Book review: A Magnificent Obsession

THE year 1862 was a very good one for merchants of grief.

THE year 1862 was a very good one for merchants of grief. Prince Albert, beloved consort of Queen Victoria, had died the previous December, and his bereft widow declared that the period of public mourning should be the longest term in modern times.

Members of the royal household would not appear in public without their all-black clothes for a year, while she intended to wear her widow's weeds for the rest of her life. And, except for occasionally donning white lace, ermine, diamonds and pearls for official functions, that is exactly what she did until her own death in 1901.

Helen Rappaport, a historian whose previous works include The Last Days of the Romanovs, has written a splendid new book which focuses on the roughly 10-year period just before and after Albert's untimely death at age 42.

Relying on forgotten letters, memoirs and diaries, she explores Victoria's obsessive love for Albert, her pathological reaction to his death and the 40 years she spent commemorating him.

Rappaport also argues that Albert may have died of Crohns disease, not typhoid fever, listed as the official cause of death.

She explains Victoria did emerge from her decade of seclusion to resume some of her public duties due in no small measure to the ministrations of her devoted Scottish servant John Brown; the near fatal illness of her eldest son and a half-baked attempt to assassinate her.

VERDICT Inside one royal love story.

A Magnificent Obsession
Helen Rappaport
Random House, $55