Victorian Novel

1. VICTORIAN NOVEL
MODULE 1
SEMESTER 3
EN1331 COMPLEMENTARY COURSE
HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 3
SREEKUMAR V. R.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
NSS COLLEGE NILAMEL

2.  Most popular form of literature of the Victorian Age
 Novel: a vehicle of ideas as well as a means of
amusement
 Variety of matter and treatment
 Well marked interest towards specialization in
fiction
 Separate aspects of life for special treatment
 Novels of sea and military life, of high life, middle
class life, low life, criminal life, industrial life,
political life, artistic life etc.

3. CHARLES DICKENS

4.  Difficult childhood, father imprisoned in debtor’s prison,
 Pickwick Papers- first work
 His later works attempts to gather diverse threads into a
unified plot
 David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great
Expectations and Hard Times
 Characteristics: irresistible humour, unsurpassed descriptive
power, astonishing varieties of characterization
 Key note of his works : Humanitarianism
 Champions the cause of the weak, the outcast and the
oppressed

5. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

6.  Deals with the upper class society: society of the
clubs, drawing rooms and well to do
 Social satirist and realist
 Vanity Fair: most popular novel
 The title indicates his subject matter and his attitude
towards it
 Deviated from the long popular romantic tradition in
fiction by focusing on vice rather than virtue
 Other works: Pendennis, The History of Henry
Esmond, The Virginians

7. MARY ANN EVANS

8.  George Eliot (pen name)
 Moral and philosophical in approach
 Dealt with provincial life-she had been familiar with
 Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner,
Middlemarch
 Realism: uncompromising truth to life
 Romola ; historical novel, tale of the Renaissance

9. BRONTE SISTERS

10. CHARLOTTE BRONTE
 Intensity of passion and frankness of description
 Jane Eyre
EMILY BRONTE
 Wuthering Heights: a classic novel
 Different from other Victorian novels
 Embodies author’s vision of life and love;
 Story of love and revenge
 Unfulfilled love of the hero and heroine finds real
fulfillment in their spiritual reunion after death
ANNE BRONTE
 Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

11. BENJAMIN DISRAELI

12.  The Prime Minister of England twice
 Witty and brilliant novels
 Portrayal of contemporary life, society and manners
 Portraits of prominent men and women of the time
 Genuine sympathy for poverty and oppression
 Novels: Vivian Grey , Young Duke, Endymion

13.  Antony Trollope  George Meredith

14.  CHARLES KINGSLEY
 Westward Ho!, Yeast, Alton Locke
 CHARLES READE
 Hard Cash: criticism of corrupt practices in a lunatic
asylum
 WILKIE COLLINS
 The Woman in White, No Name, Armadale
 Sensational tales with elaborate description of the
plotting of a crime
 Forerunner of detective novels
 ANTHONY TROLLOPE
 Barchester Towers; minute picture of bishops and clergy
 GEORGE MEREDITH
 Intellectual novelist concerned with the inner workings of
the mind
 The Egoist (masterpiece)

15. THOMAS HARDY

16.  Immortalized the semi-fictional locale Wessex
 Set the trend for regional novel in English
 Depicted its physical features with accuracy and
realism
 Mastery in characterization especially of women
 Interprets human life as “ a struggle between man
and an omnipotent indifferent fate”
 Novels: Under the Greenwood Tree, A Pair of Blue
eyes, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of
the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge

17. REFERENCE
 Radhakumari, K. A Concise History of English
Literature and Language, Delhi: Primus Books,
2013.
 Ashok,Padmaja. The Social History of England,
Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2011
 Blamiers, Harry. A Short History of English
Literature, London: Methuen, 1984

18. THANK YOU