Books

Short Story By Young Queen Vic To Be Published

by Kathleen Culliton

They’ll let anyone write a book these days – even 10-year-old girls are getting published. True, this particular 10-year-old would go on to become the queen of England and empress of India, but that’s not the point! Oh wait … it is. Because the young girl in question is Queen Victoria and her story is being published this summer.

Queen Victoria pretty much killed it, all the time. Hers was the monarch of empire and industry. During her reign, England conquered and settled India and laid the foundations for the industrial revolution to come.

And in her private life, Queen Vic nurtured an artistic soul. She wrote more than 43,000 pages of journal entries, painted, and wrote stories. Top that.

“The Adventures of Alice Laselles by Alexandrina Victoria Aged 10 and ¾” tells the story of a little girl who is sent to Mrs Duncombe’s school for girls when her father gets a new wife.

There she meets a slew of peculiar characters: the one-eyed orphan Ernestine Duval, the unforgivably uncouth and tall Diana, and the spoiled but pretty Barbara. When a cat is let into the school, all point the finger at Alice. It’s up to her to clear her name and regain her honor.

Not bad, is it?

The book will be published this June by the University of Chicago Press, with etchings by Cristina Pieropan. There will also be copies of the paper dolls that Victoria made with her governess.