2. What is Victorian Literature?
• Victorian literature refers to the literary works
written during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-
1901).
• It was tt
hh
e transition between the Romantic
period and 20 century literature.
3. It can be divided into two periods:
• High Victorian Literature
(1830-1870)
• Late Victorian Literature
(1870-1901)
4. Common Themes
• Critique of industrialization
• Critique of the deterioration of the rural lifestyle
• Celebration of the past (including chivalry)
• Conflicts between classes
• Women´s rights
5. Morality
• Most works were written to teach moral lessons
to readers.
• Hard work and strong virtue are always
romanticized and rewarded, and poor behavior is
punished at the end.
• Literary works are full of passion and characters
are often tempted by evil, but they show restraint
against wild emotions (as opposed as during the
Romantic Period).
6. Genres
• Poetry
• Novel
• Theater
• Nonfiction
• Gothic and supernatural literature
• Children‘s literature
• New genres:
- detective novels
- science fiction
7. Novels
• Novel was the dominant genre during the
Victorian period.
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8. Major Novelists
• Charles Dickens is probably the most
widely
read author from this
time.
• His novels achieved immense
popularity during his lifetime and there
were even spin- offs and merchandise
made of them.
• Most novels criticized society and
its poorest, but in line with the literature
of era, there was a very strong moral
element to the tales.
9. • Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë
• The sisters published their works under the male pseudonyms
Currer, Ellis Ashton Bell, as it was common practice for female
writers that wanted to be taken more seriously.
• Their novels include some unconventional themes for this era,
such as violence, a deep desire for freedom, a wilderness of
spirit, feminism and the supernatural.
• Their work was considered controversial but they eventually
achieved the success they deserved.
• Some of their works:
• Charlotte: Jane Eyre
• Emily: Wuthering Heights
• Anne: The Tennant of Wildfell Hall
Major Novelists
10. • William Makepeace
Thackeray
• He began as a parodist and satirist but later
started
to write novels with a very strong satiric
component.
• He enjoyed great success during his lifetime
but
his best known work is Vanity Fair.
• In it, he satirizes British society of the 19th
century, although it is set during the
Napoleonic Wars.
• There have been several film adaptations
of this and it is still one of the best loved
by the British public.
Major Novelists
11. Poetr
y
• The most famous poet of the Victorian period was
Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
• His poetry mostly retells classical myths, but it also
covers religious dilemmas and scientific
discoveries.
• Although he experimented with metric,
he mostly followed a strict pattern,
a reflection of the formality of the era.
12. • Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Husband and wife, they enjoyed
great popularity because of their
love poems to each other.
• Elizabeth Barrett was already a
successful author before she met her
husband, and was also an involved
activist in social issues.
• Her prolific work made her a rival to
Tennyson as a candidate for poet
laureate 1850 after the death of
Wordsworth.
Poetr
y
13. • It was also a group of writers and artists, of which Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and his sister Christina were part.
• Their aim was to replace the academic approach to art with the
more natural approach taken before the Italian Renaissance.
• Several writers joined this movement, echoing a simpler,
less formal approach to literature. The Rossettis are the
greatest poets of this movement.
The Pre-Raphaelites
14. Theater
• Theater became an extremely popular form of
entertainment for all social classes during this era
and Queen Victoria promoted it.
• Plays usually had a strong comedic element, both
high and low, and the plots were full of mistaken
identities, coincidences and mistiming.
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Importance of Being Earnest is a satiric reflection of
the time.
15. Nonfiction
• The Victorian era was a period of great scientific
discovery and the Victorians tried to describe and
classify the world they lived in.
• Among others, Charles Darwin with On the Origin of
Species, Friedrich Engels with his Condition of the
Working Classes in England and John Stuart Mill
with his philosophical works, changed the way the
Victorians thought about themselves and about the
world.
16. Supernatural and Gothic Literature
• Gothic literature combines romance and
horror in attempt to thrill and terrify the
reader.
• Possible features in a gothic novel are
monsters, ghosts, curses, hidden
rooms, mad women in the attic and
witchcraft.
• The plot usually takes place in
monasteries, castles and cemeteries.
• They were hugely popular but panned by
critics.
18. New Genres: Detective Stories
• Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in
the Rue
Morgue is generally considered to be the
first detective story. The protagonist is
Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin.
• English novelist Wilkie Collins
published a detective novel, The
Moonstone, in 1868.
• The greatest fictional detective,
Sherlock Holmes, first appeared in
1887, in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s
novel A Study in Scarlet,
19. New Genres: Science Fiction
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States and Empires of the Moon (1657)
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Jonathan Swift’s
Gulliver ’s Travels (1726). Voltaire’s
Micromégas.
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such as
electricity, the telegraph, and new
forms of transportation, writers
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society. Wells‘ The War of the Worlds
(1898)
describes an invasion of late Victorian
England by
Martians using tripod fighting machines
equipped
with advanced weaponry. It is a seminal
depiction an alien invasion of Earth.
20. Victorian Literature
Today
• Many view it with skepticism because of the stereotypes
of the era: current readers may see it as prudish, rigid
and excessively formal.
• However, many contemporary authors criticized
these same trends, and there were many brilliant
works that were considered unconventional even
then.
• Those works have passed the test of time and are
today considered masterpieces of classic literature.
