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The Victorians

The Victorians. “British history is two thousand years old, and yet in a good many ways the world has moved farther ahead since the Queen was born than it moved in all the rest of the two thousand years put together.” Mark Twain, 1897 at Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.

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The Victorians

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  1. The Victorians

  2. “British history is two thousand years old, and yet in a good many ways the world has moved farther ahead since the Queen was born than it moved in all the rest of the two thousand years put together.” Mark Twain, 1897 at Queen Victoria’s Jubilee

  3. Queen Victoriareigned 1837-1901 • May 24, 1819: born at Kensington Palace – only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III • 1837: on the death of her uncle, William IV, she became queen at the age of 18 • 1840: married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha • 1861: Prince Albert died • Nine children • Presided over an Empire “upon which the sun never set” • It was during Victoria's reign that the modern idea of the constitutional monarch, whose role was to remain above political parties, began to evolve. • January 22, 1901: died after a reign of 64 years – longest in British history

  4. Prince Albert • Son of Duke Ernest of Coburg, Victoria’s maternal uncle – he and Victoria were first cousins, born the same year • Became Victoria’s closest advisor • A serious patron of the arts, a composer and a painter, an architect and an educator • As chancellor of Cambridge, he modernized the traditional classics-and-theology curriculum with science and technology • Arranged for the design and building of experimental houses to better serve working class families • Organized and oversaw the Great Exhibition of 1851 -- the first World's Fair. • "Machinery, Science, and Taste…are of no country, but belong, as a whole, to the civilized world."

  5. The Crystal Palace in Hyde Parksite of the 1851 Great Exhibition

  6. The Royal Family

  7. Political Reform • 1832: The Reform Bill extended voting rights to all males owning property worth £10 in annual rent – lower middle classes • 1832: redistribution of parliamentary representation – elimination of “rotten boroughs” • 1838-48: Chartist Movement “People’s Charter” advocated universal suffrage, secret ballots and legislative reforms • 1867: Second Reform Bill: extended right to vote to some of working class • 1870-1908: Married Women’s Property Acts – granted women the right to own property –”women were legally recognized as individuals in their own right for the first time in history.”

  8. Social Reform and Education • 1846: Repeal of Corn Laws – elimination of tax on grains – free trade • 1833-78: Factory Acts – restricted child labor, limited work hours, required public education • 1839: Custody Act • 1857: Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act • Higher Education for Women • 1848 – establishment of first Women’s College in London • By the end of Victoria’s reign, women could get degrees at 12 universities and study at Oxford and Cambridge

  9. Technology • 1830: Liverpool and Manchester RR – first public steam railway in the world • steam ships • telegraph -- intercontinental cables • photography • high speed printing • cast iron for building • anesthetics -- ether • Technology on the Victorian Web

  10. Gustav Doré, London Underground

  11. Science: Geology and Astronomy • Geology • “the hottest science going” • all accredited geologists agreed that the earth was millions of years old, that strata were layers from different times and that Genesis was incompatible with the findings of modern geology or irrelevant • many discoveries about dinosaurs throughout the 19th c. http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/courses/v1001/dinodis3.html • Astronomy: new planetary and cosmic discoveries • Geology “gives one the same sort of bewildering view of the abysmal extent of Time that Astronomy does of Space.” – John Sterling, 1837

  12. included first exhibition of dinosaurs The Great Exhibition 1851

  13. Science: Biology • Charles Darwin (1809-82) • 1859: On the Origin of the Species • 1871: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex • 1872: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals • Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) • Populizer and advocate of Darwin’s theories • On a Piece of Chalk influenced thinking about education • Huxley advocated broad primary school instruction: reading, writing, arithmetic, art, science, and music. • The basic form of nearly every American college curriculum is what Huxley advocated more than 100 years ago: two years of more liberal basic studies followed by two years of specialization • Huxley emphasized doing and observing in science classes

