The Girlhood of Queen Victoria: A Selection from Her Majesty's Diaries between the Years 1832 and 1840. Volume 1

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she had the additional title of Empress of India.

Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover.

Victoria wrote an average of 2,500 words a day during her adult life. From July 1832 until just before her death, she kept a detailed journal, which eventually encompassed 122 volumes. After Victoria's death, her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, was appointed her literary executor. Beatrice transcribed and edited the diaries covering Victoria's accession onwards, and burned the originals in the process. Despite this destruction, much of the diaries still exist. In addition to Beatrice's edited copy, Lord Esher transcribed the volumes from 1832 to 1861 before Beatrice destroyed them.

These Journals reveal the secret of a Monarch in the making. They suggest reflections. In the first agony of grief at the loss of her husband, within a few days of his death, the Queen wrote these words: “The great object we must all have before us, and which was the only one our beloved Prince and Master, our Guide and Counsellor, had in view, is the real good of the Royal Princes. The real good means their steady development in everything that is great, virtuous, and useful, and that will render them good. Sons, brothers, husbands, citizens, and benefactors of mankind. To obtain this no effort must be left untried.”