Both the longest reigning British monarch and female sovereign in history, Queen Victoria was a figure of profound paradox who has mystified historians for over a century. Now in this magisterial biography, A.N. Wilson rebukes the conventional wisdom about her life--that she was merely a "funny little woman in a bonnet" who did next to nothing--to show to she was in fact intensely involved in state affairs despite a public facade of inaction. More than just the stock image of a stuffy, unsmiling widow in mourning, Wilson"s complete immersion in Victoria"s countless letters and journals reveals the carefully nuanced portrait of a monarch possessed by family immigrant insecurities, a reluctant public figure who learned to exploit public display, a mother who hated pregnancy, and above all, a political luminary who created and controlled the story of her life, true or otherwise. With dramatic sweep and novelistic style, Victoria: A Life is an accomplished work from a true authority on...