1. The Romantic Period
&
The Victorian Period
Yesha Bhatt
Department of English, M. K.
Bhavnagar University
2. 1. French Revolution:
“Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!”
French revolutionary ideas were majorly considered the political
philosophy of the Enlightenment and the writings of the philosophes.
Influenced by British political system and inspired by American
Revolution.
Liberalism in Literature – the political liberalism inspired individuality
and rejection of rules in the Romantic literature
Wordsworth and Coleridge
The Sensitive Plant - Shelley: on death of his child Will. Spring to winter
– day to night – Flower dies – Suggests time is false and immortality
Lines written among the Euganean Hills – For political regeneration of Italy –
Landscape scenes
4. Scott and Austen :
Scott Austen
Style – Shakespearean quality Plot and characters with social
conditions
Historical romance Domestic life – Criticism of Society
On larger scale – over the top Characters and impulses
Admiration towards Austen Admiration with rivalry
5. Byron v/s Wordsworth
Wordsworth Byron
Feeling of Solitude in “Tintern
Abbey”
Insignificance of mankind in
“Apostrophe to the Ocean”
Romantic philosophy Feeling of isolation and
reconnection
Powerful nature – mother nature Powerful nature – against man
(snowflakes v/s waves)
Admiration towards Byron but with
rivalry
Used to call Wordsworth as
“Turdsworth”
6. Charles Lamb – Essays on Elia
Essays of Elia
Collection of popular essays from 1823 to 1833 – Personal and
conversational tone – Made him most delightful English
essayist
Lamb himself is the Elia of the collection, and his
sister Mary is "Cousin Bridget."
Influenced from Tomas Browne – Robert Burton – Thomas De
Quincey
Essays of Elia and Last Essays of Elia
"The South-Sea House“ - "Oxford In The Vacation“ - "The Two
Races Of Men“ - "All Fools' Day“ - "My Relations“ - "My First
Play“ - "On Some Of The Old Actors"
7. Walter Savage Landor
Writer – poet - activist
Famous for Imaginary conversations and Rose Alymer poem –
he influenced Charles Dickens and Robert Browning
He produced works in prose, lyric poetry, political writings
including epigrams and Latin
He drew on a vast array of historical characters from Greek
philosophers to contemporary writers and composed
conversations between pairs of characters that covered areas
of philosophy, politics, romance and many other topics.
8. De Quincey’s essays
Essays
He was journalist, translator and editor – Favoring right-wings politics - He
got influenced from Edgar Allan Poe, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Charles
Baudelaire and Nikolai Gogol – First work with autobiographical elements
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater – published anonymously – Part I –
Childhood youth and emotional psychological experiences – Part II –
Pleasures and pains with opium – was also criticized for expressing more
pleasure than pain
On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth – Criticism on Shakespearean play –
contains act II scene 2 and 3 – murder of King Duncan – psychological
approach in criticism
On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts – Fictional – satirical –
aesthetic appreciation of murder - series of murders allegedly committed in
1811 by John Williams
10. Poetry
Highly coloured picture of 16th century and border history
and legends from oral and written history
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)– narrative poem
Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field (1808) – historic
romance
Novels
Gothic novels and historic romances – novels on wars and
historical events – Elizabethan period – medieval settings
– complex - subtle – different societies – unchanging
humanity
Waverley (1814) - A Legend of Montrose (1819) - Count
Robert of Paris (1832)
Walter Scott
(1771 – 1832)
11. Adonais - Shelley
Elegy written on the death of john
keats pastoral elegy – spenserian
stanza – Adonis (God of fertility)
The poet urges the mourners not to
weep any longer. Keats has become a
portion of the eternal and is free from
the attacks of reviewers. He is not
dead; it is the living who are dead. He
has gone where "envy and calumny
and hate and pain" cannot reach him.
Of thee, my Adonais! I would give
All that I am to be as thou now art!
But I am chain'd to Time, and cannot
thence depart!
12. 2. Lamb v/s Adisson:
Charles Lamb Joseph Addison
English essayist, poet,
and antiquarian
English essayist, poet, playwright
and politician
Center of a major literary circle in
England - "the most lovable figure
in English literature"
founded The Spectator magazine
– classical conventional images of
17th century
Romantic essays – Effect of
Romantic era and Victorian era –
Individualism – Class-system –
social relationships
Use of Latin words – Structured
sentences – short and meaningful
– humour and satire with use of
metaphor
13. Ruskin Bond (1934 – (86)
Indian author (British descent) – lives in Mussoorie – Editor – short-story writer
– novelists – and essayist – Children literature – Gothic literature
1. On being an Indian – He represents his views and upbringing as an Indian –
Indian identity – No race, no religion but history did and that is only important –
his home (in mountains of India) – His reasons why he is not readt to leave India
his country – India reflects his father as they both born in India – “For India is
more than a land. India is an atmosphere”
2. A time for all Things – Collected essays and sketches - a lifetime reading and
writing (60 years) – life experiences – thoughtful humorous and observations –
companionship (adopted family) and solitude – travel narratives (Himalaya)
14. Thomas B. Macaulay (1800 – 1859)
British historian + Whig politician
Essays Contemporary and historical socio-political subjects
1. Critical and Historical essays Vol 1 – Edinburgh review - Great Britain
history – Eng. Lit. – history and criticism – List of essays – 1. Milton –
2. Hallam (Historian) – 3. Southey’s Colloquies – 4. War of Succession in
Spain – 5. Francis Bacon
2. Critical and Historical essays Vol. 2
- Horace Walpole – Lord Bacon – Gladstone on Church and State
- “I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the
desire to read”
15. Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881)
British historian – satirical writer – essayist – philosopher – mathematician –
teacher Concept of Great man
1. The French Revolution – 3 volume work – filled with fears andhopes
of revolution – Chaotic events – heroes emerged for the betterment
of society - Spirituality
2. Heroes and Hero worship – heroic leadership – Great Man theory of historical
development – Hero has to deal with contradictions - Aristotle's "magnanimous"
man – a person who flourished in the fullest sense
16. Matthew Arnold (1822 – 1888)
Poet – Cultural critic and inspector of schools - Matthew Arnold has been
characterized as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the
reader on contemporary social issues
1. Culture and Anarchy – Series of periodical essays – Political and
social criticism – Culture as a study of perfection – cultures seeks to
do away with classes
2. Balder Dead – A narrative poem with tragic themes – mythological concepts –
Norse mythology ( North Germanic myths) – Story of a murder -
17. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 – 1863)
British novelist – author and illustrator – Known for satirical work – Vanity Fair -
The Luck of Barry Lyndon – Realism with social conditions and historic elements
1. The History of Henry Esmond 1852 – Historical fiction - The book tells the
story of the early life of Henry Esmond, a colonel in the service of Queen
Anne of England – Victorian historical novels – 17th and 18th century
England – events covered Glorious Revolution, the War of the Spanish
Succession, the Hamilton–Mohun Duel and the Hanoverian Succession.
2. Vanity Fair – A novel without hero – deconstruction of literary heroism –
Narrator is unreliable
18. Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Mr. Jarvis Lorry
Dr. Manette
Lucie Manette
Mr. Styrver
Sydney Carton
Marquis St. Evrémonde
(Uncle of Charles)
Mr. Defarge
Charles Darney
Daughter
Lawyer
Look alike
Friend
Servants and has
wine shop
London – Paris
1775 – novels starts
1780 – Fight begin
1789 - Revolution
Madame Defarge
