Victoria's Daughters is so well-written and informative, I found it hard to put down. Jerrold Packard seems to strike just the right happy medium of having tons of information without going into too many unnecessary details. The book contains sometimes startling insights into the personalities and private lives of Vicky, Alice, Helena, Louise, and Beatrice that most biographers don't delve into. This is easily one of the best royal biographies I've ever read.

For all the pomp, ceremony and privileges of belonging to a Royal family, the chores, the duties, the self discipline and living your life in the public eye would make, for me, an onerous task, for which no amount of money or fame could make up. This book is a fascinating look at Victoria's daughters and how their lives were virtually mapped out for them at birth. In that era, Royal Princesses were expected to marry according to rank and for whatever alliances could be brought to their country. I had known a fair bit about the lives of the more well known daughters, such as the Empress of Germany, poor creature, whose early widowhood caused the rise to the throne by her lunatic son, William, the Kaiser who started WW1, but loved finding out about the private lives of several of the younger girls and their marriages and families, some of which worked out quite well and others which were an utter disaster. The tragedy of the haemophilia which was passed through the generations by Victoria's daughters brought sorrow to many of the girls who lost sons in infancy or when they were only very young men, was a constant terror among the Royal families of Europe, into which these daughters married, as there was no way of forecasting or curing any potential carrier. It's a great look into life in Victorian times.

Last year I read the mesmerizing "Born to Rule" about Queen Victoria's granddaughters who became ruling monarchs. That wonderful book, led me to this one.



The book begins, as expected, with the royal childhoods. The Queen would never have her staff spare the rod, nor would she take pains to spare the child any humiliation. She calls them ugly and dumb, and they know where they stand. (No wonder they had so much grief when their father died!)



Victoria's views were transplanted to Germany by her eldest daughter. Vicky's first son's handicap, and the resulting strict regimine should have spurred some maternal empathy, but all little Willy got was structure, punishment and criticism. One could build an argument Queen Victoria's child rearing methods spawned WWI.



Queen Victoria comes off as totally self involved, and like the other royals she's obsessed with monarchy. Marriages, if not based on passion are bargained with it. Rank is the central issue. Fortunately, Victoria allows her daughters/granddaughters veto power, but keeps it for herself as well. For all the care and negotiation surrounding the marriages, not one of them or the life it brought, seemed to yield much happiness.



Since there are 6 key characters (mother + 5 daughters) each worthy of their own biography, it is by nature a once over lightly. It has a good narrative style and is worth reading if you are interested in this period.

Last year I read the mesmerizing "Born to Rule" about Queen Victoria's granddaughters who became ruling monarchs. That wonderful book, led me to this one.

The book begins, as expected, with the royal childhoods. The Queen would never have her staff spare the rod, nor would she take pains to spare the child any humiliation. She calls them ugly and dumb, and they know where they stand. (No wonder they had so much grief when their father died!)

Victoria's views were transplanted to Germany by her eldest daughter. Vicky's first son's handicap, and the resulting strict regimine should have spurred some maternal empathy, but all little Willy got was structure, punishment and criticism. One could build an argument Queen Victoria's child rearing methods spawned WWI.

Queen Victoria comes off as totally self involved, and like the other royals she's obsessed with monarchy. Marriages, if not based on passion are bargained with it. Rank is the central issue. Fortunately, Victoria allows her daughters/granddaughters veto power, but keeps it for herself as well. For all the care and negotiation surrounding the marriages, not one of them or the life it brought, seemed to yield much happiness.

Since there are 6 key characters (mother + 5 daughters) each worthy of their own biography, it is by nature a once over lightly. It has a good narrative style and is worth reading if you are interested in this period.

If you like Queen Victoria's stuff, you will love this story about her daughters.

If you are just starting to study Queen Victoria or royal history in general, this is a good book to read. However, I recomended that you read a biography of Queen Victoria before you read this book in order to understand the influence that the Queen had on her daughters as well as her sons.

My personal recomendation would be Queen Victoria by Christopher Hibbert.

This delightful biography of Queen Victoria's daughters was delicious to read for all the love stories, politics and scandals but also for the information about the queen's younger daughters about whom I knew little or nothing. What a fascinating family about whom there is always more to discover! I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys British history and stories about princesses.

Mr. Packard brilliantly recreates the life and times of Queen Victoria reign and the lives of her daughters. Wonderfully written...if you are a fan of English history, this one is not to be missed!

