Victoria Books

I really enjoyed this little booklet because it made aromatherapy self care so simple and easy to follow. Real preventative maintenance for stress and skin problems.

"Advice to a grand-daughter" is a collection of letters from Queen Victoria to her granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse, wonderfully selected and edited by Richard Hough. The letters date from April 1870 to July 1900. Victoria of Hesse was the oldest daughter of Queen Victoria's Hessian grandchildren, and after their mother (the Queen's daughter Alice) died in 1878, Queen Victoria undertook to raise them long-distance, often by barraging Princess Victoria with instructions on how to deal with the younger children.

As always, the Queen's charming and forceful-- if occasionally overbearing-- personality makes itself felt in her letters. The Hessian royal children grew up to be forceful personalities in their own right. Princess Victoria married Prince Louis of Battenberg; the family changed their name to Mountbatten towards the end of the First World War; Victoria's youngest son is best known as the late Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and one of her grandsons is Prince Philip, the current Duke of Edinburgh. The second girl, Princess Elizabeth, married a son of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and, after his murder by anarchists, took the veil and was herself murdered during the Russian Revolution. The third, Princess Irene, married the only brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The youngest daughter, Alix (or "Alicky", as she appears in these letters), married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia; she and her entire family were killed during the Revolution. The boy, Ernest Louis ("Ernie"), was the last reigning Grand Duke of Hesse, a patron of the arts.

These letters provide a detailed and fascinating recounting of some of the childhood events of the Hessians-- Princess Victoria's marriage, the Queen's hissy fits over each marriage, in turn, of the three youngest girls', family births and family deaths, the Queen's trips to Europe. An absorbing book, highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Queen Victoria and the intertwined relationships of European royalty of the period.

I love these letters (between Queen Victoria & her eldest Hessian granddaughter, another Victoria). The Queen was full of good advice & her loving concern for her motherless Hessian grandchildren is so evident...the letters concerning Princess Alix's marriage are so poignant (she became the last Empress of Russia). These letters also help those with a scholarly interest in Queen Victoria & the British Royal family know more about the backgrounds of the various members of the family. But they are also just plain good reading, hard to put down!

I think that after Sir Olaf Caroe's book "The Pathans" which is generally regarded as the magnum opus of this confounding subject, this book (though not as well known) is the second best exposition I have come across regarding Afghans (also Pashtuns or Pathans)that I can safely recommend as such.
Victoria Schofield is very much a contemporary english author, but to my scrutiny she does not seem to suffer from the flaws which such people mostly display, especially those from the now dominant American style of writing. Consider: she doesn't touch her subject of study lightly or casually, or lace it with flighty rhetorical assumptions or hyperbole. She is forthright but gracefully so, in her assessment of Afghan realities past and present, unlike the timorous liberal or childishly amateurish and abrupt attitudes we now see prevalent towards it. For instance on P.266 of the book she mentions an international antiques dealer John Suidmak, who "discovered in a curious way that he could not do good business (with his Afghan counterparts)until he had learnt to lie". Now that would evoke howls of protests from "non-ethnocentric" and "politically correct" Western types, as well as "educated" immigrant Afghans residing in the West - who want to conceal as much as they can the realities of their native culture and society from credulous Westerners for a variety of cunning reasons - but it is a reality which I as a Pathan can vouch for 100%. And I wouldn't want to hide it from Westerners, because unlike other Afghans, I am half Anglo-Saxon and my principles and upbringing wouldn't permit such chicanery or hidden agendas as being justified. The whole tone of her book is set like that, a treasure rarely wittnessed nowadays. The truth is the truth whether it is ethnocentric or not. Western liberals and scholars of the present day have beset themselves with a plethora of terms that cast aspersions on ordinary common sense, and Victoria Schofield is not one of those! The book's subtitle "Fighting and Feuding" sums up the main aspect of Afghan reality, which the author wishes to bring to her readers' attention. Lastly, Victoria's work doesn't suffer from the "typos" and misspelt native place and people's names that nowadays so ubiquitously bedevil even the best of publications and distract from their worth. In other words, Miss Schofield is a high quality author. She seems to remind me of those pioneering British ladies of a certain period and disposition, made of stern and sturdy but graceful stuff - who went confidently where their vast empire used to take them. In this regard I am reminded of Lady Sale (also mentioned herein) who chronicled an elaborate account, from her personal travails, of the First Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-43; and of my own British mother Kathleen, who married my Pathan father in 1959 and lived for the rest of her life in Peshawar on this perpetually troubled Afghan Frontier, for for 43 years...
Another advantage of this book is that while Caroe's classic work is dated by as much as 50 years, Schofield writes from a very recent perspective in time (2003), covering this area's history from the very start, down to its dramatically changing present situation as well - using the relevant maps and illustrations where needed. Thus her writing becomes a story and a treastise at the same time. The histories of modern Afghanistan (from 1747) and the British Indian "Frontier" (now the Pakistani NWFP) are elaborately presented intertwined as they should be, in a single narrative that is replete with the detailed anecdotes and impressions of British and other European colonial administrators, soldiers, diplomats, statesmen, writers, physicians, tourists, educationists, businessmen and christian missionaries past and present, who from 1809 to the present encountered the Pathans in both the Frontier as well as over the border in Afghanistan. These not only bring the book to life, but also present a wealth of valuable social, anthropological and historical information in an extremely palatable and stimulating manner. So this book is very much upto date as far as the post 9/11 reference datum of the current world situation is concerned - and is infact a very useful guide for this new scenario.
The paper, binding and typesetting are also of equally high quality, so as to complete the overall picture of an excellent book.

