“Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire” by Julia Baird; Random House (696 pages, $35) Queen Victoria dominated an age and inspired a word, “Victorian,” to capture the spirit of her time. We tend to see her as a prisoner of that age — dour, unsmiling, repressed; in short, rather Victorian. Julia Baird wants to liberate her from that straitjacket. In her zestful biography, [...]
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