'This solitude, the romance and wild loveliness of everything here . . . all make beloved Scotland the proudest, finest country in the world.' Queen Victoria (1819-1901) wrote a diary nearly every day of her life. Originally intended for private circulation, later expanded to appeal to a wider public, these published diary entries cover not only the family holidays at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands which the Queen and Prince Albert enjoyed up until his death in 1861, but also the Queen's journeys - as sovereign and as "Royal Tourist" - around Scotland, Ireland, and other regions within the British Isles. The books offer intimate views of the most important woman of her time as she shares her love of her family and of the Highlands, and demonstrates her intense interest in all corners of her realm and in the lives of individuals from all classes of society.
Queen Victoria's writings about her life and travels in Scotland and the British Isles are fascinating and entertaining to read. Extremely popular when they first appeared, they shaped Victoria's image in the nineteenth century, and their impact on public perceptions of the monarchy continues to this day. This volume includes complete and authoritative texts of the two journals; an introduction and explanatory endnotes providing historical and cultural contexts and new information about the Queen's work as author and editor; maps of the Queen's travels; a Cast of Characters briefly identifying many of the individuals the Queen meets or mentions; a Glossary of unfamiliar terms; and Suggestions for Further Reading.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Author: Queen Victoria of Great Britain, Margaret Homans, Joanna Marschner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 08/09/2024
Pages: 560
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.46lbs
Size: 8.75h x 5.37w x 1.81d
ISBN: 9780192893857
About the AuthorQueen Victoria
Margaret Homans is Professor of English and of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University. She has published widely on feminist and queer theory and on British and U.S. women writers, starting with
Women Poets and Poetic Identity: Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily Brontë, and Emily Dickinson (1980). Her Victorian publications include
Bearing the Word: Language and Female Experience in Nineteenth-Century Women's Writing (1986),
Royal Representations: Queen Victoria and British Culture, 1837-1876 (1998) and, co-edited with Adrienne Munich,
Remaking Queen Victoria (1997). Her most recent book is
The Imprint of Another Life: Adoption Narratives and Human Possibility (2013). She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on Virginia Woolf, on feminist and queer fiction and theory from Wollstonecraft to the present, and on Queen Victoria and Victorian literature.
Joanna Marschner is Senior Curator at Historic Royal Palaces. Based at Kensington Palace she has responsibility for the research, interpretation, and display of its collections of fine art and decorative art. Her publications include
Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth Century Court (2014), and she was curator of the exhibition
Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte and the Shaping of the Modern World, and lead editor of its accompanying publication. She has recently contributed three chapters to the volume
Kensington Palace: Art Architecture and Society (2018). She has recently been Principal Investigator of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project
Victoria's Self-Fashioning: Curating Royal Image for Dynasty, Nation and Empire.
Adrienne Munich is Professor Emerita of English, Art, and Cultural and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University. She is also Co-editor Emerita of
Victorian Literature and Culture, conceived by her and John Maynard and published by Cambridge University Press. In addition to edited collections on women and war, fashion and film, and Amy Lowell, her Victorian publications include
Andromeda's Chains (1989),
Queen Victoria's Secrets (1996),
Remaking Queen Victoria (edited with Margaret Homans, 1997). More recent Victorian publications include "Raving with Love for the Queen: Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, and National Belonging," with Anthony Teets for a collection,
Dickens and Women Re-Observed (2020) and
Empire of Diamonds: Victorian Gems in Imperial Settings (2020).