LM Montgomery on “Queen Victoria” by Lytton Strachey

“Lord, how he smashes our old idols! When I was a child and young girl, the Victorian myth was in full flower … In those days every home boasted a framed picture of the queen. I thought her ugly. Strachey’s book rather justifies me to myself. Poor Victoria hadn’t any chance to be bad if she wanted to be — and I do think she got tired at times of being so exceedingly proper … Her reign was a very wonderful epoch and its wonder made of a dumpy and dowdy little woman a symbol.”