Book Review: "Victoria: A Life" by A.N Wilson

A.N Wilson has been under fire as we know, for his book about Charles Darwin which nobody seemed to understand was not supposed to be a scientific novel, but rather a novel about Charles Darwin’s deep and personal characteristics, how they intertwined with the time he lived in and whether he was the product of that time and place or not. The same goes for his book on Queen Victoria. I have seen many reviews stating that the book is ‘convoluted’ or ‘difficult’ or ‘jittery’ and even, yes ‘disorganised’ which many people ended up giving reviews of only two stars to. I am here to say that this simply is not the case. It really is not that difficult to follow as long as you know what you are reading. You are not just reading a book about the life of Queen Victoria in the royal courts. You are reading a book about Queen Victoria in the royal courts, how this had an impact on her character and how her character had an impact on the emotions of an entire nation. This book is not just a biography because seriously, we all know the story of Queen Victoria - this is rather a biography of the Victorian Age with Queen Victoria fitting in right at the top. This book is about the reasons why she fits where she does and what made her this way.

A.N Wilson is probably one of the best biographers for people of the Victorian era because he seems to understand what makes them a ‘product of their generation’. Queen Victoria’s ability to look the other way when something was going around about Prince Albert was one of the things which made her a great wife to him, but in the end when she lost him, it didn’t make for a very good Queendom - as she went into eternal mourning. I love the way A.N Wilson writes because sometimes, he can be quite witty. There was this part where someone is talking about how ‘pure’ Prince Albert is and A.N Wilson comes out with a remark that the nightclub owners, bar owners etc. would beg to differ. Honestly, I laughed for a solid five minutes when it was put into context. The problem people tend to have with this book is that they don’t want a biography that is highly political and yet, they chose to read a biography of one of the most political women of the modern age. I say, that you should not only make up your own mind but think about what kind of character Victoria is and think about how she had an impact on the world around her. How could we not think that this woman is someone revered and political? The very basis for the novel is the politics of the Victorian Age which was directly impacted by whoever was on the throne. When Victoria and Albert were reported to be arguing, we can see that the entire mood of the political atmosphere seemed to change. So I think, in this case for his writing, A.N Wilson is perfectly correct.

All in all, I do not agree with the negative reviews of this book or his other books. He makes history fun and political at the same time. He makes it viewable from a modern context, he makes it ironic and points out its flaws. I think I can honestly say that I really enjoyed reading this a lot more than I have enjoyed books about Queen Victoria in the past. It really is something else entirely.