I am always interested in reading about some of the more obscure royal siblings and what became of their offspring so I was initially very happy to have found this book. However, the first shock was opening it - the print format looks like someone's high school term paper was cut and pasted directly into the book. Double line spacing and a large font were apparently used to plump up the author's sparse material to create the 152 small pages (5 3/4" x 8", not including the sparse index and source acknowledgement pages). The writing is amateurish and uneven, not that of an experienced biographer; the sequence of events is incoherent and information is duplicated and triplicated in various parts of the book (the poor Princess must have died at least 3 times before the final chapter, "The Final Years" which is given 6 1/4 double spaced pages, can you believe it?). Did this book have an editor? There is no evidence as such. This is more like someone's rough draft of a memoir and rough is the working word here. The accompanying photos are mundane and mostly of the "official" variety - few if any candid or informal pictures. Long tracts on Victorian nursing and architecture are included apparently to make up for the dearth of real information about Princess Helena. How and when did she become a drug addict? Who was her supplier? Why didn't her daughters ever marry? A reader can probably glean as much information from previously published magazine articles as there appears to have been very little original research done for this book. All in all, a very disappointing experience.

When I read Marlene Koenig's recommendation ("I recommend you read it") I bought the book and have enjoyed reading it. There is lots of new material and very little padding. This is not the usual volume stuffed with unnecessary detail. It is more of a story, based on fact, of a princess who was once described as dull and not very good looking but turns out to be handsome, talented, interesting and very popular with the Victorian public. There are also one or two unsolved mysteries. The price of this volume is not exorbitant either! I also "recommend you read it".

A brave attempt to present the life of the princess -- the first "people's princess". Based on new research not available elsewhere. Easy to read and inexpensive.

If you're looking for an in-depth, fresh approach to Queen Victoria, and you already know the basics of her life, this is NOT the book to buy. Incredibly repetitive - entire paragraphs that were almost word-for-word repeating an earlier section, inattention to detail (chloroform is just wonderful and all, but Jaffe reviews its importance every 5th page!) and shows a lack of present research (Latest findings show that Prince Albert was actually killed through stomach cancer that he contracted several years before he died - Jaffe only mentions typhoid).

The photographs were the only positive part about this book - rich information surrounding her life.

All together a poorly written book for a reader who wanted substantial, indepth details about Queen Victoria (and who already knew the wonderful advances of chloroform!!)

Victoria 101. I think this book is intended for a reader who has not picked up much on this subject. Includes a nice basic overview of 19th century England. I enjoyed it.

In general, there is an overall lack of modern scholarship on Thomas Sully, one of the most active American portrait painters of the 19th century. With that in mind, I waited for Carrie Barratt's book with great anticipation. Although this is not a bad book by any stretch, it proves to be somewhat thin. Essentially, the books consists of two parts. Part one is a moderately short (and what appears to be an expanded journal article) essay that chronicles Sully's time in London while awaiting to paint the young Queen Victoria. The second and larger part, is a reproduction of Sully's journal while abroad, which while of great interest to scholars of Sully, it is less than thrilling to the lay reader. While I enjoyed the book and am sure it will come in handy in the course of my Sully studies, it provides little that will be of use to the average art reader.

This book details some of the conflicts of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1902. The book starts each period by providing brief campaign outlines, India 1837-56, The Mutiny 1857-1860, The Post Mutiny Period 1861-1898, and Africa 1837-1898. It then discusses the major commanders or military personal of note in each period.

The biographies included are those of Charles Napier, Hugh Gough, Harry Smith, Lacy Yea, James Scarlett, George Cathcart, Fitzroy Somerset (Lord Raglan), John Pennefather, Frederick Haines, John Nicholson, Henry Havelock, Hope Grant, Colin Campbell, John Ewart, Roger Roberts, Walter Hamilton, Haldane Rattray, Frederick Roberts, Francis Brownlow, Robert Napier, Garnet Wolseley, Herbert Stewart, Evelyn Wood, Redvers Buller, Hector Macdonald, and Herbert Kitchener.

