A Magnificent Obsession, Helen Rappaport
A Magnificent Obsession, Helen Rappaport
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A Magnificent Obsession
Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy

Author: Helen Rappaport

Narrator: Wanda McCaddon

Unabridged: 11 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/09/2012

Synopsis

After the untimely death of Prince Albert, the Queen and her nation were plunged into a state of grief so profound that this one event would dramatically alter the shape of the British monarchy. For Britain had not just lost a prince: during his twenty year marriage to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert had increasingly performed the function of King in all but name. The outpouring of grief after Albert's death was so extreme, that its like would not be seen again until the death of Princess Diana one hundred and thirty-six years later.

Drawing on many letters, diaries and memoirs from the Royal Archives and other neglected sources, as well as the newspapers of the day, Helen Rappaport offers a new perspective on this compelling historical psychodrama—the crucial final months of the prince's life and the first long, dark ten years of the Queen's retreat from public view. She draws a portrait of a queen obsessed with her husband and—after his death—with his enduring place in history. Magnificent Obsession also sheds new light on the true nature of the prince's chronic physical condition, overturning for good the one hundred and fifty-year-old myth that he died of typhoid fever.

About Helen Rappaport

Born in Bromley, England, Helen Rappaport was an actress who appeared on British TV and in films until the early 1990s, then focused on writing. She has published a number of historical works, including Joseph Stalin, No Place for Ladies, and The Last Days of the Romanovs. She is also the author of the Victorian true-crime story Beautiful for Ever and coauthor, with William Horwood, of Dark Hearts of Chicago. A fluent Russian speaker and a specialist in Russian history and nineteenth-century women's history, Helen has become well known as a Russian translator in the theater and has translated all seven of Anton Chekhov's plays.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jane on June 12, 2016

Where I got the book: purchased on Amazon. I guess I haven't read an in-depth biography of Queen Victoria before, just scads and scads of books about the era, and my view of the Queen was the standard one: a great monarch but also a passionately engaged family woman, who was distraught about her husb......more

Goodreads review by Micah on August 20, 2022

I am working on a full review for this book that will be posted soon. However, in the meantime, I just want to write that I learned a great deal from this book, the writing as Rappaport's always is, was engaging and elegant, and the subject matter was delivered with authority and clarity. My full re......more

Goodreads review by Shawn on June 02, 2015

The meat of this book is in the title: Queen Victoria was obsessed with her husband Prince Albert when he was alive, and then became obsessed by and with his death. The subtitle though - "the death that changed the British monarchy" - that's where this book gets tricky (or I suppose if I'm following......more

Goodreads review by Mary Ronan on March 17, 2012

The brilliant Helen Rappaport has done it again, written a book about a subject we thought we knew all about and made it fresh and new and in this case mesmerizing. I knew Victoria wore black for the rest of her long life after Albert died, but I had no idea of her obsession with death and mourning......more

Goodreads review by The Lit Bitch on May 15, 2012

The book was good, well researched, informative, and presented an interesting topic. But at times I felt like I was reading a long history paper. I think the average reader might struggle with this book a bit. As an academic whose focus is in that time period, I could draw on my knowledge of the time......more

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