QUEEN VICTORIA: A Portrait.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.NFINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price- clip to dw/dj. Bright,crisp,clean subject colour portrait (by Landseer) illustrated upper wrap; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Head of spine/backstrip minisculely bumped with reciprocal creasing.Top edge generally clean apart from a small splash stain,fore-edge bright and clean; contents bright,tight and clean - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - possibly an unread copy? Sharp-cornered,bright,clean, publishers original blue cloth boards with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate blue+white publisher's colophon illustrated endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn, ix-xpp+1-669pp [paginated] includes author's preface,10 chapters,32pp of b/w contemporary portraits,facsimile illustrations,photographs etc.,in 2 blocks of 16pp apiece,between pp110/11 and pp542/43 respectively,list of Queen Victoria's Prime Ministers,a chronology,notes on sources,books cited,an index; plus [unpaginated], half-title+title pages,a dedication, contents list/table,4 genealogical tables [Victoria's maternal+paternal relations,her children and grandchildren, and the Hesse + Battenberg [Mountbatten] family],and illustrations acknowledgements. Queen Victoria has attracted much more than her fair share of biographical talent.Of all royal subjects - if such an expression may be permitted - she is the most kaleidoscopic.Not witty like Charles II,not tragic like Charles I,not a brilliant political manager like Queen Elizabeth I,not an ogre like Henry VIII,not a gossip writer's dream like George IV, she fascinates by her extreme,her palpable,ordinariness.And yet the minute one has said that one sees that its opposite is equally true.She was extraordinary.'The mind of Queen Victoria',wrote Kenneth Rose in our time, 'never ceases to astonish'.The same judgement was expressed at first-hand a century earlier by Charles Greville,who described the Queen as 'the most interesting mind and character in the world'. It is in the paradoxes and contradictions of this at first sight obvious and straightforward figure that Giles St Aubyn finds the key to understanding her.This brilliant and stylish portrait of the Queen is first and last and all the time a study of her personality,not an account of the longest and most eventful reign of British history (to date - 1991),deeply aware as the author shows himself of the social and political background.He directs his spotlight on her family life,her relations with her Ministers and servants, her impact on them and on her subjects,her traits of character,her taste and her beliefs.In tracing the development of the Queen's personality between 1819 and 1901 he distinguishes six Victorias.First the frustrated prisoner of Kensington Palace,forced to lead a solitary existence in a world of intrigue and hostility.Second,the young Queen rejoicing in her freedom and enchanted by Lord Melbourne.Third,the young bride, devoted to Prince Albert but not prepared to share her royal duties. Fourth,the submissive wife,who made her Consort all but King in name. Next,after the death of the Prince in 1861,the shattered,helpless widow, hiding herself away at Balmoral,Windsor and Osborne.The decade following Albert's death threatened not only her sanity but the monarchy itself.Finally,stimulated by Disraeli,she abandoned her seclusion,her confidence restored in her role as Queen Empress and doyenne of Europe's Sovereigns.She was no longer Albert's protege,but her own old self 'writ large'.By the end of her reign Queen Victoria's family connections extended to almost every great and most minor powers in Europe.The Kaiser was her grandson,the Tsar of Russia married a granddaughter as did the King of Spain.The warmth of her personality made these relationships,unlike the dynastic marriages of earlier centuries,intimate and affectionate.Giles St Aubyn as the biographer of the Queen's eldest son Edward VII,and her cousin the Duke of Cambridge sees her perhaps more than any other writer as she saw herself.Certainly no reader will put this book down with the remark so often attributed to the Queen,though misunderstood:'We are not amused.' Please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the weight of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!