I found the book interesting and one to wet the appetite but I also felt that it could have been made better by the inclusion of simple material to aid the novice. I felt the book would have benefited greatly by the inclusion of general maps, so as to give the novice an outline of the geography, cities, battles, lines of march and the areas over which the conflicts where fought.

The book also assumes some knowledge of the conflicts and period. For example, in the Crimea section, the Battle of Balaclava with Lord's Lucan and Cardigan is glossed over with the words, "enough has been written elsewhere". I would have liked to have seen at least a couple of paragraphs on them and the battle itself.

Further I was expecting to find something on the conflicts in China. There are the Opium wars of 1839-1843 & 1856-1860, the Taiping Rebellion 1851-1864, and the Boxer Rebellion 1896-1901. I was also expecting to find a history of General Charles Gordon (nicknamed "Chinese" Gordon) 1833-1885. I was disappointed, there is only passing mention made of Gordon and the China conflicts. Gordon is regarded by some historians as one of Britain's greatest military leaders, and by others as charismatic, yet quixotic and impulsive. This book does give the history of Garnet Wolseley and Herbert Stewart who were part of the Gordon Relief Expedition in 1884-1885.

General Gordon had served with distinction in the Crimea 1853-1856. He saw action in the Second Opium War 1856-1860 which included the seizure of Beijing. Gordon commanded a force known as the Ever-Victorious Army during the Taiping Rebellion 1851-1864. With them, he recaptured the rebel capital, Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1864 and completely suppressed the rebellion. Gordon served in various diplomatic and military posts through 1864-1874, before serving as Governor of a Sudanese province from 1874. A revolt occurred in Sudan in 1883 and Gordon was tasked with evacuating Khartoum. The evacuation was partially successful, 2500 women and children escaped. A ten month siege of Khartoum followed with Khartoum falling on 26 January 1885. Gordon along with his entire garrison were massacred. Two days later the expeditionary force, dispatched by Gladstone, finally arrived.

Overall I found the book interesting and wet the appetite, but it could have been made much better by the inclusion of maps and a number of other biographies.

This book strives to show the influence Queen Victoria had on her age. Many of the ideas seem far fetched to me and this is a boring read at best. Unless you are EXTREMELY interested in the culture of the Victorian age, pass this one by.

this is not a straight forward story, very hard to follow and a little confusing, if you have to buy it, get the paper back.

This is a path breaking work of rigorous scholarship on the cultural impact of Queen Victoria in the 19th century. Not for everyone but definitely worthwhile reading for those who have the patience to learn something new.

Even though no one will probably read this, I feel I have to warn Holmes fans if they find this book and want to read it. I'll put it bluntly, it was very boring. I had to force myself to finish it, mostly because it was due back at the library soon. I have no idea what the author was trying to do writing this book, since it obvisously didn't get much attention. The book is not really a biography, he (Holmes) does not start out saying where he was born, in fact he never goes there but sort of skips to his childhood in the middle of the story to explain why he never talked about his childhood with Watson. Which isn't reason enough to read this book. Some things that annoyed me was the fact that the author tells us that "the woman" was actually a famous (or is that infamous?) prostitute; Holmes had never gotten married because the type of women he liked were of "a certain occupation." Holmes? Never! All in all a very bad, boring, and not worthy of Sir Author Conan Doyle.

I love Angela Thirkell's books--she is one of my favorite authors along with Trollope and Austen. But she wrote a few clinkers, and this is one of them. I would have guessed that Georgette Heyer wrote this book, in a blind test. It has all the cloying archness of the (only) book by Heyer I read and which I forever associate with Regency romances. Of course, this IS a Regency romance--NOT one of her wonderful Barsetshire books, so maybe it was a misguided experiment.

Surely, dear reader, this book must be a parody of Austen and Trollope. But one turns the pages with an uneasy consciousness that one has not been let in on the joke.

I love the Thirkell books but this one is an aberration. It's trite and obvious. The characters are not particularly interesting. It's as if the author decided to try something different -- and it didn't work. Skip this one and read her other works.