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1. Daisy Goodwin was inspired to tell this
story by Queen Victoria’s diaries. "How handsome Albert looks in his
white cashmere breeches," the young queen wrote in 1839. Goodwin
suddenly found herself imagining what it would be like if her own
teenage daughter became the most powerful woman in the world overnight.
How does Victoria handle her rise to power at the age of eighteen? How
do you think you might have handled it?
2. In what ways does Victoria come across a "typical" teenager and/or as
a powerful sovereign?
3. How does Victoria’s sheltered upbringing at Kensington Palace
influence her ultimate ability to rule her country?
4. Why do you think one of the young queen’s first acts is to reject her
given name of Alexandrina in favor of Victoria?
5. In what ways does Victoria’s relationship with her mother influence
her decisions as queen? How does that relationship change in the course
of the novel?
6. Where do you think Victoria gets the strength to stand up against her
family and others who try to dictate her role as queen?
7. Why was Victoria so vengeful toward Lady Flora?
8. What are the biggest challenges that Victoria faces? How might you
have dealt with those situations?
9. How do you feel about Lord Melbourne? What might Victoria's life have
been like if she had chosen him over Albert?
10. What did you think of Albert when he first appeared in the story?
How do you view Victoria’s prediction that theirs "will be a marriage of
inconvenience"?
11. Victoria thinks Lord M must be teasing when he says that some
Chartists believe that women should have the vote. There are also a
number of references to "bonnets," or women, whose significance is
clearly different from men’s. How do you see the role of women in
general — and Queen Victoria in particular — in the course of the novel?
12.How has courting changed for the current heirs to the English throne
compared to Queen Victoria?
13.Are there any modern-day world leaders you would compare to the young
Victoria?
14.What do you see as the most and least enviable aspects of Queen
Victoria’s life?
15.What was the most interesting thing about Victoria that you learned
while reading this novel? Did you feel the same way about her at the
beginning and end of the book?
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