The Victorian Age

Queen Victoria: 1819-1901

Queen of England from 1837
(1830-90: Sixty years commonly included
under the name of the Victorian Age)

Historical background

Increase of commercial markets

Advance in the use of mechanical devices
The Great Exhibition of 1851
Social conditions of the new industrial cities
Exploitation of cheap labour
Revolution in scientific thought
New ideas in science, religion and politics
Crimean War: 1853-1856 (Russia against the
British, French and Ottoman Empire)

Poetry

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92)

Robert Browning (1812-89)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61)
Matthew Arnold (1822-88)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82)
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-94)
William Morris (1834-96)

Novelists
CHARLES DICKENS (1812-70): The most
representative of the Victorian novelists.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY
(1811-63)
THE BRONTS: Charlotte (1816-55),
Emily (1818-48) & Anne (1820-49)
GEORGE ELIOT [Mary Ann Evans] (181980)

GEORGE MEREDITH (1828-1909)

BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1804-81)
ANTHONY TROLLOPE (1815-82)
CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-75)
WILKIE COLLINS (1824-89)
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-94)
ELIZABETH GASKELL (1810-65)

CHARLES DICKENS

The Pickwick Papers (1836)

Oliver Twist (1837)
Nicholas Nickleby (1838)
The Old Curiosity Shop (1840)
Barnaby Rudge (1841)
A Christmas Carol (1843)
Dombey and Son (1846)
David Copperfield (1849)

Bleak House (1852)

Hard Times (1854)
Little Dorrit (1855)
A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
Great Expectations (1860)
Our Mutual Friend (1864)

William M. Thackeray
(1811-63)
Born in Calcutta and sent to England for
his education at Cambridge.
He contributed to several periodicals
Novels:
The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon (1844)
Vanity Fair (1847-48) in monthly numbers
The History of Henry Esmond (1852)
The Virginians (1857-59)

Anthony Trollope
(1815-82)
Born in London. A prolific novelist, began
his career with Irish tales.
Novelist of the middle and upper classes.
Barsetshire novels: The Warden (1855);
Barchester Towers (1857), and some
others, all set in an imaginary West
Country county.