The Victorian novel flourished during this period as the most capable art form for reflecting modern society's complexity. Novels were commonly published in installments in magazines and followed a linear structure with a beginning, middle, and end. Popular genres included the Bildungsroman, which traced a protagonist's life from childhood to adulthood, and novels examining how individuals find their place in society through compromise. Late Victorian novels portrayed alienated characters and focused more on their inner psychological worlds.

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.