Farewell in Splendor: The Pass

Offers an analysis of the British Empire during the time immediately following the death of its longest reigning monarch

After reigning as Britain's queen for 63 years, Victoria died at her palace on the Isle of Wight on January 22, 1901. In this highly readable account, Packard (Sons of Heaven) painstakingly details Victoria's last days, her funeral and the public mourning that followed. Although he expresses admiration for the queen's indomitable will, he views her as a self-indulgent and unforgiving woman. Victoria lived in seclusion for 40 years following the death of her husband, Albert. She deprived her eldest son, Bertie, heir to the throne, of any role in government, Packard argues, because Bertie could not live up to Albert's image. The deathbed scene, with Bertie and his sisters jockeying with Kaiser William of Germany (Victoria's favorite grandson) to be nearer their mother, comes vividly to life. Packard also provides biographical sketches of the Queen's relatives and attendants as well as a synopsis of political events of the time, including the Boer War. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

For Packard, the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 represented the closing of the golden age of imperial Britain. Still embroiled in the Boer War, which was draining both strength from and confidence in the imperial ideal, the British empire would never be quite the same in the years after Victoria's death. Packard, who has written extensively on other royal families, here deftly interweaves a chronicle of Victoria's death watch with the larger issues on the world stage. His portrayals of members of the queen's vast family, particularly her son the future Edward VII and her grandson the German kaiser William II, are fascinating. Unfortunately, Victoria herself is seen here as a rather rigid and certainly uninspiring figure. Those who take a jaded view of royalty are bound to ask what all the fuss was about; however, confirmed Anglophiles should find even the more trivial details about the royal family to be enlightening and quite interesting. Jay Freeman