VICTORIA'S HEIR

A biography that is more history than the individual life of Edward VII, as events in England and the Continent are detailed for the years up to Edward's accession to the throne. A solid, thoughtful book, but of the times more particularly than the man. The accent is on the revolt all over Europe, the energy of the times as a blind force none could control, and the imperceptible but existing signs of change to which all were insensible. Edward, with his loose morality, his affability, tact and charm, his subenveloping mother, the scandals he landed in, emerges rather as a silhouette than a three dimensional figure. The book, tracing the twilight of the upperclass as there is a swing toward the wealthy middle class, showing the change from Anglo-German accord to enmity, the constant fluctuations at home and abroad toward Victoria, is filled with the political manoeuvring of the period. A good- but not essentially popular- job.