She was the youngest woman to be crowned Queen of England. She was the second queen to marry while ruling, and the first to have children while on the throne. She oversaw extraordinary changes in the country, as well as the establishment of the British Empire. She became Empress of India. By the time of her death, she had ruled longer than any monarch.

With such a long reign, covering decades of world events, there’s no shortage of reading material about Victoria and her time. I’ve chosen a few of my favorite books about Queen Victoria. Of course, it’s not an exhaustive list, and it’s based on my preferences. 

I wanted to know other things about Victoria: as a young woman coming into power, as a new queen who made mistakes, as a working mother who had to balance her reality against expectations, as a daughter and a mother navigating complicated family relationships, as a woman who finally allowed herself to celebrate her accomplishments and broke into a big smile, belying the old adage, “We are not amused.”

So please join me to meet this extraordinary and complicated woman and explore some of my favorite books about the life and reign of Queen Victoria: The Life and Times of Victoria by Dorothy Marshall; Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird; Victoria’s Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard and Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking: The Royal Marriages that Shaped Europe by Deborah Cadbury.

History shows us what's possible.