"Readers encounter a detail-attentive and independently minded monarch. That angle alone recommends the book to all Victorianists. Information, offered with verve and occasional humor, fills chapters of Empress with little-known details of Victoria's active rule as Empress."--Adrienne Munich, Victorian Studies "A widely and deeply researched, elegantly written, and vital portrayal of the queen's place in colonial Indian affairs. Indispensable."-- Susan Kingsley Kent, Journal of Modern History "In Empress Taylor recovers the forgotten significance of Victoria to the history of British India. He shows how the Queen's enthusiasm for India and its princes facilitated the crown's emergence as an appealing symbol and potential resource in the search for civil and political rights. This is a nuanced portrait of an empire rich in contradiction.

"--Catherine Hall, author of Civilising Subjects "An engrossing and authoritative account of the vital place of India within the monarchy of Queen Victoria. Beautifully written and subtly crafted, this book provides a critical history of the cultural, political, and diplomatic significance of Queen Victoria's role as Empress of India - and its rich and varied impact in metropole and colony. An important work for those interested in more nuanced readings of Empire and their legacies today."--Tristram Hunt, Director of Victoria and Albert Museum "This is a highly intelligent, wonderfully lucid and well researched book that rests on an impressive array of Indian as well as European sources. It makes a powerful case for re-assessing Queen Victoria's own role and political and religious ideas in regard to the subcontinent, and for the need to look again at how she - and monarchy in general - were perceived, re-imagined, and utilized by different varieties of her Indian "subjects" before the First World War."--Linda Colley, author of Britons.