Julia P. Gelardi

Ms Gelardi has presented us with a huge amount of information from a very specific point of view that of the state of european monarchy in five country: Romania, Spain, Greece, Norway and Russia highlighting the lives of five granddaughters of Queen Victoria who became queen consorts. It is not an academic study, however her sources include a huge amount of personal correspondance which merits the author a creditable effort. The approach is chronological and fucuses mostly on the personal circumstances of the protagonists. On a more negative note, I found confusing the varied references to the same person, for example Queen Victoria Eugénie was known to close family members as Ena, however the author chose to refer to her several ways sometimes within the same paragraph. Given that some names were popular among the offsprings of Queen Victoria (for example, Victoria, Beatrice, Alexandra, Albert), I had to backtrack several times to understand the family relationships. A more complete genealogical tree would also have been useful. Despite this issue, I recommend the book.… (plus d'informations)