This is the first full-length study of the Albert Memorial, for which Stephen Bayley has drawn on a wealth of documentary material from the Royal Archives. The monument is revealed as literally the work of two lifetimes, a memorial both to Prince Albert and to its architect, George Gilbert Scott, and is shown to be not only the ultimate achievement of Scott's distinguished architectural career but also the apogee of programmatic sculpture in Europe - perhaps the last attempt on a truly momumental scale by sculptors to achieve the highest ends of their art...