I needed this book quickly and they provided, and it was less expensive then buying it at school.

The Alaska-Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins is a refreshing look at life at the end of the American Frontier. The feminist view that Robins carries to the gold rush of 1900 offers the reader not only a glimpse into the life of women at the time, but offers an in depth look at the struggles and hardships faced by men and women alike as they fight for survival in the Klondike. Just as Gates promises in the introduction, "At times the reader may forget that it is a day-to-day account of events as they unfold and think it instead a novel," the diary flows with the practiced ease of thinking to oneself. In addition, Gates' careful editing is complimented well with augmenting photos that lend to the flow. The Alaska-Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins exemplifies the literary spirit and zest for life for which popular culture has acquired a taste. Gates' novel is carrying on the spirited tradition Jack London Style.

They were both young, neither more than twenty, and perhaps not mutually in love although Victoria was already fascinated by her handsome German prince. Yet their marriage grew to become one of the great relationships of history. Albert's position was unique and difficult as subject and husband to a powerful and wilful woman. He was disliked by the English, but a shrewd observer noted that he had more effective political power than any royal person since Charles II. He was recognized as a patron of learning and the arts. He reorganized the Royal Household and Windsor estate, and built royal homes at Osborne and Balmoral. And he was the inspirer and creater of the Great Exhibition. Victoria was devoted to him and bore him nine children, but her ungovernable temper and the ease with which she slipped into deep and lasting depression sorely tried him.

This second novel of Tyler Whittle's trilogy is truly the story of Albert's wife; how she encouraged and helped him, depended on him, learnt from him, trusted him, and loved him. After his death in 1861 Victoria lived on into the 20th century.

Alfred's Premier Piano Success is great. Comes with a folder to hold all of the books. Great for organization.

Author has extracted oodles of technical references into an overview that covers a vital sixty-year span of American Southwest history. Victoria Dye skillfully illuminates the intertwining of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company (AT&SF) with its more visual counterpart and partner, the Fred Harvey Company. In a mere six chapters, along with a smattering of descriptive BW photos, the author summarizes the wild ethnic mixture of the early Southwestern frontier with a strong emphasis on the economic impact of the myriad cultures. She describes how Harvey and AT&SF precipitated the view of pioneer New Mexico and Arizona as `Indian' more than `Mexican or Spanish,' even though the domineering government and religion was of the latter for hundreds of years. Dye further characterizes how the Harvey/AT&SF promotions helped travelers [remarkably] overcome the spectre of Indian hostilities, replacing fear with their inventive illusion of `Santa Fe' gentility. Marketing, promotion and economics are the core of the book. The author is to be highly commended for distilling five centuries of Cultural Revolution in to 100 pages of easy reading. The bibliography yields [literally] hundreds of literary resources (perhaps this book's most valuable contribution) for further reader interest. The author's supplemental material helps substantiate a "who's who" timeline of AT&SF, Fred Harvey, Santa Fe, curio and Southwestern Indian history - don't miss these appendix, page notes, and bibliographic features!

This was a very good book, the photos are clear and the writing concise. I just wish it were longer!