Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera (Tauris Parke Paperbacks) - Softcover

Nelson, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845113454 ISBN 13: 9781845113452

Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2007

Synopsis

Queen Victoria fell in love with the Riviera when she discovered it on her first visit to Menton in 1882 and her enchantment with this ‘paradise of nature' endured for almost twenty years. Victoria's visits helped to transform the French Riviera by paving the way for other European royalty, the aristocracy and the very rich, who were to turn it into their pleasure garden. Michael Nelson paints a fascinating portrait of Victoria and her dealings with local people of all classes, statesmen and the constant stream of visiting crown heads. In the process we see an unexpected side to Victoria: not the imperious, petulant, mourning widow but rather an exuberant girlish old lady thrilled by her surroundings. Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera is an absorbing and revealing account that makes an important contribution to both our understanding of Victoria's character and personality and our view of the late Victorian period.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Nelson is an historian of Queen Victoria and the nineteenth century and was General Manager of Reuters.

From Publishers Weekly

As head of a worldwide empire and as someone who maintained close lifelong ties with high-born relatives all over Europe, "[t]he Queen has to be placed in more than a British setting," declares noted Victorianist Briggs in his foreword. Nelson, a 19th-century historian, follows Victoria from London to the French Riviera, where she spent several extended vacations during her last 20 years. Apart from this geographic repositioning, however, he provides few truly new insights on Victoria as a monarch or an individual. Though he purports to focus on how Victoria's patronage stimulated the tourist economy in the Riviera, Nelson doesn't conclusively explore that topic or explain why it merits book-length treatment. Yet despite its thin, lackluster central premise, this is quite a charming read. Nelson peppers his narrative with amusing anecdotes and rambling tangential stories about the Queen and her retinue that afford a wide-ranging, slice-of-life perspective on Victoria and her milieu. Six days worth of journal entries about the death of Elizabeth Reynolds, her personal maid, reveal her sympathy and devotion for her entourage. In a letter, maid of honor Marie Adeane describes "some very good fireworks... which the Queen enjoyed like a child." At times breathlessly gossipy (on various royal sex scandals), at other times astutely analytical (of the Queen's negotiations of foreign policy crises), this is an enjoyable portrait of one of the modern era's most important monarchs. 16 pages of photos.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1845113454
• ISBN 13: 9781845113452
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224