An outline of English Literature

1. An outline of English Literature The Victorian Age

2. The chief characteristics of the Victorian Age :- • The divine right of kings is as old-fashioned as a suit of clothing. • The masses of men begin to be educated, begin to think for themselves, and a host of periodicals appear in answer to their demand for reading matter. • Poets, novelists, essayists, historians, all serious writers feel the inspiration of great audience, and their works have a thousand readers where formerly they had but one. • In a word, English government, society and literature have all become more democratic. This is the most significant feature of modern history.

3. The chief characteristics of the Victorian Age :- • Man’s desire is to know the truth, if possible the whole truth of life; and it sets no limits to the exploring spirit, whether in the heavens above or the earth beneath or the waters under the earth. • The Victorians turned their attention to an unexplored world of invisible forces, and their best literature thrills again with the grandeur of the universe in which men live. • The scattered colonies increased mightily in wealth and power, and were closely federated into a world-wide Empire of people speaking the same noble speech, following the same high ideals of justice and liberty. • Literature reflects on the imperial spirit of modern English history and literature.

4. The chief characteristics of the Victorian Age :- • Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote poems that demonstrate the conservatism, optimism and self-assurance. • Matthew Arnold, Gerald Manly Hopkins and Dante Gabriel Rossetti are called Pre-Raphaelites for they sought to bring too their poetry the simplicity and directness notable in medieval Italian art before the Renaissance painter Raphael came on the scene. • Drama had few developments on the hands of Oscar Wilde who wrote several comic plays that satirize upper class manners and morals. He wrote “Lady Windermere’s Fan” and “The Importance of Being Earnest” with delight. • In prose, a highly imaginative and satirical masterpiece of this age was written as a children’s story. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” John Ruskin wrote “Stones of Venice”. • In novel, Realism was one of the greatest innovations, which offered a detailed portrait of life in 19th c. • George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) wrote “The Mill on the Floss”“Silas Marner” and “Middlemarch”

5. The chief characteristics of the Victorian Age :- • Charles Dickens was one of the most popular and productive novelists. His works combined social criticism with comedy and sentiment to create a tone that the world identifies as Victorian. Also, he invented a vast group of memorable characters in novels such as “Oliver Twist”“A Tale of Two Cities” and “Great Expectations” • William Makepeace Thackeray was a journalist of a humble background and a satirist of the morality, the hypocrisies, and the manners of the English middle class. He wrote “Vanity Fair” with his well-created female character Becky Sharp. • Charlotte and Emily Bronte wrote “Jane Eyre” and “wuthering Heights” respectively. • Robert Louis Stevenson created a remarkable series of adventure novels with exotic, historical settings such as “Treasure Island”“Mister Hyde”“The Case of Doctor Jeky11” and “Kidnapped”. • Rudyard Kipling wrote “Captain Courageous” and “Kim” • Thomas Hardy wrote novels in the lonely form country, they pessimistically explore manners and social customs to touch on the nature of life itself. They include “Far from the Madding Crowd”“Return of the Native” and “Judge the Obscure”.

6. The chief characteristics of the Victorian Age :- • Read about Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s contributions (p.101 – 103) • Read about Robert Browning (p. 104-107) • Read about Matthew Arnold (p.107-108) • Read about Dante Gabriel Rossetti (p.109) • Read about Edward Fitzgerald (p.112)