The Life and Times of Prince Albert

De: Patrick Allitt, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Patrick Allitt

How did Prince Albert, an obscure German prince, leave an indelible mark on the British monarchy?

In 10 lectures, award-winning historian Patrick N. Allitt transports listeners to England in the 1840s and 1850s. During those two decades, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, became one of the most influential people in the country and remains a figure of fascination even today. In fact, the British royal family as we know it wouldn't exist without the private and public actions of this detached, impartial, and upright political figure.

During his brief life of only 42 years, Prince Albert gave the world the new Houses of Parliament and the Great Exhibition of 1851. He helped Great Britain nimbly dodge the violent revolutions sweeping through mainland Europe and played important roles in both the Crimean War and the American Civil War. Trusted by politicians 25 years his senior, Prince Albert was a negotiator with superior insight into the minds of foreign leaders like Abraham Lincoln. Finally, he was husband to an iconic queen who would define an entire era in British history.

Parliamentary leaders come and go, but the British monarchy endures. Listeners will learn what great debt the monarchy owes to Prince Albert.

©2019 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

A Master Storyteller

Professor Patrick Allitt is a master storyteller. I've listened to two of his other lecture series with Great Courses, one on the American West, another on Queen Victoria's life and times, and this new addition on Prince Albert is yet again a compelling listen.

Unlike the other two, the Prince Albert series is short--clocking in at just over four hours. So this is a whirlwind bus tour of the man and his era. But Prof Allitt is more than up to the challenge. He has a pleasing speaking voice (not all Great Courses lecturers do). And he has the storyteller's gift of threading his narrative with juicy tidbits and side notes on persons and technology and whatnot that even if you've heard this story before you'll learn something new.

I would say, however, that if you know a heck of a lot about Queen Victoria, you might find this too basic. I'm no expert. So for me this series was really good at jogging my memory on Albert and Victoria's courtship, Victoria's dislike and fear of child birth, her ecstatic diary entries on the pleasures of the marital bed (no "Victorian" prudishness there), Albert's impatience with his role as royal consort and his maneuvers to gain more influence, his obsession with technology, his stiff manners and Germanic delight with orderliness.

Prince Albert was an asset to Victoria, even if on a personal level they fought like cats and dogs--and then I'm sure made up for those blowouts with romps in the marital bed (Victoria scribbling notes in her diary afterwards???). Prof Allitt spends a good deal of time on Albert's involvement in the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the building of the Crystal Palace, as well as the prince's role as Chancellor of Cambridge University and the events surrounding the Crimean War. The last lecture touches on Albert's death and Victoria's never-ending grief. Charles Dickens, for one, grew impatient with her prolonged mourning.

I picked up this title because I like Prof Allitt's work but also because the lecture series is a collaboration between Audible and Great Courses. I don't know how that collaboration came about but it's a no-brainer. What I like about the Audible-produced Great Courses series is they tend to be short, bite-sized courses that zero in on a niche subject--like Romantic Comedy movies or Prince Albert--that might otherwise be too niche or off-the-beaten-path for a standard course.

Wonderful performance, but need more details.

I really enjoyed Patrick Allitt's lectures on Prince Albert. I guess I am a little greedy, because I wanted more information about the Prince in a biographical sense, than what these short lectures were really designed for.

Surprisingly Interesting

While not usually a fan of the audible free book choices per month, this one was surprisingly good and interesting. The author was fair in his historical account and clearly loves history.

Enjoyable and enlightening

One of my favorite Audible books so far. Patrick Allitt is a very engaging writer. I was drawn into the story of Prince Albert. Alliitt’s narration was very appealing. I throughly enjoyed the book.

Without Albert, There Was No Victoria

While many books have been written on Queen Victoria and her life, none have focused as much on her husband and reason for mourning, Prince Albert. And before listening to this read, I had never realized how much Albert contributed to British society and history. It's well-known that he was behind the idea for the Great Exhibition of 1851, but I think it's less well-known how passionate he was about art, social reform and sciences that led to it. He also was a participant in military life and foreign policy, sometimes even preventing disasters like the Trent incident, as Allitt notes in the beginning. By the end of this audiobook, you understand somewhat why Victoria mourned his loss for the rest of her life. But then you also wonder why he's not as celebrated as she is in popular memory.