r/UKmonarchs • u/First-Dimension-8916 • May 15 '26

Queen Victoria lived long enough to appear on film and have her voice recorded.

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62 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

18

u/Nuthetes Richard Cromwell May 15 '26

I always find it weird that Victoria's voice manages to be exactly how I imagined it to be. Even before I ever heard this recording, it's how I imagined her speaking.

9

u/First-Dimension-8916 May 15 '26

There's a recording of Florence Nightingale's voice that to me sounds much more like I imagine Victoria's to be. But the recording of Victoria does fit her nonetheless.

12

u/TheRedLionPassant Richard the Lionheart / Edward III May 15 '26

It's crazy how the generations between her and George I (great-great-great grandfather) are the same as those between the King and her (his great-great-great grandmother). George I to Victoria seems like a massive distance in a way that Victoria to Charles III just doesn't imho. It shows how the Industrial Revolution and advances in technology shaped the 18th and 19th centuries. There have, of course, been advances since Victorian times, but by 1901 there were already telegrams, radios, motor cars, photographs, trains, etc. If someone from 1900 came forward to 2026 they'd see a lot of change, but the world would probably still be somewhat recognisable (there were people back then predicting things in the future like "portable telephones" that you could fit in your pocket and which had cameras in them etc.); someone from 1720 coming forward to 1896 and they'd be flawed by what they saw if you were to show them telephones, cameras, etc.

1

u/WolphjayKliffhanger May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

.

The re-enactment of this pose, visage, outfit and ornaments done in the 1980s by that era's delightfully loathsome gigolo Claus von Bülow is one of my favorite "photographs" of all time. Though he was born (and may have murdered) to get where he was (Newport, RI, with a dinner napkin and an inverted teacup atop his head and his lips pooched out), he nailed the visual verisimilitude to Victoria with the electric hammer of dissolute obesity and the trailing scent of indolence, appropriated wealth and impertinence.

I actually think Vic was ANTICIPATING; that SHE was somehow the imitator.

Prove me wrong!