es. For example, the author described the House of Windsor with a great deal of detail when writing, "Beyond the magnificent furnishings, glowing tapestries, and fine paintings that adorned the ancient castle's living quarters, there were riches brought from India, booty taken from Tippoo Sahib, including a golden tiger's head and sparkling sculpted peacock studded with rubies and emeralds." Furthermore, the author also included excerpts from Victoria's private journal, which she maintained in the years before and during her rule. These excerpts allowed the reader to view Victoria with feelings of admiration and enderment. The reader was able to share in Victoria's triumphs and tragedies and to understand the emotions that she felt during certain episodes in her life. For instance, Victoria was terribly grieved after the death of her beloved husband, and she felt as if she was lacking part of her soal because of his untimely death. The readers gained an insight into her pain when reading an excerpt from her journal in which she said, "I stood up, kissing his dear heavenly forehead and called out in a bitter agonizing cry: ‘Oh! my dear darling!' and then dropped on my knees in mute, distracted despair, unable to utter a word or shed a tear." This biography was a delight and pleasure to read because of these personal excerpts taken from Victoria's private diary. Victoria often imparted information in the entries of her journal, recounting her feelings toward some of her political advisors. She once wrote of a dispute with one of her advisors and of her animosity toward him. She said, "I pitched into him with a vehemence and indignation-which was at any rate inspired by the British Lion-and he remaine shrinking but still craven-hearted." These variety of excerpts added an overall enjoyable quality to this masterpiece of a biography, which was very difficult to put aside until the very end because it was vivid portrait of the former e...
