It was the most influential marriage of the nineteenth century — and one of history’ s most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as … her lord and master. Now renowned chronicler Gillian Gill turns this familiar story on its head, revealing a strong, feisty queen and a brilliant, fragile prince working together to build a family based on support, trust, and fidelity, qualities neither had seen much of as children. The love affair that emerges is far more captivating, complex, and relevant than that depicted in any previous account.
The epic relationship began poorly. The cousins first met as teenagers for a few brief, awkward, chaperoned weeks in 1836. At seventeen, charming rather than beautiful, Victoria already “showed signs of wanting her own way.” Albert, the boy who had been groomed for her since birth, was chubby, self-absorbed, and showed no interest in girls, let alone this princess. So when they met again in 1839 as queen and presumed prince-consort-to-be, neither had particularly high hopes. But the queen was delighted to discover a grown man, refined, accomplished, and whiskered. “Albert is beautiful!” Victoria wrote, and she proposed just three days later.
As Gill reveals, Victoria and Albert entered their marriage longing for intimate companionship, yet each was determined to be the ruler. This dynamic would continue through the years — each spouse, headstrong and impassioned, eager to lead the marriage on his or her own terms. For two decades, Victoria and Albert engaged in a very public contest for dominance. Against all odds, the marriage succeeded, but it was always a work in progress. And in the end, it was Albert’s early death that set the Queen free to create the myth of her marriage as a peaceful idyll and her husband as Galahad, pure and perfect.
As Gill shows, the marriage of Victoria and Albert was great not because it was perfect but because it was passionate and complicated. Wonderfully nuanced, surprising, often acerbic — and informed by revealing excerpts from the pair’s journals and letters — We Two is a revolutionary portrait of a queen and her prince, a fascinating modern perspective on a couple who have become a legend.
BONUS: This edition contains a reader’s guide.
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I am really enjoying this – I love non-fiction that reads like novels, and this story is delivering in spades (at least so far – I’m about 75 pages in)… I recently read a novel about her early life (Victoria, by Daisy Goodwin – review coming, it’s due to NetGalley any day now teehee…) and it was fantastic – it inspired me to pick this one up …
If you love the PBS Victoria series you will really love this book. Fills in lots of information of real interest.
Nothing new here
Extremely well-researched and detailed. Although almost too detailed. If you are a lover of Queen Victoria and would like to have a thorough account of her life and reign, then you will find this book wonderful. Most of this is taken from actual sources and her daily Journal. With that in mind I think the author did a great job of making it …
Great insight into a great couple–Victoria and Albert….Our of all the Victoria books I’ve read, this one was the most informative re her personal entire life.
I believe it to be the true story of Victoria and Albert and the people who came before. I love historical novels.
Excellent research and absolute interest. Victoria and Albert came to life in these pages. The was informative and left you wanting mre. The royal couple became a re a as any ordinary couple with their ups and downs. Thanks for a great read!