Grade 11 English University Prep The Victorian Novel

Victorian Novels Victorian novels (written in English in the 1800s when Queen Victoria ruled) are: Very long Mostly made up of conversations and/or letters, rather than events occurring Filled with people of three classes (nobility, middle class and lower/poor class) who arent to mix, socialize or date Dark and brooding, full of disease, poverty and death As eloquently, formally and fancily written as possible Usually spiced up by a hidden secret, usually involving long-lost twins, amnesia, insanity, out of wedlock pregnancy, crime, secret marriages, bastard children, lost fortunes, monsters, ghosts, pirates, exiles returned from prison or Australia and nasty workhouses, orphanages or factories. Actually by Charlotte Brontes sister Emily Actually by Charles Dickens

Victorian Novels Mary Shelleys Frankenstein A series of letters and conversations reveal, all in flashback, that a man secretly made a monster, and its been murdering people and brooding over its fate, destiny and possible happiness. Things dont go well, and the monster kills itself in a fire.

Victorian Novels Bram Stokers Dracula A series of letters and conversations reveal, mostly in flashback, that a man is secretly a monster, and has been murdering people and must be killed. With all the people dying of consumption, whos going to notice two little holes in someones neck?

Victorian Novels Robert Louis Stevensons The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde A series of letters and conversations reveal, mostly in flashback, that a man has secretly accidentally turned himself into a monster, which has been murdering people and must be killed.

Victorian Novels Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories With a great deal of focus upon conversations and letters, a detective uncovers the facts about secret marriages, pregnancies, thefts, orphans, identical twins, brothers returned from Australia, lunatics, amnesiacs, fires and etc.

Victorian Novels H.G. Wells The Time Machine In this work of Victorian speculative fiction, the story is told (in conversation, in flashback, by two narrators) of a man who makes a time machine and travels through time. In the future, society has divided into a frail, helpless upper caste, and a bunch of lower caste monsters who devolved from the proletariat, working class people.

Victorian Novels Charles Dickens Oliver Twist A poor orphan escapes a workhouse only to fall into the clutches of a criminal who keeps a gang of child pickpockets, but Oliver wont turn to crime. Executions, secrets and murders abound.

Victorian Novels Charles Dickens David Copperfield A half-orphaned boy is abused by his horrible step-father, gets sent to a boarding school, must work in a nasty factory and tries to live his life. Executions, secrets, crime and murders abound. People go to Australia.

Victorian Novels Charles Dickens Great Expectations An orphan meets a criminal who later is sent to Australia and helps him escape his manacles. The orphan lives with his abusive sister until she is beaten and becomes a brain-damaged invalid, and he loves a girl who lives with a crazy, cruel, abusive old shut-in lady. There is darkness, cruelty, people sent to jail and Australia, and old ladies being lit on fire.

Victorian Story Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol A cruel, stingy man (Ebenezer Scrooge) who does not help poor people and crippled children is visited by ghosts who convince him hes a bit of a monster and frighten him into becoming more Christmassy.

Womens Books In a stereotypical chick flick or womans book, (e.g. Bridget Jones Diary) the heroine must choose between two men. The exciting one is usually a jerk. The nice one is boring. How to choose? The traditional solution is to tame or reform the exciting jerk. Note: this works less well in real life. Read Cosmo.

Victorian Novels Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights On the blasted, windy, rainy moors, a poor gypsy man who is an exciting jerk and a woman who is out of his social reach are passionately in love. There is also a nice, kind, boring man who loves her who she is supposed to marry. The gypsy jerk(Heathcliffe) is shattered by this and storms out and carries on. She married the boring guy. Eventually she gets sick and dies, and the exciting boor ends up wailing and crying and trying to dig up the corpse of his deceased love. Then he becomes a cruel idiot and angrily and cruelly raises his sickly, bastard son who he hates, and torments the daughter of his dead love. Eventually, when the daughter is in love with someone he doesnt approve of, he goes insane, sees the ghost of his dead love, and dies. The end.

Victorian Novels Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre An orphan girl who wont do what shes told or defer to her betters survives the most horrible foster parenting (a horribly cruel old invalid lady) and boarding school, manages not to die of consumption, has two men to choose from (one boring, religious and nice, and the other an angry jerk). There are secrets, lost fortunes, foster children, angst, poverty and fires.