Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood

Grace Greenwood (Sara Jane Lippincott)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
420K words
Chapters
42

Tags

English Originals Women's Biography Portrait GalleryLegendary LivesPower GameRoyal LifeInspirationSocial ObservationModern BritainFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood by Grace GreenwoodAuthor: Greenwood, Grace, 1823-1904,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Sep 1, 2004

Editor's review

Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood is a biographical work on Queen Victoria's early years and adult life by Grace Greenwood. In an accessible and engaging style, the author traces the Queen's growth from girlhood to sovereign, emphasizing character and period atmosphere rather than exhaustive archival research. Its value lies in offering a portrait of the Queen from a nineteenth-century woman's perspective; the language is warm and the narrative fluent, making it a good introduction to Victorian court life and the image of the monarch. Readers can sense the place of biography in public reading and how an American author of the time told English royal stories. Note that the book carries strong period attitudes and personal narration and should not be used as strict historical scholarship. It can be read alongside more rigorous modern biographies to appreciate how biographical writing differs across eras.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents first to grasp the chronological thread, then read by stages, avoiding treating popular narrative as chronicle.
  2. Note the author's evaluative statements as you read and consider her standpoint and period limitations.
  3. Read alongside a modern biography of Queen Victoria to compare selection of material and narrative approach.
  4. For discussion, frame the topic around "how biography shapes the image of a public figure."

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42

FAQ

Is this a rigorous work of historical research? No. It is closer to popular biography, focusing on character and period atmosphere with limited source criticism and annotation. It suits introductory reading, but research should refer to modern scholarly biographies and primary archives.
Which stages of the Queen's life does the book mainly cover? The title indicates a focus on girlhood and adult life; the narrative centers on the Queen's upbringing and early role as sovereign rather than covering all political events of her reign. Readers should not expect a complete chronicle.
What reading level does the public-domain English text suit? The language is generally accessible and the narrative clear; readers with intermediate English can finish it with a dictionary. Those unfamiliar with nineteenth-century expression should read an introduction or background material first.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Grace Greenwood (Sara Jane Lippincott) Author · American · 1823–1904

Grace Greenwood (1823–1904), born Sara Jane Lippincott, was an American writer, poet, journalist and lecturer from Pompy, New York. From 1844 she published poetry and children's stories under the pen name Grace Greenwood, and was among the first women admitted to the congressional press gallery, actively advocating abolition and women's rights. Three of her works are held here, including Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood, Stories of Many Lands, and a collection of travel and history stories for children. Her writing spans biography, children's literature and accounts of foreign places, in a plain, friendly style that combines information with readability, giving her a notable place in nineteenth-century American women's writing and public opinion.