We Two

March 30, 2009
According to Gill (Nightingales
), the age that has been labeled Victorian was, in its origins, Albertian. Prince Albert was the chaste scion of a family of ambitious, debt-ridden, sexually corrupt misogynists, and his holy war of moral strictness made him appear straitlaced, judgmental and sanctimonious. In marrying Victoria, says Gill, Albert planned to take the reins of British power, though parliamentary rules didn't allow him to be king. Gill paints a portrait of this marriage as a “work in progress,” in which the balance of power shifted continually between queen and consort, but Victoria's repeated pregnancies caused a dramatic shift in Albert's favor: he joined her meetings with ministers, and met or corresponded with the most powerful men in England and abroad. His great accomplishment was keeping Great Britain out of the American Civil War; he also served a stint as chancellor of Cambridge, bringing the university into the modern world. Despite their constant battle for dominance, Victoria was always madly in love while Albert was pleased to be adored. A lively, perceptive, impressively researched biography of what Gill terms “a forerunner of today's power couple.” 16 pages of color illus.; b&w illus. throughout.

May 1, 2009
Far from mythologizing her legendary subjects, Gill ("Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Florence Nightingale") views the marriage of Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg as a modern historian. Outwardly, Victoria and Albert diligently presented the world with a portrait of blissful domesticity (and inflexible morality) that has become synonymous with the age, but their lives were far from perfect. Albert, a minor German prince, was not well received and rarely appreciated in his adopted country. Victoria, proud queen regnant in a fiercely misogynistic era, found herself caught between the realities of her paramount rank and her perceived (and much dreaded) duty to bear children and defer to her husband as lord and master. In attempting to chronicle the relationship of these two, Gill is hardly passing over untrodden ground: readers familiar with Victoria's and Albert's lives will probably not find much revelatory material in her treatment. They will find, however, a frank and intimate discussion of the royal marriage that is addictively readable; no doubt the famously proper queen would "not" be amused. Recommended for all readers. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 1/09.]Tessa L.H. Minchew, Georgia Perimeter Coll., Clarkston

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