Queen Victoria fell in love with the Riviera when she discovered it on her first visit to Menton in 1882 and her enchantment with this 'paradise of nature' endured for almost twenty years. This work is a account that makes a contribution to both our understanding of Victoria's character and personality and our view of the late Victorian period.
List of illustrations Foreword Acknowledgements Note on text Map of the French Riviera Introduction 1 Prologue: The Queen's delight with France 2 1882: Menton. The first visit to the paradise of nature 3 1887: Cannes. A pilgrimage to mourn the death of son Leopold 4 1891: Grasse. The Rothschild gardens and Duleep Singh's confession 5 1892: Hyeres: The Royal Resort 6 1895: Nice. The young officers and the Battle of Flowers 7 1896: Nice. Royal visitors, including King Leopold of the Belgians 8 1897: Nice. The courtiers revolt over the Munshi 9 1898: Nice. The agonies of King Leopold's daughters 10 1899: Nice. The Fashoda Incident threatens the visit 11 Epilogue: The cancelled visit Note on the Queen's journal Notes Chronology Selected Dramatis Personae Bibliography Index
Michael Nelson is an historian of the French Riviera. He was General Manager of Reuters. Lord Asa Briggs is former Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, and is President of the Victorian Society.
"Michael Nelson fully appreciates the subtle relationships between the private and the public, even in the life of imperial sovereigns, and his highly readable book will interest different kinds of readers. For me it is rich in texture as, I believe, it will be for them." Asa Briggs "A distinctly original contribution to the studies of Queen Victoria. Those sections covering the extraordinary people the Queen met on the Riviera are most moving and human." Elizabeth Longford "This is a book full of fascinating and well-documented information." Roy Jenkins "A delightful study ... this short and very well researched book investigates the fully reciprocated love affair between the Queen and the French Riviera: she loved the South of France because of the climate, gardens and relative privacy; it loved her because of the prestige, publicity and tourism that her nine visits engendered." Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Telegraph "One of the most fascinating books of the year ... Queen Victoria helped invent international tourism - Britain's gift to the world." Peter Preston, The Guardian "Vastly researched and highly entertaining." Brian Case, Time Out "...an enjoyable portrait of one of the modern era's most important monarchs." Publishers Weekly "...there is no lack of diverting sidelights. On her first visit, the Queen's train lacked a restaurant car, and she brought some of the food from Windsor, rather like a tripper taking sandwiches to Paris." E.S.Turner, Times Literary Supplement "Nelson chose just the right entries from Victoria's journals and sprinkled the text with letters from other aristocrats, making this a lively read. Nelson's own style allows the reader to vividly imagine being in the hotel drawing rooms right alongside Victoria's entourage. In the introduction, a gem of succinctness and anecdotal charm, Nelson outlines the development of tourism in southern France ... a rare treat." Gail Benjafield, Library Journal "'We are not amused' became her most celebrated remark because it seemed to sum up her attitude to life... But was that the real Victoria? New revelations about Queen Victoria's holidays on the French Riviera have emerged, and they show her in a quite different light. They also explain how a strip of Mediterranean France became, with her patronage, one of the most fashionable and glamorous resorts in the world." Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail "We see an unexpected side to Victoria: not the imperious, petulant, mourning widow but rather an exuberant, girlish old lady thrilled by her surroundings. There are many fascinating illustrations, some in colour..."Living France "As a detailed monograph on one specific aspect of Victoria's life, it is difficult to see how it could have been better done. The detail is often beguiling." Paul Minet, Royalty Digest "... a well-researched and highly readable account of the sovereign's love affair with the South of France." Patrick Middleton, The Riviera Reporter
"Michael Nelson fully appreciates the subtle relationships between the private and the public, even in the life of imperial sovereigns, and his highly readable book will interest different kinds of readers. For me it is rich in texture as, I believe, it will be for them." Asa Briggs "A distinctly original contribution to the studies of Queen Victoria. Those sections covering the extraordinary people the Queen met on the Riviera are most moving and human." Elizabeth Longford "This is a book full of fascinating and well-documented information." Roy Jenkins "A delightful study ... this short and very well researched book investigates the fully reciprocated love affair between the Queen and the French Riviera: she loved the South of France because of the climate, gardens and relative privacy; it loved her because of the prestige, publicity and tourism that her nine visits engendered." Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Telegraph "One of the most fascinating books of the year ... Queen Victoria helped invent international tourism - Britain's gift to the world." Peter Preston, The Guardian "Vastly researched and highly entertaining." Brian Case, Time Out "...an enjoyable portrait of one of the modern era's most important monarchs." Publishers Weekly "...there is no lack of diverting sidelights. On her first visit, the Queen's train lacked a restaurant car, and she brought some of the food from Windsor, rather like a tripper taking sandwiches to Paris." E.S.Turner, Times Literary Supplement "Nelson chose just the right entries from Victoria's journals and sprinkled the text with letters from other aristocrats, making this a lively read. Nelson's own style allows the reader to vividly imagine being in the hotel drawing rooms right alongside Victoria's entourage. In the introduction, a gem of succinctness and anecdotal charm, Nelson outlines the development of tourism in southern France ... a rare treat." Gail Benjafield, Library Journal "'We are not amused' became her most celebrated remark because it seemed to sum up her attitude to life... But was that the real Victoria? New revelations about Queen Victoria's holidays on the French Riviera have emerged, and they show her in a quite different light. They also explain how a strip of Mediterranean France became, with her patronage, one of the most fashionable and glamorous resorts in the world." Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail "We see an unexpected side to Victoria: not the imperious, petulant, mourning widow but rather an exuberant, girlish old lady thrilled by her surroundings. There are many fascinating illustrations, some in colour..."Living France "As a detailed monograph on one specific aspect of Victoria's life, it is difficult to see how it could have been better done. The detail is often beguiling." Paul Minet, Royalty Digest "... a well-researched and highly readable account of the sovereign's love affair with the South of France." Patrick Middleton, The Riviera Reporter
As head of a worldwide empire and as someone who maintained close lifelong ties with high-born relatives all over Europe, "[t]he Queen has to be placed in more than a British setting," declares noted Victorianist Briggs in his foreword. Nelson, a 19th-century historian, follows Victoria from London to the French Riviera, where she spent several extended vacations during her last 20 years. Apart from this geographic repositioning, however, he provides few truly new insights on Victoria as a monarch or an individual. Though he purports to focus on how Victoria's patronage stimulated the tourist economy in the Riviera, Nelson doesn't conclusively explore that topic or explain why it merits book-length treatment. Yet despite its thin, lackluster central premise, this is quite a charming read. Nelson peppers his narrative with amusing anecdotes and rambling tangential stories about the Queen and her retinue that afford a wide-ranging, slice-of-life perspective on Victoria and her milieu. Six days worth of journal entries about the death of Elizabeth Reynolds, her personal maid, reveal her sympathy and devotion for her entourage. In a letter, maid of honor Marie Adeane describes "some very good fireworks... which the Queen enjoyed like a child." At times breathlessly gossipy (on various royal sex scandals), at other times astutely analytical (of the Queen's negotiations of foreign policy crises), this is an enjoyable portrait of one of the modern era's most important monarchs. 16 pages of photos. (June 11) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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