"Victoria" by Daisy Goodwin

I’ve been hooked on the “Victoria” television series starting with season 1, episode 1 (showing on PBS Masterpiece Theater in the United States). We’re now three seasons done, and a fourth is coming. And it’s no mystery as to why the series has been successful – a fascinating story, top-notch actors, excellent production values, and a good script.

The series begin the U.K. in 2016, and Daisy Goodwin is the screenwriter and developer of the fictionalized series. With an eye to possible tie-ins, Goodwin wrote the novel Victoriaat the same time she was writing the television script. It’s no surprise that the novel often reads like a script. It’s also no surprise that you know exactly what the characters look like, because the television series has permanently planted them in your brain. 

The novel tracks the series closely, and especially the first season, covering the time of Victoria’s ascension to the throne to her engagement to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. And the book focuses on the key royal and government players – Victoria, her mother, the prime minister Lord Melbourne, various ladies in waiting, King Leopold of Belgium, the Duke of Wellington, and the two Saxe-Coburg brothers, Ernst and Albert. What the novel doesn’t emphasize is the “downstairs” staff, who are mentioned almost in passing but treated more fully in the TV program. 

The theme, beyond the historical facts, is the development of a young woman, still a teenager when she becomes queen, from an insecure girl to a more confident young woman, determined to resist the influence of her mother’s advisor. She makes mistakes; she interferes with the government when she prefers to hold on to “Lord M” as prime minister; she’s often ridiculed by so-called friends and family, behind her back, of course. Guided and advised mostly by Melbourne, who sees her perceptiveness and rather fine mind, she grows in maturity,

What the novel provides that is often barely acknowledged in the television program (TV does have its limits) is the historical detail, including how she came to be the heir to the throne. Her father, the Duke of Kent, was the sixth son of George III, and his older brothers died without children. The next in line was the Duke of Cumberland, who apparently bitterly resented this mere slip of a girl standing in his way to the throne. 

Daisy Goodwin

And the novel provides considerably more detail on King Leopold, who had been married to Charlotte, Princess of Wales and the only legitimate child of George IV. Charlotte died in childbirth, and so the scramble began among George IV’s brothers. Leopold, a Saxe-Coburg, was invited to become king of Belgium; his sister was Victoria’s mother. He may have been the Belgian king, but Leopold was determined to promote the interests of his Saxe-Coburg family, and it was he who pushed his nephew Albert for Victoria’s husband.

Goodwin, an accomplished author and screenwriter, has published a number of books, including the historical novels My Last Duchess, The Fortune Hunter, The American Heiress, and The Duchess’s Tattoo. She’s also written the novel Silver River and published two poetry anthologies. Her sequel novel to Victoria, Victoria and Albert: A Royal Love Affair, was published in 2017. She lives in London.

If you’re a fan of the television series, then Victoria the novel is well worth reading, as an interesting story in and of itself and to fill in the gaps necessarily left by the program. 

Top photograph: Tom Hughes as Prince Albert and Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria in the television program "Victoria."

"Dominion" by Peter Ackroyd

You might want to call this “everything you wanted to know about British parliamentary history in the 19^thcentury, and then some.”

British author Peter Ackroyd is beginning to approach the end of his multi-volume history of England. Each of the first four volumes has a one-word title (followed by a long subtitle): Foundation, Tudors, Rebellion, and Revolution. The single words of the titles serve as both descriptions of the content and summary themes. 

The fifth and most recent is Dominion: The History of England from the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It covers most of 19^thcentury British history. If there is a primary focus to the volume, it is the push and pull and British politics and parliamentary changes that occurred during the century. 

We follow, in detail, the rise and fall and occasional resurrection of all of the prime ministers and the governments. We see the considerable amount of political activism that occurred during the period, like the Chartist movement that sought, among other things, universal male suffrage. We read about the political protests, often fueled by the industrial and technological changes, that sometimes ended in bloodshed. Dominionalso includes succinct accounts of the significant wars Britain experienced during the Victorian period – the Crimean War, the rebellion in India, and the Boer War.

Ackroyd writes with a comprehensive view and a rather sparkling (and witty) style. A history like this one and its cohorts is not an easy thing to write; in a sense, the author has to hold together all of the information being covered even as he’s writing about a specific event or month or year. 

But Dominion is different from its predecessors. The difference is both significant and surprising, and it lies in what is not included. The previous volumes have covered literary and cultural history, in addition to political, technological, and military events. Dominion has a few scattered quotes from Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackery, George Eliot, and a few other literary figures, but that’s all that’s included. To get two-and-a-half pages on a music hall performer and essentially ignore what Victorian England produced in literature is not a minor omission. The previous volumes included literary history.

Peter Ackroyd

So what you will not find in Dominion, except for the occasional quotation, is Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, the Brontes, and others. Dickens fares slightly better than the rest, but only slightly. Even popular culture is shorted, with a single reference to Gilbert and Sullivan and none at all to Arthur Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes stories.

The author is one of Britain’s most prolific popular historians. In addition to his history of England series, he’s also written biographies of Charles Dickens and the artist J.M.W. Turner, among several others; a history of London (and a history of London beneath the streets); and many other works. 

Dominion stands as an in-depth and lively summary of 19^thBritish political history. In that regard, it is comprehensive and well-written. But it is disappointing that Ackroyd didn’t turn his keen eye to the literature of the period as well.

Related:

My review of Revolution by Peter Ackroyd.

My review of Rebellion by Peter Ackroyd.

My review of Peter Ackroyd’s Foundation.

My review of Peter Ackroyd’s Tudors.

Reading Peter Ackroyd.

A Revolt over a Prayer Book.

Top illustration: Queen Victoria, who gave her name to the period.

St. James Park Tube Station

A small station,

St. James Park is,

threatening inconsequence,

caught as it is in the space

between the riot of people

that is its nearby sister Victoria

and the riot of government

and tourists that is

its nearby brother Westminster.

But it has a reach, it does,

bordering on the formidable:

Buckingham Palace

the Horse Guards

Scotland Yard

Westminster Abbey

Victoria Street

Birdcage Walk and the park

the Ministry of Justice (all

those CCTV cameras) and sharing

a building with the tube’s HQ.

It even merits a ticket office,

attended by personnel, where

we wait in queue, quietly,

for our Oyster cards, topping off

with more pounds. 

We stand on the platform

waiting for the train

from Victoria (eastbound) or

from Westminster (westbound)

making sure as we board

to mind the gap. 

The St. James Park tube station in London has three entrances – one on Broadway, one on Petty France, and one on Palmer Street. We used all three, although the Palmer Street entrance was the closet to our hotel. 

Photograph: Exterior of the St. James Park tube station, Petty France entrance.