Queen Victoria's Secrets

by Adrienne Munich

Overview

Drawing upon feminist, anthropological, and postcolonial approaches, Munich searches out the myriad, often contradictory incarnations of Queen Victoria in the minds of her subjects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231104814
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/01/1996
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.68(w) x 8.74(h) x 0.71(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Adrienne Munich is director of the women's studies program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Editorial Reviews

The first book to fully investigate the influence of the solid, dour icon that was Queen Victoria, this fascinating study demonstrates the firm grasp Victoria held to the cultural imagination of her country, exploring how she created and maintained her royal authority.

Nineteenth Century Literature

As queen of England for over 60 years, Victoria lent her name to an era. Certain forms of literature, morals, mores, fashion, and furniture are all identifiable with an age called Victorian. Munich, director of the women's studies program at SUNY-Stony Brook and author of Andromeda's Chains: Gender and Interpretation in Victorian Literature and Art (Columbia Univ., 1993), has taken upon herself the task of establishing to what degree Victoria was simply an icon of her time and to what degree she actually influenced the world around her. Using examples as far-ranging as costume balls, the treatment of dogs, Gilbert & Sullivan, and gender identity, Munich spins an interesting study that is not a biography of Victoria so much as a meditation on her role as a Zeitgeist queen. Historians and sociologists familiar with the period may not agree with individual examples, but the work is stimulation for thought and a handy addendum to any good biography of Victoria. For academic libraries.Katherine E. Gillen, Luke AFB Lib., Ariz.

Library Journal