Literature written during the reign of
Queen Victoria (1837-1901), carrying the ideals of Victorians. Writers of this period include
Alfred Lord Tennyson,
Charles Dickens,
Matthew Arnold,
Thomas Hardy, and
T.H. Huxley. The Victorian age is often thought of as
prudish or repressed, and it was considered the second English
Renaissance. Parallels can be drawn between the
Elizabethan England and the
Victorian England, with expansions in wealth, culture, and literature. Early Victorian literature came about as a
reaction against the writing generation prior, the Romantics. An industrial revolution was taking place during the age of Queen Victoria, which altered the previous emphasis on
pastoral, gentle countryside images.
When it came to the arts, Victorians wished to combine Romantic emphasis upon self, emotion and imagination, as well as keeping a strong sense of social responsiblity. The Victorians brought about great changes in idealogy with the works of Darwin, Marx and Freud, and this would make a significant impact on the literature produced during the period. While faith in God was still considered paramount, the rise of agnosticism and more scientific understanding brought about doubt, which revealled itself in much of the literature during the time, especially in poetry. Just a few examples of this are Tennyson’s "Strong Son of God, Immortal Love,” Christina Rossetti’s "Love Is Strong as Death," and Arthur Clough’s "Easter Day. Naples, 1849."
Other Victorian writers include:
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Hood
George Borrow
John Stuart Mill
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Edward Fitzgerald
Elizabeth Gaskell
Robert Browning
Edward Lear
Charles Reade
Anthony Trollope
Charlotte Brontë
Emily Brontë
James Anthony Froude
Arthur Hugh Clough
George Eliot
John Ruskin
Wilkie Collins
Walter Bagehot
George Meredith
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Lewis Carroll
James Thomson
William Morris
Samuel Butler
Sir William Schwenk Gilbert
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Walter Pater
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Robert Louis Stevenson
George Moore
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Francis Thompson
Jerome K. Jerome
Charles Kingsley
Help for this node came from victorianweb.org