While the book is interesting and it did quench my thirst to know more about Queen Victoria's children, it is not an easy book to read and is not for the occasional reader. If you can wade through the awkardly constructed sentences and rarely used words, it will provide you with great insight into the history of Europe during the 1800s and 1900s. Queen Victoria brilliantly married her daughters, sons, grand-daughters and to a lesser extent grand-sons into the royal families across Europe as a means to cement diplomatic relations and expand the British presence. It is fascinating to see how this impacted subsequent global events. To this day, her ancestors continue to sit on many of Europe's thrones. Well worth the effort if you are a fan of British or European effort.

This book was very detailed in the data and vignettes from Victorian history. Unfortunately, much of it was nearly incomprehensible to those not well versed in this era. This would be a good supplement to add to the library of a Victorian enthusiast. Someone just wishing to increase their knowledge of the era would be better off starting with something more broad. The photos are a good supplement, however.

I was hesitant at first when i bought this book but i am glad i bought it.The author does a great job in narrating the life and tribulations of Victoria's daughters.He analyses the political turmoil in which all the daughters were involved which gives the book a lot of interesting things to read.The author doesnt just tell us what is like to be a daughter of Queen Victoria but it relates to us what problems they faced with other royal families,how marriages were arranged and the feelings and emotions that everybody in that family felt.I found really interesting the author's descritption of William II,son of Queen Victoria eldest daughter,Vicky.He is described, basically, as a moron and a bully without any regard for his father and mother.The author tells us the rude manner in which he treated everyone in his family.Great book for a rainy night

A very easy to follow book with all sorts of little tidbits of info that was not known to me. The only line that struck me as strange was when the author wrote about Lorne and Louise in Canada (Rideau Hall). Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and not Manitoba. I highly recommend the book.

Our book club selected this book, against two of the members better judgement. The women who read it found it, in a nutshell, boring and hard to follow. I, in a nutshell, agree.

Not a book I would have chosen of my own accord, I was a bit aprehensive and turned off from the beginning but was determined to give the book a fair chance. In the end I am glad I read it, though admitantly I did skim from time to time.

The author is obviously well-versed in European and military history. As a reader who is not, I was often lost or glazed at his sometimes lengthy side-bars. It was the personal lives of these woman and their families that I found fascinating.

Packard was certainly well-versed in the royal family- where again I was left wanting more basics. It was hard to follow the who's who when he kept switching between the many nicknames and titles each of the characters had.

In that same vein, I was hoping for better and more pertinant pictures. For example, I would have liked to see pictures of each of the women with their husbands and families.

As a new mother I was shocked at the treatment given the children and the parents attitudes about child rearing. I feel very fortunate to live in a time (and class :) of parental envolvement and miraculous medical/hygenic advances.

This book is an interesting and in depth view of Queen Victoria's ideosyncratic family and the society and times in which they lived. I'm sure those readers who are excited and already knowledgeable in this realm will find it fascinting.

Overall, I liked this book a great deal and Packard richly detailed how these daughters had lived and what made them and their offspring tick before and after growing up.
I won't repeat what others have stated but there is one curious omission here. Where is John Brown, Victoria's Highland Servant? There's not a single mention of him in the entire book. We know how much their brother the Prince of Wales considered Brown to be an interfering nuisence who had chastised the adult Prince like a child but considering how he constantly attended their mother for almost 20 years until his death in the 1880's wouldn't Brown's presence have also been encountered by Victoria's daughters when dealing with their mother? What did they think of him? What did he think of them? Either there are no comments or recorded asides from or about Brown or the princesses that have survived for contemporary scholarly consultation(despite the countless letters, books and journals written about the six of them- many of which were consulted for this work, to Packard's credit) or Packard inexplicably decided to ignore a very significant part of Victoria's life and how it may have effected her daughters and their relationships with her. I truly am baffled as to why he did this. It would be akin to writing a family history of the late Audrey Hepburn and her sons yet totally ignoring the existance of her longtime companion Robert Wolders. Not that I irrefutably believe that Victoria was as intimate with Brown as Hepburn was with Wolders. However, Victoria and Brown were a constant presence in each other's lives for roughly twenty years and, thus, it's inconceivable Brown didn't factor in some ways in her daughters' lives,too. This omission knocked an entire star and a half off the grade!

This book remains one of the finest books written about Victoria's Daughters. It reminds readers in the 21st Century what life was like for women in the 19th century. The rules and the protocol that these ladies were induced to live by, and the fact that for the most part the ladies had lives of great importance both on the world and the domestic scene is wonderful.

I'm an avid reader of royal biographies. I prefer learning about how people lived the personal side of their lives. Of course, all of these people (given their positions) had some role in politics of the time. I never paid much attention to that aspect and only now realize what a mistake that was.

