Group 7 – Victorian Period

History Development of Victorian Literature

Victorian literature is the body of poetry, fiction, essays, and letters produced during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) and
during the era which bears her name. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and
the modernist literature of the twentieth century.
During the nineteenth century the novel become the leading form of literature in English. The works by pre-Victorian writers such
as Jane Austen and Walter Scott had perfected both closely observed social satire and historical fiction. Serialized popular novels won
unprecedented readership and led to increasing artistic sophistication. The nineteenth century is often regarded as a high point in
European literature and Victorian literature, including the works of Emily and Charlotte Brontë), Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis
Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, and Oscar Wilde remain widely
popular and part of the core curricula in most universities and secondary schools.

Victorian period contribution to Literature

Great strides were made in English literature in this era. The writings of Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy, Oscar
Wilde, Lewis Karol and Kipling still continue to captivate the world. Poets like Shelly, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning created
several gems of contemporary poetry.

Notable Persons
Charles Dickens, in full Charles John Huffam Dickens, (born February 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England—died June 9, 1870,
Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent), English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era. His many volumes include
such works as A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, (born Aug. 4, 1792, Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex, Eng.—died July 8, 1822, at sea off Livorno, Tuscany
[Italy]), English Romantic poet whose passionate search for personal love and social justice was gradually channeled from overt actions
into poems that rank with the greatest in the English language.

William Makepeace Thackeray, (born July 18, 1811, Calcutta, India—died Dec. 24, 1863, London, Eng.), English novelist whose
reputation rests chiefly on Vanity Fair (1847–48), a novel of the Napoleonic period in England, and The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.
(1852), set in the early 18th century.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson, (born Sept. 29, 1810, Chelsea, London, Eng.—died Nov. 12, 1865, near Alton,
Hampshire), English novelist, short-story writer, and first biographer of Charlotte Brontë.

Charles Kingsley, (born June 12, 1819, Holne Vicarage, Devon, England—died January 23, 1875, Eversley, Hampshire), Anglican
clergyman and writer whose successful fiction ranged from social-problem novels to historical romances and children’s literature.

George Eliot, pseudonym of Mary Ann, or Marian, Cross, née Evans, (born November 22, 1819, Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire,
England—died December 22, 1880, London), English Victorian novelist who developed the method of psychological analysis
characteristic of modern fiction. Her major works include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861),
Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876).

Anthony Trollope, (born April 24, 1815, London, Eng.—died Dec. 6, 1882, London), English novelist whose popular success
concealed until long after his death the nature and extent of his literary merit. A series of books set in the imaginary English county of
Barsetshire remains his best loved and most famous work, but he also wrote convincing novels of political life as well as studies that
show great psychological penetration. One of his greatest strengths was a steady, consistent vision of the social structures of Victorian
England, which he re-created in his books with unusual solidity.

Arthur Hugh Clough, (born Jan. 1, 1819, Liverpool—died Nov. 13, 1861, Florence), poet whose work reflects the perplexity and
religious doubt of mid-19th century England. He was a friend of Matthew Arnold and the subject of Arnold’s commemorative elegy
“Thyrsis.”
Matthew Arnold, (born December 24, 1822, Laleham, Middlesex, England—died April 15, 1888, Liverpool), English Victorian poet and
literary and social critic, noted especially for his classical attacks on the contemporary tastes and manners of the “Barbarians” (the
aristocracy), the “Philistines” (the commercial middle class), and the “Populace.” He became the apostle of “culture” in such works as
Culture and Anarchy (1869).

Charles Darwin, in full Charles Robert Darwin, (born February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England—died April 19, 1882,
Downe, Kent), English naturalist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary
studies.

Literary Genres
Detective Fiction - Genre of novel or short story in which a mystery is solved mainly by the action of a professional or amateur
detective...

Historical Novel - Genre of fictional prose narrative set in the past. Literature set in the historic rather than the immediate past has
always abounded,

Mystery - Or mystery story, literary genre in which the cause (or causes) of a mysterious happening, often a crime, is gradually revealed
by the hero or heroine...

Poetry - Imaginative literary form, particularly suitable for describing emotions and thoughts. Poetry is highly ‘compressed’ writing..

Romance - In literature, tales of love and chivalric adventure, in verse or prose, that became popular in France about 1200 and spread
throughout Europe...

Science Fiction - Literary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story. Although science
fiction is a form of fantastic literature...

Short Story - Short work of prose fiction, usually consisting of between 500 and 10,000 words...

Literary Text
Rocking Horse - a model of a horse mounted on rockers or springs for a child to sit on and rock back and forth.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-post-Romantic-and-Victorian-eras

https://libguides.southernct.edu/c.php?g=7223&p=34956

http://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-influences-and-contribution.html#Victorian_period_contribution_to_Literature

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Victorian_Literature

https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/427419820856114291/