Victoria, Queen--[Strickland, Agnes.]

12mo, 2 volumes, first edition, presentation copy to Queen Victoria extensively annotated by the Queen and returned to the author, with marginal comments to 120 pages (85 pages to volume one, 35 to volume two), original blue cloth with royal arms gilt on upper covers, housed in a matching blue cloth box [with:] an autograph letter by George Anson, Prince Albert's private secretary, to Strickland, inviting her to collect the book ("...Mr Anson is sorry to tell Miss Strickland that there are a great many inaccuracies in it, which in the Event of another Edition appearing, he feels sure Miss Strickland would be glad of an opportunity to correct..."), 2 pages, 8vo, 2 June 1842, with envelope with faint pencil docketing ("From the Queen"), a typescript account of the history of the book "as told to me by my aunt Jane Strickland, Agnes Strickland's younger sister", 3 pages, folio, and two other documents, all housed in brown paper and card wrapping for postage from Windsor Castle in 1932, volume one splitting at spine, upper hinge of volume two split, but otherwise a fine copy, the typescript note splitting at folds

Agnes Strickland; by descent

A remarkable and unique piece of Victoriana. Agnes Strickland, by this time well-known as the author of The Lives of the Queens of England, was commissioned by her publisher - who also supplied much of the source material - to write a biography of Victoria to commemorate her marriage to Prince Albert. A copy of the effusive and sentimental result was presented to the book's subject, but the Queen was deeply unimpressed with the book and very happy to make her feelings known. She made caustic marginal comments on 120 pages of the book then had it returned to the author. In many cases she marked specific paragraphs with a vertical line and added a terse "not true", "quite false", or even "not one word of truth" in the margin, and in others she made specific factual corrections to names, dates and places. She corrects Strickland's exaggerated claims for her linguistic and musical abilities; "Not at all fatigued" was her response to Strickland's description of her as "flushed and fatigued" at her first appearance at William IV's court; and "No" is her comment when Strickland finds a "tinge of melancholy" to her smile on her wedding day. 

She was moved to make fairly substantial comments when Strickland erred in subjects of particular personal significance. She rubbishes Strickland's imagined childhood meetings between Victoria and Albert and corrects Strickland's claim that the marriage was arranged by the Queen's mother: "Not true the Dcss [of Kent] knew nothing of it until told of it by the Queen a few days previous to the Prince's departure". Of particular significance are her comments on Strickland's account of how she first came to understand her proximity to the throne. She recounts a conversation in 1830 between the young Victoria, her governess, and her mother, that stemmed from the girl's study of a genealogical table of the Kings of England which led her to ask who would succeed the then Duke of Clarence. Where Strickland describes a long and somewhat evasive answer, Victoria herself recalls a straight-forward response from her governess. Not only is this in effect an admission that this was indeed the moment she first realised her likely fate, but it gives a distinct account of this important moment to set alongside the much later memoir of her governess. 

Strickland and her publisher were appalled at the royal response to the book. The account of the author's sister's memories of the occasion that forms part of the present lot records that, although she could not induce Colburn to issue a corrected edition, "The sale was stopped and where ever Miss Strickland was able to do so, she bought in those already out and destroyed them." It is therefore an extremely rare work: the only copies listed on COPAC are in copyright libraries and no copy has sold at auction in the last 25 years. The extraordinary and detailed response the book elicited from Victoria herself was not to be repeated: later biographies tended to reinforce  her low opinion of the genre, but she must have become more accustomed to the publication of inaccuracies.

Although the existence of this volume and the story behind it have long been known, the book itself has always remained with the author's descendants. In 1932 the family, by then settled in Canada, received a request: George V wanted to see the book that had so incensed his grandmother. The book was duly sent to England and is still kept in the brown paper wrapping in which it was posted back to the family from Windsor Castle.