The Victorian Age 1832-1901 Victorian Age

The Victorian Age 1832-1901

Victorian Age

• Victorian Age is a period in English literature that stretches across 1832-1901 years.
• This epoch goes under the name of Queen Victoria who was a reigning monarch in England.
• In spite of various social contradictions it is known as the time of progress, prosperity, industrialism and imperialism.
• Under her reign, the Great Britain developed into the country number one on the world political arena.

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) Reign: 1837-1901

• She had the longest reign in British history
• Became queen at the age of 18; she was graceful and self-assured. She also had a gift for drawing and painting
• Throughout her reign, she maintained a sense of dignity and decorum that restored the average person’s high opinion of the monarchy after a series of horrible, ineffective leaders
• 1840-Victoria married a German prince, Albert, who became not king, but Prince-consort
• After he died in 1861, she sank into a deep depression and wore black every day for the rest of her life

The Growth of the British Empire

• England grew to become the greatest nation on earth
• Empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya, and India
• England built a very large navy and merchant fleet (for trade and colonization)

The Growth of the British Empire (continued)

• Imported raw materials such as cotton and silk and exported finished goods to countries around the world
• By the mid-1800s, England was the largest exporter and importer of goods in the world. It was the primary manufacturer of goods and the wealthiest country in the world
• Because of England’s success, they felt it was their duty to bring English values, laws, customs, and religion to the “savage” races around the world

The main historical events of this epoch are

• 1839-1842 Opium War against China; 1853-1856 Crimean War;
• 1857 Indian Mutiny;
• 1877 Queen Victoria was named “Empress of India”;
• 1882 occupation of Egypt;
• 1884 invasion of Sudan;
• 1899-1902 Boers’ War.

The social problems common for this era are

• urbanization, overcrowding, poverty – appalling living conditions in slums (squalor, disease, bad sanitation, crime, high death rate), terrible working conditions.
• Invention of steam engine pushed forward the industrial development but it brought the environmental problems like polluted atmosphere, disatrous effects on health, especially on children.

Literary trends:

• In literature realism becomes a leading trend. Realism is a the faithful portrayal of actual way of life avoiding unreal, fantastic, improbable, supernatural and mysticism.
• This Era is also known as a Golden Age of Novel because it turns into the principle genre in Victorian literature.
• Representatives:
• The novel writers - Ch. Dickens, W.P. Thackeray, Th. Hardy, Sisters Bronte, George Meredith, A. Trollope, Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold J. Conrad, and etc.
• Victorian Poetry - A. Tennyson, E. Browning and R. Browning
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Specific features of Victorian literature:

• The main character is a middle class representative, whose development and formation is the key theme of the novel.
• Literature instructs how to live though the life experience of protagonist.
• The description of Victorian traditions, values and morality.
• The development of education novel, social novel, detective novel, sensation novel, fantastic novel, adventures novel.

Charles Dickens 1812-1870

• 1. 1830-40
• “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”.
• “Oliver Twist” (1837–1839)
• “Nicholas Nickleby” (1838–1839)
• 2. 1840-50
• The old curiosity shop (1840–1841)
• Barnaby Rudge (1841)
• “Martin Chuzzlewit” (1843–1844)
• Dombey and Son (1846–1848)
• “David Copperfield” (1849–1850)

• 3. 1850-60
• “Bleak House”(1852–1853)
• Hard Times(1854)
• “Little Dorrit”(1855–1857)
• “A Tale of Two Cities”(1859)
• 4. 1860-70
• The Great Expectations (1860–1861)
• Our Mutual Friend(1864–1865)
• The Mystery of Edwin Drud (1870)

Charles Dickens

“Oliver Twist” (1837–1839)

Short stories

• Short stories
• Sketches by Boz (1836)
• The Mudfog Papers (1837)
• Reprinted Pieces (1861)
• The Uncommercial Traveller (1860–1869)
•  

• The Christmas books:
• A Christmas Carol (1843)r
• The Chimes (1844)
• The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
• The Battle of Life (1846)
• The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848)

A Christmas Carol (1843)

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863)

• In 1846-47, Thackeray published “The Book of Snobs”. Along with snobbery, the book treats of a more significant theme – portrayal of the world which is under the influence of money and hypocritical morals.
• A brilliant example of this method and one of the greatest masterpieces of literature under critical realism is his
• “Vanity Fair”, a novel without a hero, published in 1847-48.
• “The History of Pendennis” (1850),
• “Henry Esmond” (1852),
• “The Newcomes” (1854),
• “The Virginians” (1859)
• “Denis Duwal”.

“Vanity Fair”

• Thackeray seems to make a clear division line between angel and monster from the first meeting of two heroines in Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for young ladies.
• Amelia Sedley, with her innocent appearance and her kind disposition, impersonates a perfect Victorian angel while
• Rebecca Sharp, with her vamp-like attractiveness and a wild nature represents a ‘woman-monster’.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

• R.L. Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, and poet who became one of the world’s most popular writers. He was born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• Stevenson’s first and most famous novel “Treasure Island” was published in 1883. The characters of the book, the boy hero Jim Hawkins, the two villains Long John Silver and blind Pew, and their search for the buried treasure have become familiar to millions of readers.
• The publication of Stevenson’s second major novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde” in 1886

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Arthur Rackham, 1907

John Tenniel, 1865

Helen Oxenbury, 1999

Gothic fiction

Gothic genre

Ghost fiction

Vampire fiction

Witch fiction

Werewolf

fiction

Bram Stoker

• The gothic novel “Dracula” written by Bram Stoker in 1897
• Stoker's novel is certainly the most prevalent and well-known of the vampire novels, there are other examples of vampires appearing as the villains of gothic horror stories before the publication of Dracula.

Poetry

• Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892): Most popular Victorian poet. He wrote narrative poems
• In Memoriam A. H. H.
• Robert Browning (1812-1889): raised the dramatic monologue to new heights—making it a vehicle for deep psychological probing and character study
• Confessions
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861): with Robert, one of literature’s greatest love affairs. Wrote love sonnets valued for their lyric beauty
• How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

Conclusion

• At Victorian Age in literature realism becomes a leading trend.
• Realism is a the faithful portrayal of actual way of life avoiding unreal, fantastic, improbable, supernatural and mysticism.
• This Era is also known as a Golden Age of Novel because it turns into the principle genre in Victorian literature.
• Representatives:
• The novel writers - Ch. Dickens, W.P. Thackeray, Th. Hardy, Sisters Bronte, George Meredith, A. Trollope, Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold J. Conrad, and etc.
• Victorian Poetry - A. Tennyson, E. Browning and R. Browning