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Victorian literature isEnglish literature during the reign ofQueen Victoria (1837–1901). In theVictorian era, the novel became the leadingliterary genre in English. English writing from this era reflects the major transformations in most aspects of English life, from scientific, economic, and technological advances to changes in class structures and the role of religion in society.[1] The number of new novels published each year increased from 100 at the start of the period to 1000 by the end of it.[2] Famous novelists from this period includeCharles Dickens,William Makepeace Thackeray, the threeBrontë sisters (Charlotte,Emily, andAnne Brontë),Elizabeth Gaskell,George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans),Thomas Hardy, andRudyard Kipling.
TheRomantic period was a time of abstract expression and inward focus; during theVictorian era, writers focused on social issues. Writers such asThomas Carlyle called attention to the dehumanizing effects of theIndustrial Revolution and what Carlyle called the "Mechanical Age".[3][4] This awareness inspired the subject matter of other authors, like poetElizabeth Barrett Browning and novelistsCharles Dickens andThomas Hardy. Barrett's works onchild labor cemented her success in a male-dominated world where women writers often had to use masculine pseudonyms.[5] Dickens employed humor and an approachable tone while addressing social problems such as wealth disparity.[6] Hardy used his novels to question religion and social structures.[7]
Poetry and theatre were also present during the Victorian era.Robert Browning andAlfred Tennyson were Victorian England's most famous poets.[8] With regard to the theatre it was not until the last decades of the 19th century that any significant works were produced. Notable playwrights of the time includeGilbert and Sullivan,George Bernard Shaw, andOscar Wilde.[9]
Charles Dickens is the most famous Victorian novelist. With a focus on strong characterization, Dickens became extraordinarily popular in his day and remains one of the most popular and read authors of the world. Dickens began his literary career withSketches by Boz (1833–1836) which collected short stories published in various newspapers and other periodicals. His first novel,The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837) written when he was twenty-five, was an overnight success, and all his subsequent works sold extremely well. The comedy of his first novel has a satirical edge and this pervades his writing. While at the beginning of the 19th century most novels were published in three volumes, monthly serialization was revived with the publication of Charles Dickens'Pickwick Papers in twenty parts between April 1836 and November 1837. Demand was high for each episode to introduce some new element, whether it was a plot twist or a new character, so as to maintain the readers' interest.[10] Dickens worked diligently and prolifically to produce the entertaining writing that the public wanted, but also to offer commentary on social problems and the plight of the poor and oppressed. His most important works includeOliver Twist (1837–1839),Nicholas Nickleby (1838–1839),A Christmas Carol (1843),Dombey and Son (1846–1848),David Copperfield (1849–1850),Bleak House (1852–1853),Little Dorrit (1855–1857),A Tale of Two Cities (1859), andGreat Expectations (1860–1861). His later novels become progressively darker, mirroring a tendency in much of Victorian writing.
William Makepeace Thackeray was Dickens' great rival in the first half of Queen Victoria's reign. With a similar style but a slightly more detached, acerbic and barbed satirical view of his characters, he also tended to depict a more middle-class society than Dickens did. He is best known for his novelsThe Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) andVanity Fair (1847–1848) which are examples of a popular form in Victorian literature: a historical novel in which recent history is depicted.
The threeBrontë sisters,Charlotte,Emily, andAnne Brontë, produced notable works of the period, although these were not immediately appreciated by Victorian critics.Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Brontë, is a major Victorian novel with Gothic themes inspired by the previous generation of gothic writers. Her novel features many similar characteristics ofAnn Radcliffe'sThe Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) including gloomy, isolated mansions and supernatural elements. AlongsideJane Austen'sPride and Prejudice (1813), it is considered one of the greatest novels in the English language.[11]Wuthering Heights (1847), Emily's only work, is an example ofGothicRomanticism from a woman's point of view, which examines class, myth, and gender. Anne's second novel,The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), written in a realistic rather than romantic style, is mainly considered to be the first sustainedfeminist novel.[12]
Elizabeth Gaskell produced notable works during this period, includingMary Barton (1848),Cranford (1851–1853),North and South (1854–1855), andWives and Daughters (1864–1866).
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) also produced major works during this period, most notablyAdam Bede (1859),The Mill on the Floss (1860),Silas Marner (1861),Middlemarch (1871–1872), andDaniel Deronda (1876). Like theBrontës she published under a masculine pseudonym.
