The Victorian novel

1. Victorian Literature

2. The Victorian Novel
• Golden age of the novel.
• Artform most capable of reflecting the complexity
of modern world.
• Main source of entertainment for middle classes.
• Published in instalments in literary magazines.
• Idea of linearity (a story with a biginning, middle
and end) became an important feature of the 19th
century novel.

3. The Victorian Novel
• Bildungsroman ( the novel of formation) which
traced the life of the protagonist from infancy to
early adulthood. e.g. - Charlotte Bronte’s Jane
Eyre and Dicken’s David Copperfield and Great
Expectations.
• Relation of individual to society – how the
individual could find his/her place in society
through compromise and conformism.
• Novelists felt the responsability to portray society
in a realistic way, denouncing its injustices, but
also expressing their faith in progress.

4. The Victorian Novel
• Omniscient narrator as a moral guide and
instrument for analysing the psychology of
the characters.
• In late Victorian novels individuals are
portrayed as alienated from the world in
which they live. The characters’interior
world becomes more important.