Elizabeth LongfordRecensioni

dreadful

While I prefer Julia Baird's more recent biography, this older biography of Queen Victoria nevertheless manages to capture much about the iconic British queen. I particularly appreciated the author's note that Victoria was somewhat behind her own times on women's issues, but ahead of her times on racial issues. Towards the end of her life, Victoria brought several Indian attendants into her household (Abdul Karim is the most famous), to the displeasure of her children and ministers. She also survived multiple attempts on her life, kept a close eye on Parliamentary politics, and made matches for her children and grandchildren across Europe. Several times while I reading this, I thought of one of her descendants, who has a similar story of a long reign that spans the better part of a century. I would recommend this biography for those seeking to better understand Queen Victoria both as a person and as a monarch.

Very readable biography of Wellington.

This is a nice biography of Wellington for anyone who is interested in the Napoleanic Wars. The book is pretty accessible and easy to read. The Duke of Wellington was a brialliant military man. It was a pity his personal life was not as happy. I would recommend this to readers of Regency romances. You could get an idea of some of the actual history behind the stories of younger sons going off to war.

Longford assumes some fluency with nineteenth-century British government and politics, as well as the ability to keep straight the membership of several royal houses, so it's tough sledding at times. Overall not quite the Victoria biography I'd been looking for, but it's well-researched and I learned a lot.

very thorough, interesting. lots of photos

This book is the second of two volumes; the first is Wellington: The Years of the Sword.

Very comprehensive, almost unncessarily so. Managed to keep my interest even during dry discussions of Home Rule.

I didn't realize that this is volume one of two when I started reading it. A thorough biography of Wellington's military years. It ends with the battle of Waterloo and immediate aftermath. While there are interesting stories in his history up to Waterloo, the battle itself and it's telling was (for me) the pinnacle of the book.

On the personal front, one of the interesting things about Wellington's life was his marriage. He loved a girl and proposed marriage. She, thru her family, turned him down because he was to poor despite his advancement to Colonel in the British military. Not long later he moved to India to make his fortune as an officer. It took him nine years but he eventually returned to England with a decent amount of wealth. He didn't keep in touch with the woman he loved during that nine years. But he kept in touch with a mutual friend. Thru her messaging back and forth he verified that she might still be interested in him. However, in the nine years she had fallen in love but then been rejected. The outgoing vivacious girl Wellington had fallen in love with had much changed. Without renewing their relationship so that they could see how nine years of absence had changed them Wellington proposed and she accepted. They were together for a few years. Did not meld really well and then Wellington was called to the campaign against France in Spain and Portugal. He was away from her for five years while she raised their two young sons alone in England. Not really a happily ever after story. There were tales of Wellington's unfaithfulness to her but it's difficult to know if they went beyond play and flirtation and into any physical relations.

Wellington was a singular man of strategic skill. Few other generals in his time were near his equal in strategy on the battlefield. He went from a minor aristocrat from a poorish family to a wealthy Duke because of his victories for Britain and her allies.

The battle of Waterloo is dealt with over the course of about 50 pages. Wellington rode thru bullets and cannon shot to make sure his troops got the guidance he felt they needed as well as the steadying effect of his presence. Most of his many aides and friends around him were shot and many of them died on the day of the battle.

The author tells the story of the battle with clear facts but spirited details. There were some tremendous feats of arms done at the battle. One of the more moving passages came towards the end of the battle as the British army and allies moved into a final charge to drive the French from the field: "One British regiment did not join in the advance but remained quietly on the ridge. This was the 27th Foot. They lay dead to a man in their square."

Elizabeth Longford is a skilled practitioner of the biographer's art. This book is good enough that I was left with an impression of Blunt's personality, besides answering a need for gossip about a famous name. I don't care for him as a person.

5019. The Queen The Life of Elizabeth II, by Elizabeth Longford (read 28 Apr 2013) I should have read this book in 1983, when it was timely and pertinent. I read it now because I still remembered how greatly I appreciated the author's biography of Victoria, which I read 18 Aug 1966. This book is very defensive and deferential to the Queen--so much so that I felt the author was always thinking what will the queen think if I say this. There are good words on the role of the monarchy and its place in English constitutional theory. But so much has happened since 1983 that the final chapters of the book did not hold my interest very well, I think if I had read this 30 years ago I would ranked it higher than I can now.

Thankfully, this was a short book. I felt like I was drop-kicked right into British history. I didn't understand much of what went on because so much of the book wasn't about Victoria but the politics during her reign. If your English, then this might be more beneficial, but with my sketchy knowledge of English political history, this wasn't as helpful as I wished it to be.

I would consider this to be a "scholarly" work, quite a lot of detail. Not good for a discussion group - especially when the others in the group didn't finish it and several couldn't find it. This would be good for someone doing research.

Reading this collection of letters to and from Princess Louise right on the heels of finishing her biography helpfully rounded out my understanding of this lady. For example, the biography talks about her close friendship with her brothers Leopold and Arthur, and this book's collection of letters to and from them bear this out. Reading letters is such an interesting way of learning more about a person and her life and the people in it.

864 Queen Victoria Born to Succeed, by Elizabeth Longford (read 18 Aug 1966) I finished this book and was mightily impressed by the sweep and majesty of the past--by the changes between 1819 and 1901, and between 1837 and 1901. I read a biography of Queen Victoria, and of her daughters, previously, and was dismayed I remembered so little of those books: until a check showed I read them in July of 1945--over 21 years ago, when I was only 16. I was struck by the poignancy of the deathbed scene: "At intervals the two clergymen prayed aloud....As the frosty darkness began to fall about 4 o'clock another bulletin was issued: 'The queen is slowly sinking'... Around the bed stood her children and grandchildren....As the end drew near the appealing voices fell silent. Then came a great change of look...and complete calmness. She died just after half past 6."
"Life's dream is past,
All its sin, its sadness.
Brightly at last,
Dawns a day of gladness." [Tennyson}

It was a long and strange path that led to my reading this book (which I read under the British title of Victoria RI), starting with the broadcast of the made-for-TV movie Longford, about the controversial relationship between Lord Longford and notorious child-murderer Myra Hindley, to a biography of Elizabeth Longford, and finally, to Elizabeth Longford's best-known work.

I was relieved to discover that Elizabeth Longford was a meticulous biographer with a pleasant, no-nonsense writing style -- an added blessing in such a long book! Longford herself was a woman of strong liberal and social convictions and she tends to highlight the more enlightened views that Victoria held, or came to hold, over her long reign. However, while this is an empathetic account of the queen's life, Longford strives to provide a balanced picture of this complex and emotional person, including Victoria's less-than-serene family life, and her varying relationships with her various prime ministers. (Those with even a passing familiarity with the life of Queen Victoria probably know that she got on well with Disraeli and barely got on at all with Gladstone.) The monarch's controversial friendship with Balmoral servant John Brown is also thoroughly covered. Longford is evidently keen to disprove that the latter had any connection with spiritualism and argues the point at least three times when the first time was adequate.

Very long, but very thorough, and very readable.

The Oxford Book Of Royal Anecdotes edited by Elizabeth Longford
Oxford University Press ©1989
ISBN 0-19-214153-8 Hardback edition

The Oxford Book Of Royal Anecdotes edited by Elizabeth Longford is a unique collection of letters, stories, and quotes pertaining to and by the Kings and Queens of England. The Celts and Britons start the book out with a collection of notes pertaining to Boudicca as well as the legendary King Arthur. From there the book includes each dynasty of the English Monarchy from the Saxons (560-1016), the Danes (1016-1066), the Normans (1066-1154) to The Plantagenets (1154 -1399), the Lancastrians (1399-1461), the Yorkists (1461-1485), the Tudors (1485-1603), the Stuarts (1603-1714), the Hanoverians (1714-1837) and finally the modern day dynasty of Victoria and her descendants. Also included is genealogical tables for each dynasty.

I pick this book up a little used bookstore not to add to my collection of Tudor/Stuart history books I did not expect it to contain so much information. Not only did I find fascinating facts pertaining to Henry VII and Henry VIII, I found a wealth of knowledge concerning all the Monarchs of England. Some of the information included in this collection I have never seen in other resource books or biographies. Elizabeth Longford spent numerous years researching every aspect of the lives of these monarchs from notes from courtiers to letters from foreign Ambassadors. I really enjoyed the little stories that was compiled from those who surrounded the court. You see the Monarchs in a whole new light with this book. A great addition for both collectors and historians.

The Oxford Book Of Royal Anecdotes edited by Elizabeth Longford is from my own personal collection.

This is a good introductory biography that covers Queen Victoria's life and reign; however, if you are looking for a thorough history, this is not it. Longford outlines facts and dates, but does not give much insight into the significance of the events described.

1062 Wellington: The Years of the Sword, by Elizabeth Longford (read 22 Jul 1970) This volume of Longford's masterful biography takes the Duke up through Waterloo. Volume II has not been published in the U.S.--whether it has been written I do not know. [I read it when it was published.] This volume of course ends in a flourish; the tremendous and awe-inspiring sweep of Waterloo. I think Longford is great. Wellington was born May 1, 1764--three and a half months before Napoleon. He was a withdrawn boy at Eton, participated little in playing there, and never said the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton! He became an ensign in the British Army on Mar 7, 1787, spent time in Ireland, was in Flanders in 1794-5, and sailed for India (as a Colonel) in June 1796. He did not return to England till Sept 10, 1805. He served in parliament in 1806 and 1807, married Apr 10, 1806, went to Portugal in 1808, and was there and in Spain and France till 1814. The biography is very favorable to him and I am very impressed by him and it. The description of Waterloo is a masterpiece.½

1228. Wellington Pillar of State, by Elizabeth Longford (8 July 1973) This is volume two of the author's superlative biography of the Duke of Wellington, I having read volume I on July 22, 1970. This book is rich in its account of English parliamentary history, a particular interest of mine. Wellington died Sept 14, 1852, and was buried at St. Paul's Cathedral on Nov. 18, 1852 (they must have had good embalming techniques in those days, eh?). Tennyson wrote his great ode: Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington by Alfred Tennyson, one of my favorite poems of its genre. https://www.bartleby.com/246/385.htm

1457 The Life of Byron, by Elizabeth Longford (read 16 July 1977) Because I so enjoyed Longford's thorough biographies of Queen Victoria (read 18 Aug 1956) and of the Duke of Wellington (read 22 July 1970 [volume one] and 2 July 1973 [volume two]), I read this much less thorough book on Byron. It is not bad, but it does very little in the way of analysis or criticism of his writing. Rather it relates his bizarre and fantastic life. Byron's definitive biography is a three volume work by Leslie A. Marchand, (which I did read, finally, in January of 1988).

2082 The Pebbled Shore The Memoirs of Elizabeth Longford (read 23 May 1987) Having much admired the author's biographies of Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington, I read these 1986 memoirs. She and her husband, Frank Pakenham, became Catholics in the 1940's. They had eight children--six before she became a Catholic. Their oldest child is Antonia Fraser, whose book on Mary Queen of Scots I read in March of 1970 and their second child is Thomas Pakenham, whose excellent The Boer War I read in September of 1982. I found these Memoirs fun to read--she knows everybody in Britain and her book drips with name-dropping: pleasantly so. I could do worse than read other books by her. Her first, Jameson's Raid, used to be in our local library, but it is not there any more.

Whoops! I thought I was getting the original, two-volume work, which Susannah Clarke noted as a useful source for her wonderful novel "Jonathan Strange & Dr. Norrell," in a single volume edition. I should have looked at the number of pages. Not having read Longford's original work, I won't venture to criticize it based on this far over-abridged edition, but I will warn anyone who is looking for more than a longish magazine article about the Iron Duke to stay away.