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Genealogy Book Store > Genealogy books beginning with T
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Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year |
Author: Greg King
Published: 2007-06-04 |
List price: $30.00
Our price: $19.80
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As of: January 06th, 2009 06:01:09 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 The old Queen's death is profoundly moving
The last chapter of this potpourri of the last years of Victoria's reign allows us to glimpse the Queen as she was in her final hours and right after her death, and it's sensational, as I'll explain shortly, and worth the price of the book.
Massively selfish and massively privileged as she was, Victoria had to meet the Grim Reaper just like everybody else, of course, but the description of her physical and mental collapse can almost bring tears to your eyes. Less than five feet tall, she weighed 170 pounds, a victim of her own gluttony, was nearly blind and could hardly walk. With her personal physician, Dr. Reid, supporting her on one side of the bed, her grandson, Wilhelm II, the Kaiser, supporting her the on other, the 81 year old Queen's head dropped to her shoulder at exactly 6:30 PM on January 22, 1901 and she was gone after 63 years on the throne.
Her body was placed in the first of three coffins, each tightly encased one inside the other, but weighing together a thousand pounds in spite of the tiny size of the coffins, hardly bigger than those made for a child. Lilies were thickly arranged around her body, her wedding veil draped over her head. Under the thick lily blanket, Dr. Reid hid some amazing artifacts. (Hidden, because the new king, Edward VII, would have removed them).
On her right hand was placed the wedding ring of John Brown's mother (!) A lock of Brown's hair in a locket was placed around her neck as was another locket containing his picture. Victoria was never intimate with John Brown, but still waters run deep here. Many "legitimate" items were also placed with the body, such as a shawl embroidered by Victoria's long dead daughter Alice, the marble hands of Albert, pictures of the nine children. But the John Brown secret mementoes boggle the mind.
People who saw the coffin passing on its gun carriage on the way to the funeral at St. George's chapel, all commented on its tiny size. It hardly seemed possible that the Queen of the Empire and Empress of India could fit, given her immense presence in the world, in such a tiny place.
When Victoria was laid to rest beside her beloved Albert inside the great sarcophagus at Frogmore, observers must have been drenched in a kind of Gothic atmosphere that probably was downright eerie.The lid of the great tomb, supporting Victoria's recumbant effigy, now, beside that of Albert, had been rolled back, and Albert's oak coffin, covered with dust, was clearly visible. As Victoria's coffin was lowered into place, the top of her coffin was sprinkled with soil from the Mount of Olives. The lid with the effigies, heavy, heavy marble, would have made a fearsome noise as the workmen swung it down to enclose the royal couple forever.
Other reviewers of "Twilight of Splendor" have felt there is too much description in the book about every artifact in every one of Victoria's palaces as well as minute details of what people wore to famous balls and weddings, down to the last button, such as at the nuptials of Edward VII"s youngest daugher, Maud, and the Duke of Devonshire's famous fancy dress ball of 1895. But I enjoyed these details. And the food descriptions will set your taste buds a twitter!
However, the human elements of the book, such as Victoria's death and balanced insights into the characters of Victoria's children appeal to me the most. One amazing nugget concerns a visitor who was visiting the Queen at Balmoral at the same time as the young Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra, and their first child, Grand Duchess Olga. The tsar at at the time was about twenty seven years old and Alexandra was twenty four. The visitor decribed Nicholas as a "weakling" and Alix as a "rabid, pathetic hausfrau." The seeds in the characters of Russia's last Emperor and Empress were already sown... two astoundingly inept rulers ill-fated by their personalities and thus doomed from the very start.
"Twilight of Splendor" covers the bases from many possible angles, and you'll have a very good feeling for what living was like in late Victorian England when you finish it.
Recommended, even if you don't like minute descriptive details.
grandmother of europe
king explores the rather tempetuous relationship queen victoria had with her childern and grandchildern,their relationship with each other.who just happen to be many of europe's royal houses.