This book is wonderful simply for it's attention to royal women (some who are often overlooked by other authors) and especially for it's coverage of the family dynamics. But, I also appreciated the way the author described each family member's involvement in wide-reaching European politics. This information is so well weaved into the "story" of their lives, that I was not at all put-off (bored) by it as I usually am. I was quite surprised to finally understand the unification of Germany, the role of landgraves and all those little principalities, and the formation of Canada. Granted, a book of this scope can only touch the surface of these issues. Still, I found it entertaining and elightening.

This is one book on the Queen and her daughters I would pass on. Packard failed to do any proper research on the princesses and it shows in several huge mistakes committed by the author. I am glad I bought this used as it would have been a waste of my money if I bought it brand new and only to see what a huge dissappoint it was (and is).

This was a fantastic way to learn more about the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. I have to admit that although I have a master's degree in history, my major focus has always been ancient history, particularly ancient Near Eastern history (I was one of those people who felt that "modern history" meant everything after 1200 BC.--yes, BC.). Only just lately have I begun to follow up intriguing trails through other periods. Some time ago, I began to realize that one could really gain incredible insight into the events of an era by studying peripherals: the history of countries peripheral to the main stage, side issues like trade, crafts, and long distance contacts, and the women and others behind the main historical figures, etc. Jerrold Packard's book Victoria's Daughters seemed to be just the book I needed to learn about a period in time about which I knew next to nothing, the late 19th Century.

At first it seemed as though the book would be more about Queen Victoria herself than about her daughters. As I read on, though, I realized that the oddity of Victoria's succession to the throne had much to do with the lives of her daughters, as did her early life and her own upbringing. Furthermore, it is against her long life and protracted reign that not only the events in her daughters' lives were measured and chronicled but those of most of the lives of the world's population. There was a reason that most of the 19th Century was labeled "the Victorian era!"

In the past I had given very little thought about the connections that existed throughout European history or about what actually brought about the events that occurred during the turn of the century. I knew of course that the Tsarina of Russia was "Victoria's granddaughter" and a "Prussian princess," but I hardly gave thought to what that really meant. Nicholas and Alexandra were charismatic historical figures in their own right. They were a fairy tale couple, much in love, with a cozy little family living the life of a Russian folktale, and their poetic tale came to a tragic but colorful and certainly very memorable finish. End of story, or so it seemed to me. One knows about World War I, I suppose, and all the people that died in trenches of disease and exposure and mustard gas and enemy fire. One has heard of Bismark and Wilhelm II and Lord Mountbattan, but they're all just interesting names, names one memorizes to answer our world history tests, right? Not when one reads Mr. Packard's story of the children of Queen Victoria.

Each of the daughters, Victoria, Alice, Helena, Louise, and Beatrice had a unique relationship with their mother. Because of whom and what she was, Victoria's was not a particularly warm and maternal presence in their lives. When she was a presence at all, she was distant, self-centered, imperious, and controlling. Unfortunately some of this early relationship translated into problems with parent-child interactions when the girls had children of their own. Lest anyone think that women do not have an impact on the course of history because they don't lead armies into battle--often anyway--one only need read about the relationships between some of these women and their children. That between Victoria, "Vicky," and her eldest son, Willy--later Wilhelm II--will quickly disabuse one of the notion.

Furthermore, the five girls were married into some of the key families of Europe. The titles of each and their in-laws read like a who's who of European nobility, and their sons and daughters became kings, queens, and dukes, many of whom ended up on opposite sides of wars in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century. The tangled web of personal relationships, treaties, and ambitions ultimately brought about World War I.

I was especially entranced with the intimate detail woven into the stories of each of the women. The author mined diaries, extensive family correspondence, and biographies written about each to create very personal characterizations. The reader becomes as engaged in the story of their lives as in those of fictional characters; one just does feels connected.

FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS: in history, anthropology, political science, sociology. One might use this book to discuss the limitations of women of the upper classes at the time and their effects on history. One might look at individuals like Alice, who became a follower of the practices of Florence Nightengale, or her sister Louise, who was an accomplished and professional sculptor, who attempted to break out of the social mold of the time to create an identity and existence of their own. What types of role models did they make for others? What changes did they bring about in society? How did they set the stage for our own era? Might the events of WWI been less likely to have happened if the relationships between countries had been based on less personal grounds? Did the relationships between these women and their children and spouses affect the course of events significantly? Or would they have happened anyway? Would they have happened for the same reasons? How was this era a transitional time?

This is totally captivating...these very priviledged daughters grew into socially active adults. Very interesting read.