This series provides an invaluable, candid look at Victoria's intimate feelings and private opinions. Forget the dour old monarch intoning "We are not amused"; here you encounter a mother sharing her thoughts, hopes, fears and opinions with her daughter.

This book is a follow-up to the multi-volume series by Roger Fulford (Your Dear Letter, Dearest Mama, Dearest Child, etc). Fulford's work as an editor was superior in my opinion. If you are seriously interested in finding out what Queen Victoria and Vicky (Empress Frederick) were like as people, I'd recommend looking for the Roger Fulford series in a good library or through used booksellers.

This book is still very enjoyable, and definitely worth reading for Victoriana buffs. But some may have difficulty keeping track of historical events and figures.

their desolation over the deaths of Albert, Victoria's beloved husband and Vicky's dad and of Alice, Vicky's sister, is so real and palpable.

there are other books in this series, I've read them as well and they're delightful.

You can tell after skimming just a few pages of this book that a huge amount of research went into it (there are more that 40 pages of footnotes and references), but I found it very difficult to read and even harder to follow. It concentrated almost exclusively on the mundane facts of how she lived, rather than on who she was. There are hundreds of detailed descriptions of the clothes she wore, the books she read, the food she ate, and the toys she played with. There were even more descriptions on how the people around her influenced the food she ate, the books she read, the toys she played etc, etc.

So don't get this book if you are looking for a biography about Victoria's early life, but check it out from the library if you want to see some truly beautiful illustrations (some by Victoria's own hand) and some outstanding photographs.

In this aristocratic climate, Becoming Victoria by Lynne Vallone stands out. Becoming Victoria examines the girlhood/teenagehood of the young woman who became Queen Victoria and consequently, the enduring symbol of an era. Ms Vallone has undertaken the remarkable task of examining how Victoria was reared, comparing her upbringing to the upbringing of contemporaries (not princesses), chronicling Victoria's relationship with her mother and illustrating the gap between the portrayal of Victoria's youth, both at the time and retrospectively, and how Victoria herself truly felt and acted.

The reader leaves this book convinced that truth is indeed stranger than fiction or at least as strange and as remarkable. Although Becoming Victoria is not necessarily geared towards teens (and is more expositive than books such as The Royal Diaries), the insight into a princess' curriculum, familial relationships, day-to-day activities should fascinate the readership that delves into Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries and Gail Levine's The Princess Tales.

Becoming Victoria ends, rather disappointingly, at Victoria's ascension to the throne. This is, however, in accordance with the task set by the author. Victoria the child and teenager is Ms Vallone's focus, and she ends once her subject passes into a different stage. Consequently, the reader's appetite is whet to do further study on a most fascinating woman and queen.

Recommendation: The price is not too bad. It is a beautifully bound book and may be worth buying new. However, if your interest is in the content, not the appearance, try used.

It's too bad, then, that Packard's research is less than sterling, and his work filled with modern stereotypes and assumptions irrelevant to Victorian times.

For instance, Packard writes that Victoria herself was an unpleasant, unamusable person, when in fact the Queen was a normal woman who liked nothing more than a good joke. (She said "We are not amused", but only because her target was telling dirty jokes in the presence of children.)

There are other minor errors in fact, by themselves unimportant perhaps but it does make me wonder: if there are so many minor errors, how many major errors are there?

I was also distracted by Packard's many references to Victoria's fitness level and his wonderment at her reaching an advanced age without being physically fit. Methinks Mr. Packard has been brainwashed by the health and fitness detachment of the Politically Correct Police. People who live long do so for many reasons. Fitness is only one piece of the puzzle, and compared to genetics it may not even be that big a piece. It's also irrelevant on a cultural level. Virtually nobody at the time exercised; to point out that Victoria was out of shape is roughly similar to pointing out that Elizabeth II couldn't fight the Romans because she doesn't paint her face blue as did Boadicea.

"Farewell in Splendor" is an interesting and readable account of the last week in the life of Queen Victoria and her funeral. When an old woman has nine children and forty grandchildren, it is easy to see that there is bound to be confusion and differences of opinion about her care. However when that woman is also the Empress of the largest empire on earth. The difficulties seem to multiply for each of her subjects. This is the case in 1901 as Victoria, the doyen of Royalty, finally fades after a record breaking sixty-four years on the throne.