  14. Religion • 1829: Catholic Relief Act – granted Catholics the same political rights as Protestants • 1835: Jews are granted the right to vote • 1857: Sir David Salomons elected Lord Mayor of London • 1868: Benjamin Disraeli, a convert to Anglicanism, becomes Prime Minister • The Church of England • Low Church – evangelical, highly individual, abolitionists, Puritanical ( Christian right) • Broad Church – open to modern advances in science, emphasized inclusion ( liberals ) • High Church – emphasized tradition, ritual and authority – the Oxford Movement – resistant to liberal ideas (conservatives)

  15. Biblical Studies • Linguistic and Historic: “Higher Criticism” • Study of original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts – history of composition • Historical contexts • David Friedrich Struass’s Das Leben Jesu – translated by George Eliot as The Life of Jesus • Biblical Archaeology vs. Mesopotamian Archaeology – Sumerian texts

  16. Philosophy: Utilitarianism • Philosophical Radicalism • All humans seek to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. • Morality – that which provides the greatest pleasure to the greatest number • Religion – outmoded superstition • Fails to provide for spiritual needs • Attacked by: • Carlyle, Sartor, Resartus (1833-34) • Dickens, Hard Times (1854) • Ruskin, Unto This Last (1860) • John Stuart Mill, Autobiography ( 1873) Jeremy Bentham James Mill John Stuart Mill

  17. Philosophy: Marxism Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in London, 1867 • Friedrich Engels • 1844: The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 • 1884: The Origin of the Family Private Property and the State • Karl Marx • 1867-94: Das Kapital • 1848: Co-authored The Communist Manifesto

  18. The British Empire

  19. Imperialism: The British Empire • 1853-1880: Over 2 million Britons emigrated to settle in British colonies – especially Canada and Australia • 1839-42; 1856-60: Opium Wars with China • 1857: Parliament took over rule of India from East India Co. and set up a civil service government • 1867: Canadian provinces united into Dominion of Canada • 1876: Victoria declared Empress of India • 1880s – the Irish question – Home Rule • 1899-1902: Boer War in South Africa • By 1890, the British Empire contained ¼ of the earth’s territory, and ¼ of the earth’s population.

  20. Victorian Literature

  21. The Novel • Dominant Victorian literary form • Initially published in serial form in periodicals • Usually appeared in 3 volumes – “three deckers” – in book form • Focus on social relationships in middle class world • Ample opportunities for women novelists although many choose male pseudonyms to be taken more seriously

  22. Novelists Thackeray Eliot Trollope Gaskell E. Bronte C. Bronte Dickens Disraeli

  23. Social Realism • Social novels deal with the nature, function and effect of the society which the characters inhabit – often for the purpose of effecting reform • “ Condition of England” novels in 1840s and 1850s: response to . the condition of laborers in the Industrial Revolution: Dickens’ Hard Times, Gaskell’s Mary Barton; Disraeli’s The Two Nations • Social and political realism: Trollope’s The Palliser Novels, The Barsetshire Chronicles,etc. • Satirical social commentary: Thackeray’s Vanity Fair • Probing psychological realism: Eliot’s Middlemarch

  24. Non-fiction Prose • Instructional purpose: history, biography, theology, literary and artistic criticism • Centrality of argument and persuasion • Professional writers Matthew Arnold Walter Pater

  25. Victorian Poetry • Highly pictorial – “picturesque” – combines visual impressions to create a picture that carries the dominant emotion of the poem • Narrative • Long narrative stories – poetic novels: Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, Robert Browning’sThe Ring and the Book • Dramatic monologues – esp. Robert Browning • Distinctive sound experimentation • Poetry of mood and character

  26. Poets Elizabeth BarrettBrowning Robert Browning

  27. Aestheticism • “Art for art’s sake” • A cult of beauty: Life should imitate Art • Strong connection between visual and literary arts • Anti-Victorian reaction, post-Romantic roots • The Arts should provide refined sensuous pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental messages • Pre-Raphaelites and Arts and Crafts Movement

  28. Christina Rossetti Algernon Swinburne William Morris William Holman Hunt Dante Gabriel Rossetti Aubrey Beardsley

  29. Gilbert and Sullivan Dramatists George Bernard Shaw Oscar Wilde

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