Customer Reviews
Was Anyone Ever This Selfless? - By: Graceann Macleod, 19 Aug 2008 
Princess Beatrice gave up her private life, her health & most of her happinessin order to be the secretary, confidante & companion of her widowed mother. Starting with the death of her father, Prince Albert, when she was only four years old, her life was a constant reminder of funereal gloom. As her older sisters married & moved away, Princess Beatrice became the Queen's slavein most matters public & private. Such was the Queen's paranoia that her youngest daughter might grow up & want a life of her own, she forbade all talk of marriagein front of the Princess, & punished the girl by not speaking to her for eight months when she dared to fallin love & announced her wish to wed. The marriage was only allowed to go forward, & the Princess forgiven, when the couple agreed to live with the Queen for their married life, with very limited travel (their honeymoon lasted only five days, & the Queen visited for two of them).
I don't think I'd realized just how selfish Queen Victoria was until I read this meticulously researched volume. Princess Beatrice was a far more forgiving & patient woman than I could have ever been, & I veer between beingin awe of her, & pitying her.
Matthew Dennison's writing style takes a while to get used to - sometimes he moves back & forthin eras & you have to go backin order to determine just what time frame he's referring to. The text is at times dangerously close to "scholarly" & for this alone I give the book four stars instead of five. I do recommend it, however, for the insights it gives into this complex, frustrating relationship.
Princess Beatrice - By: Mr. J. M. Riley, 17 Oct 2007 I really enjoyed this book. Beatrice, although the youngest and, to some contemporary views, of the least dynastic importance, certainly played the most important role to the Queen of all her children.
The book is easy to read yet does not gloss over the facts. It is honest & frank, although I would have liked to know more about the sometimes strained relationship she shared with her sister Louise. What I particularly enjoy about biographies about Queen Victoria's children is that it opens up a whole new facet of her character, as it is true to say that her relationship with each one was so remarkably different. Beatrice's biography gives excellent examples of the best & the worst of Victoria's personality traits. It also gives excellent background information for anyone wishing to read further about Beatrice's daughter Victoria-Eugenie, who became Queen of Spain.
In short I thoroughly recommend this book. Enjoy!
enjoyable - By: A. Rogers, 08 Apr 2007 I enjoyed reading this book very much, though I don't think I learned much that was new about the Princess. Like most biographies of Queen Victoria's children, the bulk of the book was about the princess's life when her mother was alive. I wanted to know much, much more about the period after the Queen's death. Certain areas , of course, are touched on, for example the death of the Prince Mauricein actionin 1914, & also of the marriage of the Princess Ena to the king of Spain, but I would have liked more detail about the final years. Maybe there's no documentation to hand?? I would recommend this book though - one of the better royal books of recent years.
In the shadow of the Queen - the life of the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria rediscovered - By: Klaus Meyer, 28 Jan 2007 HRH The Princess Beatrice was the youngest daughter & child of Queen Victoria & the Prince Consort & the last of their children of die. She was married to Prince Henry of Battenberg & mother of four children: one of them Ena became Queen of Spain (the present Spanish King's grandmother). Her real historical significance however liesin the editing of Queen Victoria's journal.
Beatrice spends most of her lifein the shadow of the Queen, during the Queen's lifetime but as well after her death. More than any other of the Queen's children Beatrice was absolutely dominated by her mother. This biography is therefore as well a biography on Queen Victoria & a mother-daughter relationship. Matthew Dennison delivers quite a psychological portrait of Beatrice - the effects on her by her mother's domineering & quite selfish behaviour. Therefore, it might be just that why during the book not very much emerges about Princess Beatrice herself. To a certain extend she remains a personality very difficult to grab & I suppose that is what she exactly was. There is an element of pity one feels for her. Matthew Dennison is not abstaining from criticism, especially as the does not have been a very good mother, putting her mother always first, even before her own children. The book is anyway very weak on the relationship of The Princess with her children. Her eldest son Drino Lord Carisbrooke who was pompous & effeminate or as diarist James Lees-Milne put it "really & old queen" & of whom the PoW saidin 1919 "I hear that Irene Carisbrooke is great with child & Drino has retired to bed for the duration". Hardly any words on granddaughter Iris, who married for the first timein 1941 & therefore during Princess Beatrice`s lifetime.
Allin all, it is lovely that after nearly 50 years a new biography of the Princess has been published & her relationship with the Queen thoroughly exposed & examined. Rightly Dennison sums up: that she was an essential componentin the smooth-running of Victoria's queenship. I enjoyed this book very much as it complemented my studies of the rule & personality of Queen Victoria perfectly. For all who are interestedin this period it will add much to the understanding of Queen Victoria. Allin all: a book to be recommended.
The Last Princess - By: Rosemary Trewartha, 19 Jan 2007 
A delightful book; although an enjoyable & easy read, it has clearly been widely & carefully researched, & provides challengingly thoughtful ideas about this princess who has been much ignored by history. An intriguing portrait of the retiring, dominated Beatrice, but just as interesting for its portrayal of Queen Victoria. The complexity & contradictions of the Queen's character are particularly well explored, with many insights which I have not come acrossin previous books about the monarch. A 'must' for anyone interestedin the era, & well worth the price. Treat a friend!