 A bit too *much* detail
I don't think I've ever criticized a book for too much detail, but I do need to in this case. The book is obviously very well-researched, but sometimes it absolutely overwhelms the reader with details. A tour of a circa-1897 room, for example, provides the author with an opportunity to describe nearly every item in the room, how long it had been there, when it had last been moved, and who liked which items more than the others. Sometimes it was just too *much*, and I felt I was drowning in detail. In addition, every time the author cited an amount of money circa-1897, he provided a currency exchange in dollars and pounds in 2007 figures, down to the last dollar! I think it would have been enough to say that a diamond necklace would cost $22 million today, and not necessarily have to say that it would cost $22,316,812. The obsessive detail on that was a bit overwhelming.
There were also a couple places where the author had favorite terms or words he liked, and used over and over. Lace wasn't just lace - it was always "Honiton lace". A member of the public who wrote something was *always* referred to as a "wag".
Overall, while it was an interesting look into the Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, there was just *too* much detail. The minutiae of the book detracted from the splendor and grandeur of her celebration.
o my
just got the book on her daughter the last princess.i hope it is as good as this one was.
 Twilight of Splendor reveals Victoria's secrets in her Jubilee Year of 1897
Queen Victoria is the longest reigning monarch in English history. She ascended the throne in 1837 dying on January 22, 1901. During those sixty plus years she saw the Western World transform itself from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Though she preferred candles she saw electricity come into general use. Victoria stoold 4ft 10. high.She was proclaimed as Empress of India in 1877. Victoria lent her name to an age and a vanished nineteenth century world explored in depth by historian Greg King in "Twilight of Splendor." King is most noted for his earlier work on the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.He focuses on her life and that of her empire in 1897 as her jubilee year on the throne was celebrated by millions of her obedient subjects.
In this 300 page book the author examines Victoria and her family. She was raised as the daughter of the Duchess of Kent who was early widowed. She and her mother did not get along well. Victoria spoke with a German and Scotch accent. She became queen when her sailor uncle William IV died in 1837. She was plain and intelligent. Victoria came to rely on such Prime Ministers as her beloved Lord Melbourne and later Disraeli.
She was honest and witty. She lacked a good formal education though she could read foreign languages and the occasional novel. Victoria had a fierce temper and a tart tongue. Victoria was very obese and had no fashion sense. Her tastes in art and literature were middle-brow.
Victoria married Albert of Saxe-Cothburg. The happy couple were parents of nine children prior to Albert's death in 1861. Victoria worshipped Albert sleeping each night next to a picture of him taped to the headboard of her bed. Albert's room and possessions remained as they had left them when he died. She was buried next to him at Frogmore. The Royal Albert Hall was built in his memory. When Albert died Victoria refused to wear anything but black for the rest of her long life.
Victoria had rocky moments with her large brood of children. She did not get along well with the Prince of Wales who lived a womanizing, dissolute playboy life. He became King in 1901. Victoria was closest to her eldest daughter Vicki who became the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Several of her children married crowned heads of Europe. She was truly the grandmother of monarchy.
In addition to telling the story of Victoria's family we learn from Greg King about the architecture of her palaces of Buckingham, Osborne on the Isle of Wight, Balmoral in Scotland and Windsor Palace. Victoria hated London living in Buckingham and prefered Windsor or her other castles. She was waited on hand and foot by hundreds of servants in a well organized royal househod. King goes into detail on what she ate along with her guests. He tells us what attendance at balls and social events was like in her day. Victoria was no snob enjoying friendships with an Indian servant and the Scottish gilly John Brown. She did not like the British aristocracy and practiced middle class morals. She enjoyed painting and wrote two books on her life in the Highlands at Balmoral. All of her life she kept a detailed diary of her life and times.
Victoria was no intellectual but a good person who gave millions to chairty and led England with dignity and honor. When she died in 1901 over one-fourth of the world was ruled by Great Britain.
King's book is well-researched and gives us a good insight into the private and public life of one of England's greatest rulers. He does fail to discuss the poverty of many of Victoria's subjects though he does briefly cover the conflict with the Boers in South Africa and Irish unrest.
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