Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera - Hardcover

Nelson, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1860646468 ISBN 13: 9781860646461

Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2001

Synopsis

Queen Victoria fell in love with the Riviera when she discovered it on her first visit to Menton in 1882. Her subsequent visits helped to transform the French Riviera, furthering its discovery by royalty and aristocrats. This book paints a charming portrait of Victoria and her dealings with officials, statesmen, and the constant stream of visiting crowned heads to the Riviera. Based on original research in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the book includes first-time access to the Queen's journals.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Nelson is an historian of Queen Victoria and the nineteenth century.

Lord Asa Briggs is patron of the Center for Theology and Public Issues.

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: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1860646468
• ISBN 13: 9781860646461
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192