Queen Victorias Secrets

Nineteenth Century Literature

The first book to fully investigate the influence of the solid, dour icon that was Queen Victoria, this fascinating study demonstrates the firm grasp Victoria held to the cultural imagination of her country, exploring how she created and maintained her royal authority.

Library Journal

As queen of England for over 60 years, Victoria lent her name to an era. Certain forms of literature, morals, mores, fashion, and furniture are all identifiable with an age called Victorian. Munich, director of the women's studies program at SUNY-Stony Brook and author of Andromeda's Chains: Gender and Interpretation in Victorian Literature and Art (Columbia Univ., 1993), has taken upon herself the task of establishing to what degree Victoria was simply an icon of her time and to what degree she actually influenced the world around her. Using examples as far-ranging as costume balls, the treatment of dogs, Gilbert & Sullivan, and gender identity, Munich spins an interesting study that is not a biography of Victoria so much as a meditation on her role as a Zeitgeist queen. Historians and sociologists familiar with the period may not agree with individual examples, but the work is stimulation for thought and a handy addendum to any good biography of Victoria. For academic libraries.Katherine E. Gillen, Luke AFB Lib., Ariz.