Jerrold M. Packard has written two books on the subject of Victoria and her family. I found that much of the background material in this book was a reprieve of "Victoria's Daughters". Since any book about the death of Victoria is bound to have a limited audience, much of the background material seemed to be out of place in a book devoted mostly to a three-week period. I think that people willing to read about Victoria's death might already know something about her life.

From the book, I get have a strong impression that Packard simply does not like Queen Victoria and saw her only as a mean and selfish old woman. I'll grant you that in many ways she was, but in this book so many of her more endearing traits are omitted. It draws a rather one-sided picture of Victoria and not the most flattering side. I think that a little more balance would have served this book well.

I like that fact that the book was easily readable and had many interesting facts to present. His parenthetical remarks really added to the book and helped it rise above being a rehash of newspaper accounts and old. Letters. However, I also found that on occasion there was too much trying to show how much better the late 20th century was from the 19th. His interjection of the modern mind-set into the Edwardian/Victorian eras was a more of hindrance than help.

I did enjopy the book and think is a solid additon to the world of victoria Liturature but I would not reccommend it as a starter book.

Jean Plaidy, a good story-teller, does an admirable job of matching history as it was to the story she writes. Still, she gets a few things wrong but this is due more to lack of access to key historical documents than to sloppy research.

After reading Flora Fraser's more recent, scholarly biography, The Unruly Queen : The Life of Queen Caroline, I found Plaidy errs in identifying the little Italian girl, Vittoria, as the daughter of Pergami when she was his niece. She also errs in calling Pergami, "Baron Pergami," at the time he first meets Caroline. He doesn't become a Baron until after Caroline visits Malta and buys an estate and the title of Baron for him. Still, Jean Plaidy takes the clay of scholarly biography and moulds a living, breathing character for the reader.

Caroline of Brunswick was, at turns, warm-hearted and maternal, and defiant and unconventional. Rejected by her husband as unfit, unkempt and embarrassingly gauche, she became even more so as a means of getting back at him. In the end, she only harmed herself.

There is little doubt that the Queen idealized Brown in a way no one else did, but especially after Albert's death, no one tended her as he did. A courtier wrote, "Others had tended her as their Queen and mistress. John Brown protected her as she was, a poor, broken-hearted bairn who wanted looking after and taking out of herself." Many around the Queen disapproved. Brown took his duties so seriously he would deny even her family access to her. His gruffness with others made few friends. Sent to convey the Queen's invitation to dinner to the Lords-in-Waiting, Brown pushed open the door of the billiard room, eyed the aristocrats, and bawled, "All what's here dines with the Queen." The Prince of Wales particularly disliked him, always referring to "that brute" rather than using his name. He obliterated all the busts and mementoes of Brown after the Queen's death, but he was never able to wipe out the rumors that Brown and the Queen were lovers, or that they had a morganatic marriage, or that Brown was her guide in spiritualism. Such evidence as there is shows that they were nothing but devoted friends as well and mistress and servant. This readable book well illustrates the relationship, with ample quotations from the Queen's diary and from remarks of those who knew both parties well.

At Grand Central Station, Rhiow and her feline peers (do not tell Rhiow that they are her peers) guard the magical gate that links worlds through time. Because of a malfunction at the London gate, Rhiow and her associates, Urruah and Arhu, travel together to investigate the problem. They quickly learn that a "timeslide" is moving people back and forth through eternity. Someone deliberately caused the time warp.

The Lone One wants nuclear weapons introduced into society long before the twentieth century in an attempt to destroy civilization. The cats accompanied by a young child, Arthur Conan Doyle, must stop the critical focal point from being changed or the alternate time continuum will replace the current time stream. The foursome must simply stop the assassinations of the multiple Queen Victorias who populate the endless worlds that make up the current universe.

TO VISIT THE QUEEN, the return to that wacky humorous universe of THE BOOK OF NIGHT WITH MOON, is a winner in its own right. The story line contains non-stop action, jocular interactions, and mounting danger as the very fabric of the universe is shredded. The cats seem real and intelligent, not cute. Diane Duane weaves a terrific tale that canine fantasy lovers will cherish. This is a 14 karat gold collar winner for anyone who loves a good book.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed the book and it has made me want to learn more about this quite remarkable woman. In short ;read it and enjoy , but don't expect to be turned into an expert by the end of the book.