Super Short introduction Charles Dickens and Brontë sisters

1. Romantic Period
in English literature
1790 - 1850

2. At the beginning of the 19th century people started to crave more romantic
literature and not only realistic literature. It was a reaction against all
realistic and political literature.

3. Gothic Novel
• It became popular with elements of both
horror and romance. Prominent features of
Gothic fiction include terror, the supernatural,
ghosts, haunted houses, castles, darkness,
death, decay, secrets and madness.
Frankenstein(1818) by Mary Shelley is an
example of a Gothic novel

4. Frankenstein
• Published in 1881
• Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H3dFh
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6. Poetry
• Romantic poets included John Keats, Percy
Bysshe Shelleyand Lord Byron. They wrote
passionate love poems which are full of
descriptive images, similes and metaphors.

8. VICTORIAN PERIOD
1837–1901

10. It was a long period of peace, prosperity,
refined sensibilities and national self-
confidence for Britain
It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined
sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain

11. There had been a decline in novel writing at the
beginning of the century, partly because fiction
had turned to horror and crude emotionalism
and partly because of religious and moral
objections to the reading of novels.
However, with the rise of the popular magazine,
authors began to experiment with serialized
fiction. Soon they were writing novels.

12. Charles Dickens (1812-70)
• One author who became famous by writing in
magazines was Charles Dickens.
• Dickens became the most famous author of the
Victorian Age.
• Few of his novels have convincing plots, but in
characterization and in the creation of moods he
was outstanding. By 1850 Dickens had become
England's best-loved novelist. Some of Dickens’
most famous works are: A Christmas Carol, Bleak
House, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and
Oliver Twist.

13. • “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my
own life, or whether that station will be held by
anybody else, these pages must show. To begin
my life with the beginning of my life, I record that
I was born (as I have been informed and believe)
on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was
remarked that the clock began to strike, and I
began to cry, simultaneously.”
• (Extract from the beginning of David Copperfield)

15. As a prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays and novels, Dickens became
worldwide famous during his lifetime. His remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in
the telling of their lives and his depictions of the social classes, morals and values made
him widely famous.
Some considered him the spokesman for the poor, for he definitely brought much
awareness to their plight, the downtrodden and the have-nots. On Dickens’ tombstone you
can find this line: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, and the oppressed; and by his death,
one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world”.

16. As a contrast, the novels of the Bronte sisters (Charlotte, 1816-55; Emily, 1818-48; Anne,
1820-49) have very little to do with the condition of society or the world in general.
Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights (both 1847), especially, are
powerful and intensely personal stories of the private lives of characters isolated from
the rest of the world.
Bronte sisters (Charlotte, 1816-55;
Emily, 1818-48; Anne, 1820-49)

17. Chapter 3, Wuthering Heights
I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to
seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of
a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw
back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed,
´Let me in—let me in!’
''Who are you?' I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. 'Catherine
Linton,' it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of Linton? I had read Earnshaw twenty
times for Linton) 'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor! As it spoke, I
discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window. Terror made me
cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on
to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the
bedclothes: still it wailed, 'Let me in!' and maintained its tenacious gripe, almost
maddening me with fear'

18. Wuthering Heights- Emily Brontë

19. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë