Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household Paperback – April 22, 2014

If you don't know anything about Queen Victoria or the English monarchy this may overwhelming & not particularly interesting. I am loving the PBS series Victoria so I am interested but don't know a lot about it all. Because of the series I bought the book Life In Victorian England which presented a horrifying portrayal of the lives of the working class during that time. Since then I have read several books on that time period so I thought I would really enjoy the "inside scoop" from the people who worked for her. One of the complaints in the reviews is that there are a lot of names. This is very true & most people are referred to by more than one name. They have their given name, their title, which may change, the women have their single then married name with possibly a change in title & some even have nicknames. It's very hard to keep up with. Also Victoria, & I suppose all the monarchy, had an excess of people working for her. Even if she took 'just a few' with her when she went to another location it was at least 100 people plus her own bed & other furnishings. There are also references to her 'household' & her 'servants' & I didn't understand who it was among her staff that made up her 'servants' & why they were differentiated. They all seemed the same to me. I didn't know what year she died & towards the end as she was failing several different years were mentioned then just the month & dates so it wasn't clear to me what year she actually died. I had to look it up. Also, it said King Edward VII took her place & I didn't know that was her son, Bertie, till I looked that up. I felt like it was a bit tedious in spots but what they all had to say about her was very different from how she is usually portrayed. I recently watched Inside Balmoral & it struck me that they said how much Queen Victoria loved it there but not a word of how much her staff hated it & how awful their lives were while they were there. I am glad I read this, it has added to my perspective on her, I just didn't think it was great.

Exactly what he wanted

I thought the book was very well written and very interesting and very easy to read. It was interesting on how if you compare the court to Henry the 8 and Victoria's court on how people acted while they worked and waited on Royalty. It sounds like fun being apart of a court but it was a lot of hard work and took a toll on many people's health and most of the time it ended up killing them . In a sense you give up your life to wait on hand and foot 24/7 365 days a year to be available to a spoiled self centered person. Now I love Victoria but in fairness she was self centered, selfish and spoiled and she did not know any better. When Sarah Lyletton was retiring Victoria and Albert was not going to give her a big pension but in the end they did. The other people who did make it to retirement if they were lucky did not get a decent size pension. One other book I read when John Brown was dying and( who never took a day off in his life while working for Victoria ) was lying upstairs in his room ill Victoria was extremely upset that he could not make an effort to come down and see her as she had twisted her ankle and wanted the company. . Granted the doctor did not tell her how sick Brown was but she did know that he was ill and in bed.

I read this book for my book club. We are a group of over-achieving forty-somethings who tend to be responsible and obedient. Yet, not one of us finished this book! I got through half, making me one of the more persistent ones. I love history, I love royalty. I also teach research and writing at the graduate level. The research on this book was never evident: Hubbard provided tons of details but rarely told where she got her facts: the introduction suggests that there was real scholarship but the presentation rarely showed that she had consulted any primary sources. Okay, so its not an academic text. Then, tell me a good story. Make me care about the characters and want to know what they are going to do next?There were too many details and not enough facts to keep me engaged. A high point of the book was the discussion of one of Victoria's Lady's in Waiting being accused of promiscuity due to a misdiagnosed liver tumor - this was the kind of intrigue the author had promised me. Why was her abdomen growing? How could she be a fallen woman? But, in the end, learning that she had a medical problem rather than an unplanned pregnancy failed to trigger any real emotion in me as a reader - was I angry at the doctor or the gossips in the Court? Relieved or infuriated for the victim? Yawn. Next chapter. There was no real connection from chapter to chapter, each telling the tale of another courtier but rarely related them to one another. A more effective presentation might have been to tell the story chronologically, shifting voices but keeping the narrative more linear. Showing how each of the characters contributed to the author's own big picture of the era by explaining her research also would have made a far more compelling presentation. Readers of history really do care about the details, but they have to be presented to make a point and in the end, this was a series of long, dry essays with no real connection between or among them.

After watching the mini series “Victoria”, I found this non fiction book quite interesting. The characters on TV are mostly real people and their roles in Victoria’s life were elaborated on quite a bit in the book. I was surprised at the odd way that communications were a game of whisper down the lane after Albert’s death. He was truly a source of political savvy as well as emotional support during his short life.And even titled aristocrats who “waited” on the queen were relegated to very uncomfortable situations, including separation from their own families. The author also delves into the situation of the Munshi who was full of self aggrandizement, and John Brown, who was perhaps a true friend in her old age, but also frequently giving scandal by being inebriated, along with numerous relations at Balmoral.Altogether an interesting enlightenment on the subject!

History with photography, purchase prompted by current TV Serial, Victoria, and the new film, Victoria and Abdul.British and Empire history which affects the 21st Century, and “how we used to live”.The account of all involved in the Royal household along with politics and mores of the day, and how we live now in 2017.Laws, expectations, social structures, poverty, respect, family values, tradition, custom, eating, manners, dress codes, faith, privacy, “not seen, not heard”.Relevant for today’s discussions, educational, debateable, reflections.

I wanted to like this book but found myself skim- reading and skipping sections to get to an interesting bit.Much of it was devoted to outlining personal relationships, who was who, family links etc which was both confusing and boring.Ultimately I didn’t come away with much of an insight on what life was like living in the household.I would recommend The Housekeeper’s Tale by Tessa Boase instead if you are interested in real life Downton Abbey tales.

This is a great read. Well-reserched entertainingly written, it manages to convey the prevailing sense of BOREDOM at Victoria's Court - Fanny Burney would not have felt out of place. If it's a book about boredom it is also a book about the psychopathology of sycophancy. What these people put UP with beggars 21st Century belief. The impact on the mental health of the courtiers is spelled out clearly. At the centre the narcissistic, neurotic Queen is painted variously as intolerable and vulnerable. The Black Spider at the centre of an opaque web. Fascinating.

A rare glimpse at life of servants in the Royal household of Queen Victoria. The authenticity is a bit doubtful. However, it is a good book to read as the images and photographs are mostly real.

Generally very good and interesting with considerable depth of research and detail. In a few places it dwells too much on the public events of Victoria's life too much - reasonable to use them as a framework, but not to let them crowd out material on the court and its denizens. But essential reading for anyone seriously interested in QV.