{"product_id":"9780007504565_queen-victoria-a-life-of-contradictions","title":"Queen Victoria: A Life of Contradictions","description":"\u003cp\u003eA fresh, witty, accessible life of Queen Victoria. Not since Lytton Strachey has the irony, contradictions and influence of this Queen been treated with such flourish or biographical insight.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Queen Victoria had a very complicated and psychologically fascinating personality and only a very talented biographer could get to the key of her character. Fortunately in Matthew Dennison's pithy, well-researched, beautifully written and very accessible book, she has found one' Andrew Roberts\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQueen Victoria is Britain’s queen of contradictions. In her combination of deep sentimentality and bombast; cultural imperialism and imperial compassion; fear of intellectualism and excitement at technology; romanticism and prudishness, she became a spirit of the age to which she gave her name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVictoria embraced photography, railway travel and modern art; she resisted compulsory education for the working classes, recommended for a leading women’s rights campaigner ‘a good whipping’ and detested smoking. She may or may not have been amused.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile she reinvented the monarchy and wrestled with personal reinvention. She lived in the shadow of her mother and then under the tutelage of her husband; finally she embraced self-reliance during her long widowhood. Fresh, witty and accessible, Queen Victoria is a compelling assessment of Victoria’s mercurial character and impact, written with the irony, flourish and insight that this Queen and her rule so richly deserve.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Matthew Dennison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47284880474261,"sku":"9780007504565","price":9.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780007504565.jpg?v=1776992135","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780007504565_queen-victoria-a-life-of-contradictions","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}