The document provides an overview of Victorian literature and some of its major authors. It discusses the Victorian period from 1837 to 1901 during Queen Victoria's reign, known for peace and prosperity in Britain. Major novels of this time responded to industrialization and addressed the individual's place in society. The work of famous authors like the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are overviewed, with summaries of some of their most notable novels including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, David Copperfield, and Browning's poem "How Do I Love Thee?". Victorian poetry is also described as developing in the context of the novel and showing Romantic influences.
2. Victorian Period
• Period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 20
June 1837 until her death on 22 January
1901
• It was a long period of peace, prosperity,
refined sensibilities and national self-
confidence for Britain
4. • She had the longest reign in
British history
• Became queen at the age of
18
• She also had a gift for
drawing and painting
• She maintained a sense of
dignity and decorum that
restored the average
person’s high opinion of the
monarchy after a series of
horrible, ineffective leaders
• 1840 -Victoria married a
German prince, Albert, who
became not king, but Prince
-consort
• After he died in 1861, she
sank into a deep depression
5. Impact on Victorian
Literature:
• The novelists of the 1840’s and the 1850’s
responded to the industrial and political
scene:
– Charles Kingsley- The Water Babies
– Elizabeth Gaskell – North and South; Life
of Charlotte Bronte
– Benjamin Disraeli- Sybil
6. Victorian Novel
• Dominant form in Victorian literature
• Seek to represent a large and
comprehensive social world, with a
variety of classes.
• Victorian novels are realistic
• Major theme: Place of the individual in
society, the aspiration of the hero or
heroine for love or social position
• The protagonist’s search for fulfillment is
emblematic of the human condition.
• Was a principal form of entertainment
7. Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)
• English author and eldest
of the famed Bronte
sisters
• Pen Name: Currer Bell
• Notable Work: Jane Eyre
(1847)
8. Jane Eyre
• Published on: 16 October
1847 by Smith Elder and
Co. of London, England.
• Genre: Gothic Fiction,
Social Criticism,
Bildungsroman
• Themes: Morality, God
and Religion, Social
Class, Gender Relations,
Love and Passion,
Feminism, Atonement
and Forgiveness, Search
10. Emily Bronte (1818-1849)
• English author and one
of the famed Bronte
sisters
• Pen Name: Ellis Bell
• Notable Work:
Wuthering
Heights (1847)
11. Wuthering Heights (1847)
• Written on: Oct 1845 - June
1846
• Published on: 1847
• First and only published
novel
• The decision to publish came
after the success of her
sister Charlotte’s novel, Jane
Eyre
• Elements of passion,
mystery and doomed love as
well as social commentary
12. Wuthering Heights
• Eponymous farmhouse on the Yorkshire
moors
• Core theme: the destructive effect that
jealousy and vengefulness have
• __________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
_________
13. Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
• Many of his novels were
published in serial form
• Most popular Victorian
novelist
• Pen Name: (if meron)
• Notable Work: David
Copperfield
14. David Copperfield
• Written on:
____________
• Published on: 1850
• Theme:
_______________
• Dickens's ultimate
masterpiece
• Full title: The Personal
History, Adventures,
Experience and
Observation of David
15. David Copperfield
• The narrator and protagonist of this pseudo-
autobiography. He is characterised in the book as
having perseverance, but also an undisciplined
heart. The undisciplined heart becomes the focal
point of the latter part of the book. After being
adopted by his aunt Betsey Trotwood, he is called
"Trotwood Copperfield" in deference to her wishes.
He has many nicknames throughout the novel: the
Peggotty family address him as "Davy", James
Steerforth nicknames him "Daisy", Dora calls him
"Doady", the Micawber family tends to address
him by his last name, and his aunt and her circle
refer to him as "Trot".
16. Victorian Poetry
• Developed in the context of the novel. Poets
sought new ways of telling stories in verse
• Show the strong influence of the Romantics,
but they cannot sustain the confidence the
Romantics felt in the power of the
imagination.
• Victorian poets often rewrite Romantic poems
with a sense of belatedness
• Dramatic monologue –great achievement of
Victorian poetry
• Victorian poetry is pictorial; poets use detail
to construct visual images that represent the
emotion or situation the poem concerns
• Conflict between private poetic self and
public social role
17. Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1809-1892)
• Leading poet of Victorian
age
• Alfred began to write
poetry at an early age in
the style of Lord Byron.
•Pen Name:
______________
•Notable Work:
___________
•Tennyson
19. Robert Browning
(1812-1889)
• Raised the DRAMATIC
MONOLOGUE
• Pen Name: (if meron)
• Notable Work:
_________
• Playwright and master of
dramatic dialogue poetry
wrote “A Death in the
Desert”, “My Last
Dutchess”, and “A
Grammarian’s Funeral”
21. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806-1861)
• With Robert, one of
literature’s greatest love
affairs.
• One of the most
prominent poets of the
Victorian Era
• Pen Name: (if meron)
• Notable Work: How Do I
Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
22. How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet
43)
• How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and
height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's
faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the