In this brilliant, concise new biography Queen Victoria is shown as Britain’s queen of contradictions.
In her combination of regal vehemence and wifely submission; deep sentimentality and bombast; cultural imperialism and imperial compassion; fear of intellectualism and excitement at technology; romantic longing and prudishness, she became a spirit of the age to which she gave her name.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Queen-Victoria-A-Life-Contradictions/dp/0007504578/ref=pd_sim_b_3