Queenly subject;

king-size tome

As an alternative to wild and gaudy whodunnits, a king-size paperback about a queen is re commended reading. “Victoria R. 1.”, nearly 800 pages long, by Elizabeth Longford is not only a remarkable character-study of a woman who gave her name to a whole era, but a fascinating history of Europe in the 19th century.

Queen Victoria emerges from it not only as a forbidding pre sence—as she undoubtedly be came —who frequently was not amused; but a credible human being with very human failings, eccentricities and doubts, if, at the same time, a profound sense of duty and of destiny.

Perhaps most surprising of all she is shown to have a tolerance and a social conscience far in advance of what we now attribute to her century.

A massive amount of research has gone into this book which is written in a readable and witty style. (Pan; $2.25).