1. The Victorian Period (1833-1901) A Period of Progress and Decline
Named for Queen Victoria ( )
An age of reform – economy improved, expansion occurred
Bad conditions in factories became more and more apparent
"All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their own peril."--by Oscar Wilde

2. Imperialism
A method of obtaining and controlling other countries in order to increase the size of empires
British saw themselves as superior to all other cultures, and that these non western countries needed “assistance”
Done to increase $ in England
Takeover included Hong Kong, India, Suez Canal, and Africa

3. Literature of the Victorian Era
Romanticism still influenced Victorians, but was much more mainstream
Focused more on realism – ordinary people facing tough day to day issues HUGE growth in the novel form…

4. Victorian Literature
The Period is often divided into two parts: the early Victorian Period (ending around 1870) and the late Victorian Period.
Writers associated with the early period are: Alfred, Lord Tennyson ( ), Robert Browning ( ), Elizabeth Barrett Browning ( ), Emily Bronte ( ), Matthew Arnold ( ), Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ), Christina Rossetti ( ), George Eliot ( ), and Charles Dickens ( ).

5. Victorian Literature
Writers associated with the late Victorian Period include: Oscar Wilde ( ), A.E. Housman ( ), Thomas Hardy ( ), Rudyard Kipling ( ), A.E. Housman ( ), and Robert Louis Stevenson ( ).
*While Tennyson and Browning represented pillars in Victorian poetry, Dickens and Eliot contributed to the development of the English novel.

6. Poetry of the Victorians
Alfred Lord Tennyson – most popular poet of the era
Became poet laureate after Wordsworth’s death in 1850
The Brownings – Robert and Elizabeth Barrett
Married – Elizabeth was more famous at their time of marriage – well known for love sonnets to her husband
A.E. Housman – frequent subject was life’s disappointments

7. Drama and Fiction
Dramas were few in beginning of the period, b/c government had restricted theatre before 1843
One of the most famous of this period was Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
A large amount of fiction during the time was published in weekly and monthly magazines, readers would buy magazines to read next installment

8. Fiction Authors George Eliot
Actually Mary Ann Evans, writing under a male pseudonym. Writes among others, Middlemarch and Silas Marner
Bronte sisters – Emily, Charlotte and Anne
Emily – Wuthering Heights
Charlotte – Jane Eyre
Charles Dickens
Wrote David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Hard Times, etc…

9. Traits of the Victorian Novel…
Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished. (They tended to focus on improving your situation with a central moral lesson at heart.)

10. Literary topics: Feminism Marxism Utilitarianism
(Class “warfare” and manners)
Utilitarianism
Industrialization and concerns