"This enchanting volume is not a history of the Victorian age but the portraiture of a woman... Strachey's work is pure art...a narrative as fresh and distinctive as some delicious perfume." -David Muzzey , Political Science Quarterly , (1922) Queen Victoria (1921) is the classic biography of Britain's greatest monarch by Lytton Strachey. Victoria (1819-1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death. In addition, she was Empress of India beginning in 1876. With her reign of 63 years, she gave her name to an era, the Victorian age. This was a period of expansion of the British Empire, and industrial, scientific, political, cultural, and military change. Queen Victoria was awarded the "James Tait Black Memorial Prize," one of Britain's oldest literary awards.