Later in this period,Thomas Hardy's best-known novels areFar from the Madding Crowd (1874),The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886),Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), andJude the Obscure (1895). Renowned for his cynical yet idyllic portrayal of pastoral life in the English countryside, Hardy's work pushed back against widespread urbanization that came to symbolize the Victorian age.
Other significant novelists of this era wereAnthony Trollope (1815–1882),Wilkie Collins (1824–1889),George Meredith (1828–1909), andGeorge Gissing (1857–1903).
Robert Browning (1812–1889) andAlfred Tennyson (1809–1892) were notable poets in Victorian England.[8] Thomas Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, but did not publish a collection until 1898.[13] The poetry ofGerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was published posthumously in 1918.Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) is also considered an important literary figure of the period, especially his poems and critical writings. Early poetry ofW. B. Yeats was also published in Victoria's reign. It was not until the last decades of the 19th century that any significant theatrical works were produced, beginning withGilbert and Sullivan's comic operas of the 1870s,George Bernard Shaw's (1856–1950) plays of the 1890s, andOscar Wilde's (1854–1900)The Importance of Being Earnest.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning andRobert Browning became acquainted first by reading each other's poetry and both produced poems inspired by their relationship. BothMatthew Arnold andGerard Manley Hopkins wrote poems that sit somewhere in between the exultation of nature of theRomantic poetry and theGeorgian poetry of the early 20th century. However, Hopkins's poetry was not published until 1918. Arnold's works anticipate some of the themes of these later poets, while Hopkins drew inspiration fromverse forms ofOld English poetry such asBeowulf.
The reclaiming of the past was a major part of Victorian literature with an interest in bothclassical literature and alsomedieval literature of England. This movement can be traced back toLetitia Elizabeth Landon and her poetry collections. Victorians lovedchivalrous stories of knights of old; they hoped to regain some of that courtly behavior for readers at home and in the widerempire. The best example of this isAlfred Tennyson'sIdylls of the King, which blended the stories ofKing Arthur, particularly those byThomas Malory, with contemporary concerns and ideas. ThePre-Raphaelite Brotherhood also drew on myth and folklore for their art, withDante Gabriel Rossetti contemporaneously regarded as the chief poet amongst them, although his sisterChristina is now held by scholars[citation needed] to be a stronger poet.
In drama,farces,musical burlesques,extravaganzas andcomic operas competed withShakespeare productions and serious drama by the likes ofJames Planché andThomas William Robertson. In 1855, theGerman Reed Entertainments began a process of elevating the level of (formerly risqué) musical theatre in Britain that culminated in the famous series of comic operas byGilbert and Sullivan and were followed by the 1890s with the firstEdwardian musical comedies. The first play to achieve 500 consecutive performances was the London comedyOur Boys byH. J. Byron, opening in 1875. Its astonishing new record of 1,362 performances was bested in 1892 byCharley's Aunt byBrandon Thomas.[14] AfterW. S. Gilbert,Oscar Wilde became the leading poet and dramatist of the late Victorian period.[9] Wilde's plays, in particular, stand apart from the many now-forgotten plays of Victorian times and have a closer relationship to those of theEdwardian dramatists such asGeorge Bernard Shaw, whose career began in the 1890s. Wilde's 1895 comic masterpiece,The Importance of Being Earnest, was the greatest of the plays in which he held an ironic mirror to the aristocracy while displaying virtuosic mastery of wit and paradoxical wisdom. It has remained extremely popular. The plays ofArthur Wing Pinero have been staged again in the last few decades.
The Victorians are credited with "inventing childhood", partly via their efforts to stopchild labor and the introduction ofcompulsory education. As children began to be able to read, literature for young people became a growth industry, with not only established writers producing works for children (such as Dickens'A Child's History of England) but also a new group of dedicatedchildren's authors. Writers likeLewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland),Anna Sewell (Black Beauty), andR. M. Ballantyne (The Coral Island) wrote mainly for children, although they had an adult following. Other authors such asRobert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island) andAnthony Hope (The Prisoner of Zenda) wrote mainly for adults, but theiradventure novels are now generally classified as for children.[15] Other genres includenonsense verse, poetry which required a childlike interest (e.g.Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky").School stories flourished:Thomas Hughes'Tom Brown's Schooldays andKipling'sStalky & Co. are classics.
