with ROI. Have a lovely week!

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  11. This looks right up my alley! Thank you for sharing on the Art of Home-Making Mondays this week! I will be pinning this one! :)

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  12. This looks very interesting … a young lady just submitted an article about Queen Victoria for the magazine I publish so when I saw this post on the ROI linkup it grabbed my attention. Sounds like a book I would definitely be interested in!

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  13. I love history and enjoy that time period, so it sounds like a book I'd enjoy. :)

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  14. How fascinating! I'm totally intrigued now and want to read this book desperately! :) Thanks for sharing this at Booknificent Thursday on Mommynificent.com this week!
    Tina

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  15. I love reading about history! Thanks for sharing with the Pretty Project Party! xoxo- Heather

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  16. Thanks for the review~~~for me, this is a definite must read as I'm watching "Victoria" on PBS. I've already done some research on the net. Her life and times is very fascinating.

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  17. That sounds so interesting! Thanks for sharing with us at Love to Learn.

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