The document summarizes Victorian literature and literary trends during the Victorian period in England from 1837 to 1901. It describes how Victorian literature emerged during the reign of Queen Victoria and was a transition period between Romanticism and 20th century literature. The dominant genres were novels, which often had improving moral lessons and complex plots, and poetry, which featured more realistic themes and experimentation with forms. Common literary themes included critiques of industrialization, rural lifestyle changes, and conflicts between social classes. Influential writers of the time included Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, and Thomas Hardy.

1. Department of English
Literary trends of Victorian
Period

2. Victorian age and literature
•Victorian literature refers to the
literary works written during the
reign of Queen Victoria(1837-
1901)
•It was the period of great
literary expansion .
•it was the transition between
Romantic period and 20th
century literature.

3. Literature
Literature of social protest –
The social and cultural background of
the period had a deep impact on
literature of the Victorian period.
The Victorian Novel –
The dominant genre in the Victorian
period. -usually inclined towards
being of improving nature with a
Central moral lesson -thickly
plotted
Victorian Poetry -Less subjective -
Themes are more realistic -
experimentation include long
narrative poems and the dramatic
monologue as seen primarily in the
writing

4. Literary trends
•Critical Realism
•Naturalism

5. Common themes
• Critique of
industrialization
• Critique of the
deterioration of the
rural lifestyle
• Celebration of the
past -conflicts
between classes
• women's rights

6. Influential writers
William Morris, Georte
Meredith,Thomas Hardy,
Samuel Butler,John
Galsworthy,Bernard
Shaw,Charles John Huffam
Dickens

7. Famous literary pieces
Anthony Trollope, The Warden
(1855), Elizabeth Gaskell, North and
South (1855), Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre (1847), Anne Brontë, The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Wilkie
Collins, The Moonstone (1868),
William Makepeace Thackeray,
Vanity Fair (1848), Emily Brontë,
Wuthering Heights (1847).