Rarely were these publications designed to capture a child's pleasure; however, with the increase in the use of illustrations, children began to enjoy literature and were able to learn morals in a more entertaining way.[16] With the newfound acceptance of reading for pleasure,fairy tales andfolk tales became popular. Compiling folk tales by many authors with different topics made it possible for children to read literature about many topics which interested them. There were different types of books and magazines written for boys and girls. Girls' stories tended to be domestic and to focus on family life, whereas boys' stories were more about adventures.[15][17]
The Victorian era was an important time for the development of science and the Victorians had a mission to describe and classify the entire natural world. Much of this writing does not rise to the level of being regarded as literature but one book in particular,Charles Darwin'sOn the Origin of Species, remains famous. The theory ofevolution contained within the work challenged many of the ideas the Victorians had about themselves and their place in the world. Although it took a long time to be widely accepted, it would dramatically change subsequent thoughts and literature. Much of the work of popularizing Darwin's theories was done by his younger contemporaryThomas Henry Huxley, who wrote widely on the subject.
A number of other non-fiction works of the era made their mark on the literature of the period. The philosophical writings ofJohn Stuart Mill coveredlogic, economics,liberty andutilitarianism. The large and influential histories ofThomas Carlyle,The French Revolution: A History (1837), andOn Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History (1841) permeated political thought at the time. The writings ofThomas Babington Macaulay on English history helped codify theWhig narrative that dominated the historiography for many years.John Ruskin wrote a number of highly influential works on art and the history of art and championed such contemporary figures asJ. M. W. Turner and thePre-Raphaelites. The religious writerJohn Henry Newman'sOxford Movement aroused intense debate within theChurch of England, exacerbated by Newman's own conversion to Catholicism, which he wrote about in his autobiographyApologia Pro Vita Sua.
A number of monumental references works were published in this era, most notably theOxford English Dictionary which would eventually become the most important historical dictionary of the English language. Also published during the later Victorian era was theDictionary of National Biography and the ninth edition of theEncyclopædia Britannica.
In the United States,Henry David Thoreau's works andSusan Fenimore Cooper'sRural Hours (1850) were canonical influences on Victoriannature writing. In the UK,Philip Gosse andSarah Bowdich Lee were two of the most popular nature writers in the early part of the Victorian era.[18]The Illustrated London News, founded in 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper and often published articles and illustrations dealing with nature; in the second half of the 19th century, books, articles, and illustrations on nature became widespread and popular among an increasingly urbanized reading public.
The old Gothic tales that came out of the late 19th century are the first examples of the genre of fantasy fiction. These tales often centered on larger-than-life characters such asSherlock Holmes, famous detective of the times,Sexton Blake, and other fictional characters of the era, such asDracula,Edward Hyde,The Invisible Man, and many other fictional characters who often had exotic enemies to foil. Spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a particular type of story-writing known as gothic.[19] Gothic literature combines romance and horror in an attempt to thrill and terrify the reader. Possible features in a gothic novel are foreign monsters, ghosts, curses, hidden rooms, and witchcraft. Gothic tales usually take place in locations such as castles, monasteries, and cemeteries, although the gothic monsters sometimes cross over into the real world, making appearances in cities such as London.
Writers from the United States and the British colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada were influenced by the literature of Britain and are often classed as a part of Victorian literature, although they were gradually developing their own distinctive voices.[20] Victorian writers ofCanadian literature includeGrant Allen,Susanna Moodie andCatherine Parr Traill.Australian literature has the poetsAdam Lindsay Gordon andBanjo Paterson, who wroteWaltzing Matilda, andNew Zealand literature includesThomas Bracken andFrederick Edward Maning. From the sphere ofliterature of the United States during this time are some of the country's greats including:Emily Dickinson,Ralph Waldo Emerson,Nathaniel Hawthorne,Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.,Henry James,Herman Melville,Harriet Beecher Stowe,Henry David Thoreau,Mark Twain andWalt Whitman.
The problem with the classification of "Victorian literature" is the great difference between the early works of the period and the later works which had more in common with the writers of theEdwardian period and many writers straddle this divide. People such asArthur Conan Doyle,Rudyard Kipling,H. G. Wells,Bram Stoker,H. Rider Haggard,Jerome K. Jerome andJoseph Conrad all wrote some of their important works during Victoria's reign but the sensibility of their writing is frequently regarded as Edwardian.
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| Preceded by | Victorian literature 1837–1901 | Succeeded by |
| Charlotte |
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| Emily |
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| Anne |
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| Collaborative work | |
| Juvenilia | |
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