Victorious Century cover art

Victorious Century

The United Kingdom, 1800-1906

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Victorious Century

By: David Cannadine
Narrated by: Kris Dyer
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

To live in 19th-century Britain was to experience an astonishing series of changes, of a kind for which there was simply no precedent in the human experience. There were revolutions in transport, communication and work; cities grew vast; and scientific ideas made the intellectual landscape unrecognisable. This was an exhilarating time but also a horrifying one.

In his dazzling new book, David Cannadine has created a bold, fascinating new interpretation of the British 19th century in all its energy and dynamism, darkness and vice. This was a country which saw itself at the summit of the world. And yet it was a society also convulsed by doubt, fear and introspection. Repeatedly, politicians and writers felt themselves to be staring into the abyss - and what is seen sometimes seen as an era of irritating self-belief was in practice obsessed by a sense of its own fragility, whether as a great power or as a moral force.

Victorious Century is an extraordinarily enjoyable book - its author catches the relish, humour and theatricality of the age but also the dilemmas of a kind with which we remain familiar today. It reframes a time at once strangely familiar and yet wholly unlike our own.

©2017 David Cannadine (P)2017 Audible, Ltd Europe Great Britain History History & Culture Capitalism Imperialism England Socialism Winston Churchill Technology United Kingdom British Empire Middle Ages Africa Royalty Taxation Soviet Union Latin American Russia Self-Determination Interwar Period

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Birth of Classical Europe cover art
Empire of Things cover art
Scots and Catalans cover art
Legacy cover art
A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages cover art
The Challenge of Things cover art
The Russian Revolution cover art
A Brief History of Britain 1660 - 1851 cover art
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789 cover art
The Great Democracies cover art
A Concise History of Italy cover art
Russia in Revolution cover art
The Habsburg Empire cover art
A Concise History of Modern India cover art
A Concise History of Spain cover art
Smashing Physics cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Interesting book with great narration, however, the unnecessary overuse of the phrase “to be sure” and the word “hence” is incredibly distracting.

Interesting book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found this history somewhat disappointing. Although David Cannadine presents an authoritative, comprehensive and highly listenable panorama of 19th century Britain, its very length means that it's impossible to devote sufficient attention to particular individuals and events pivotal to the Victorian century.

Somewhat disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really rate David Cannadine and have read several of his books. The risk is that you find him repeating himself a bit from previous titles but that’s fine. Helps refresh the memory. And as an interesting and informative narrative this did not disappoint
What is annoying is the very poor pronunciation of the reader. Did no one check? Is there not an editor? He also went at it a bit too fast and tripped over himself in terms of syntax and sense. But then didn’t go for another take. Or if he did no one listened. There were too many instances to make it a comfortable listen.
Examples which stuck so much I remember include Iveagh, Harewood, Beauchamp and even Cadogan plus countless other given and place names and even some ordinary nouns.

Good story, frustrating listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's obviously hard to cover the whole of a period in one book but this had just about the right level of detail for me and I found it really informative. It's the sort of book you probably need to listen to 2 or 3 times to get the most out of as there is a lot to take in but would highly recommend for a good overview of the period. Very well narrated too.

Fascinating history of Victorian Britain

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Or is it? I thought this was a book on "Victoria's Century" ie reign of Queen Victoria. It isn't it covers the period from the Napoleonic wars until WW1 and thus was an excellent surprise. Really good book and a good listen.

Not a Pun

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews