Have you read Oliver Twist by Mr. Dickens? The Victorian era is considered to be the golden age of the English novel. It was a time of contrast, of prosperity and poverty, of morality and depravity, of peace and protests. Queen Victoria herself embodied a number of contradictions and influenced scores of writers, both directly and indirectly. Here is a brief overview of Victorian literature by the history books.
Over the six decades of Queen Victoria's reign, some 60,000 works of prose fiction were published in Great Britain alone. This unprecedented growth was due in part to the spread of education, the emergence of the middle classes, and the proliferation of more affordable reading materials. As an increasing proportion of the population became literate, so too did the demand for new types of literature increase, a demand that was met by more than 7,000 authors. Queen Victoria came to the throne during the world's first Industrial Revolution, a time characterized by rapid change and development. Key advances in communication methods and the growth of the railway network led to a boom in print production and distribution.
Novels dominated the Victorian literary marketplace, first appearing in the standard three-volume format. However, these triple-deckers were expensive for the middle and working classes. The dominant publishing format for the era made novels more affordable to the growing masses of new readers. Novelists like Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and George Eliot serialized their works by publishing their novels in a series of installments.
Writers frequently ended each installment on a cliffhanger, making the reader anxious for the next episode. Penny Bloods, later known as Penny Dreadfuls, were especially popular. Issued weekly and cheaply produced, these booklets provided highly sensational stories for just a penny.
Although much fiction was targeted at specific markets, increasing numbers of works appealed across class, age, and gender. Writers were impelled to depict life as it affected them, representing a social reality told through social problem novels, adventure tales, science fiction, detective fiction, and even fantasy. On February 10, 1840, Victoria and Albert were married. A proponent of industrial development, Prince Albert took an active interest in the arts and sciences.
He commissioned the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first international exhibition of its kind, with a view to commemorating Britain's industrial and technological progress. The development of science profoundly influenced the literature of the Victorian era. Starting in the mid-19th century, the invention of the rotary press enabled printing on an industrial scale. Cheaper, single-volume yellowbacks and paper-bound editions of existing works began to be sold. The sheer volume and diversity of printed material was revolutionary, reaching broader audiences than ever before.
Non-fiction works, from philosophical writings to political essays, made their mark on the literature of the period. Following Romanticism, Victorian poets were influenced by the themes of the previous era. They developed their own distinct style, giving rise to a new age of poetry with a focus on realism, skepticism, and a sense of responsibility.
With its novels, periodicals, and circulating libraries, the City of London became a hub for literature. Dickens, whose story still bring Victorian London to life, was immensely popular during his own lifetime. Queen Victoria herself was an admirer of Dickens'work.
I've had nine children and 42 grandchildren and have almost a billion citizens. The 19th century also witnessed the imperial expansion of the British Empire, a development that did not go unnoticed nor unquestioned by Victorian authors. By the end of Victoria's reign, the British Empire had extended over about one-fifth of the Earth's surface, encompassing almost a quarter of the world's population. Explorers, soldiers, and colonial administrators, among others who traveled in service of the empire, produced accounts of their experiences.
The legacy left behind by Victorian writers reflect the enormous changes of the period. In absorbing both neoclassical and romantic literary tradition, the Victorian era was highly conscious of its connections to the past, and yet also sensed its role in shaping the future, paving the way for the creation of literary modernism.