Victorian literature refers to works written during Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901. It was a period of transition between Romanticism and 20th century literature. Common themes included critiques of industrialization and the loss of rural life, as well as conflicts between classes and women's rights. Morality was emphasized through stories rewarding virtue and punishing vice. Major genres included novels, poetry, theater, and children's literature. Famous authors of this era included the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Oscar Wilde. New genres like detective fiction and science fiction also emerged during this time.

1. Victorian Literature

2. What is Victorian Literature?
• Victorian literature refers to the literary works
written during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-
1901).
• It was the transition between the Romantic period
and 20th 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.
• High Victorian novels tended to be edifying
moral stories that portraited difficult lives, and
where hard work, love and perseverance were
always rewarded.
• Late Victorian novels were more complex, as
they reflected an inner struggle to conquer the
flaws of human nature through effort and
virtue.

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. Poetry
• 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.
Poetry

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.
• Oscar Wilde was the leading dramatist of the late
Victorian period and his comic masterpiece The
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.

17. Children‘s Literature
• The Victorian period was the first one in history
where children were targeted as readers.
• This was a consequence of the evolution of
social attitudes towards childhood.
• Literature became a popular way to teach
children lessons and morals. They were only
rarely enjoyable works.
• Later, when reading for pleasure became socially
accepted, folk and fairy-tale compilations
became very popular
• There were different types of publications
written for boys and girls. Girls stories were
domestic and focused on family life, whereas
boys stories were about adventures.

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
• Early examples: Johannes Kepler’s Somnium (1620-
1630). Cyrano de Bergerac’s Comical History of the
States and Empires of the Moon (1657) and States
and Empires of the Sun (1662). Jonathan Swift’s
Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Voltaire’s Micromégas.
• With the dawn of new technologies such as
electricity, the telegraph, and new forms of
transportation, writers including
H.G. Wells and Jules Verne created a body of work
that became popular across broad cross-sections
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.