Victorian literature

Victorian literature is the body of writing produced during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837—1901) and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century.

Other Literature

The Victorians are sometimes credited with inventing childhood, with their efforts to stop child labour and the introduction of compulsory education. Literature for young people became a growth industry with, not only, adult novelists producing works for children such as Dickens' A Child's History of England but also dedicated children's authors. Writers like Lewis Carroll, R. M. Ballantyne and Anna Sewell wrote mainly for children, although they had an adult following, and nonsense verse, poetry which required a child-like interest, was produced by Edward Lear among others. The subject of school also became a rich area for books with Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays just one of the most popular examples.

Related Topics:
Compulsory education - A Child's History of England - Children's author - Lewis Carroll - R. M. Ballantyne - Anna Sewell - Nonsense verse - Poetry - Edward Lear - Thomas Hughes - Tom Brown's Schooldays

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Poetry

Poetry in a sense settled down from the upheavals of the romantic era and much of the work of the time is seen as a bridge between this earlier era and the modernist poetry of the next century. This dismissive summary ignores the large amount of poetry written during this time and some of the important writers. Alfred Lord Tennyson held the poet laureateship for over forty years and his verse became rather stale by the end but his early work is rightly praised. Some of the poetry highly regarded at the time such as Invictus and If? are now seen as jingoistic and bombastic but Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade was a fierce criticism of a famous military blunder; a pillar of the establishment not failing to attack the establishment.

Related Topics:
Poetry - Romantic - Modernist poetry - Alfred Lord Tennyson - Poet laureate - Invictus - If? - Jingoistic - Bombastic - Charge of the Light Brigade

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It seems wrong to classify Oscar Wilde as a Victorian writer as his plays and poems seem to belong to the later age of Edwardian literature but as he died in 1900 he was most definitely Victorian. His plays stand apart from the many now forgotten plays of Victorian times and have a much closer relationship to the George Bernard Shaw's of which many of the most important were written in the 20th century.

Related Topics:
Oscar Wilde - Edwardian - 1900 - George Bernard Shaw - 20th century

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The husband and wife poetry team of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning conducted their love affair through verse and produced many tender and passionate poems. Both Matthew Arnold and Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote poems which sit somewhere in between the exultation of nature of the romantic Poetry and the Georgian Poetry of the early 20th century. Arnold's works harks forward to some of the themes of these later poets while drew for inspiration on verse forms from Old English poetry such as Beowulf.

Related Topics:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Robert Browning - Matthew Arnold - Gerard Manley Hopkins - Romantic Poetry - Georgian Poetry - 20th century - Verse form - Old English - Beowulf

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The reclaiming of the past was a major part of Victorian literature with an interest in both classical literature but also the medieval literature of England. The Victorians loved the heroic, chivalrous stories of knights of old and they hoped to regain some of that noble, courtly behaviour and impress it upon the people both at home and in the wider empire. The best example of this is Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King which blended the stories of King Arthur, particularly those by Thomas Malory, with contemporary concerns and ideas. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood also drew on myth and folklore for their art with Dante Gabriel Rossetti the chief poet amongst them.

Related Topics:
Classical literature - Medieval literature - Chivalrous - Empire - Alfred Tennyson - Idylls of the King - King Arthur - Thomas Malory - Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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Science, philosophy and discovery

The interest in older works of literature led the Victorians much further afield to find new old works with a great interest in translating of literature from the farthest flung corners of their new empire and beyond. Arabic and Sanskrit literature were some of the richest bodies of work to be discovered and translated for popular consumption. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of the best of these works, translated by Edward FitzGerald who introduced much of his own poetic skill into a rather free adaptation of the 11th century work. The explorer Richard Francis Burton also translated many exotic works from beyond Europe including The Perfumed Garden, The Arabian Knights and the Karma Sutra.

Related Topics:
Arabic - Sanskrit literature - Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - Edward FitzGerald - 11th century - Explorer - Richard Francis Burton - Europe - The Perfumed Garden - The Arabian Knights - Karma Sutra

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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's On the Origin of Species remains famous. The theory of evolution contained within the work shook many of the ideas the Victorians had about themselves and their place in the world and although it took a long time to be widely accepted it would change, dramatically, subsequent thought and literature.

Related Topics:
Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species - Evolution

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Other important non-fiction works of the time are the philosophical writings of John Stuart Mill covering logic, economics, liberty and utilitarianism. The large and influential histories of Thomas Carlyle: The French Revolution, A History, On Heroes and Hero Worship and Thomas Babington Macaulay: The History of England from the Accession of James II. The greater number of novels that contained overt criticism of religion did not stifle a vigorous list of publications on the subject of religion. Two of the most important of these are John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Cardinal Manning who both wished to revitalise Anglicanism with a return to the Roman Catholic Church. In a somewhat opposite direction, the ideas of socialism were permeating political though at the time with Friedrich Engels writing his Condition of the Working Classes in England and William Morris writing the early socialist utopian novel News from Nowhere. One other important and monumental work begun in this era was the Oxford English Dictionary which would eventually become the most important historical dictionary of the English language.

Related Topics:
Non-fiction - Philosophical - John Stuart Mill - Logic - Economics - Liberty - Utilitarianism - Thomas Carlyle - The French Revolution, A History - On Heroes and Hero Worship - Thomas Babington Macaulay - The History of England from the Accession of James II - John Henry Newman - Henry Edward Cardinal Manning - Anglicanism - Roman Catholic Church - Socialism - Friedrich Engels - Condition of the Working Classes in England - William Morris - Utopian - News from Nowhere - Oxford English Dictionary - English language

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