Victorian Literature

[itgalive]

I am looking for some examples of Victorian Literature that reflects the society of the time.
The more examples the better. If you happen to know any examples from early 20th century literature that would also be appreciated

Thanks

[kasie]

How about starting with Charles Dickens?

Then you could try Trollope, George Elliot, Hardy.

For turn of the century, how about Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, Wells?

That's just UK Eng Lit , of course - I won't venture into American Eng Lit, or Continental Europe Lit.

One to get you started and laughing over the weekend: Diary of a Nobody by G & W Grossmith. The chapter about painting the bath reduces me to helpless laughter every time I read it.

[LitNetIsGreat]

If you are just starting with Victorian literature maybe it would be a good idea to stick to writers such as: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. There is plenty to go at here which will give you a backbone in English Victorian literature, all of which strongly and obviously reflect society and life at the time.

[jgweed]

It depends on what you mean by the society of the times. Many authors regarded their age with pride as the apogee of civilisation (Tennyson)(the Great Exhibition of '51), while others (Dickens)(all those reform bills) saw in the immense progress great poverty. Economically, politically, and socially, the Victorian age was one of immense change, and the writers of the time often reflected upon it.

[JBI]

Austen wasn't Victorian. The major novelist of the time was Dickens (by popularity, and by endurance), followed by Eliot, Hardy, and Trollope as mentioned. The major poets in order (in my opinion) are Tennyson, Browning, Dante Gabrielle Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti, amongst others.

[Jozanny]

Austen wasn't Victorian. The major novelist of the time was Dickens (by popularity, and by endurance), followed by Eliot, Hardy, and Trollope as mentioned.

I believe we neglect Thackeray, Gissing, and Gaskell, who may be more representative of "their time", though I confess I am confused as to what the OP wants. Dickens and Eliot tend to lather the melodrama. James often attacked Dickens on this point, specifically creating Rosy to counter the sentimentality of Tiny Tim.


The major poets in order (in my opinion) are Tennyson, Browning, Dante Gabrielle Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti, amongst others.

Robert Browning needs to be distinguished from Elizabeth.

[LitNetIsGreat]

[QUOTE=JBI;615656]Austen wasn't Victorian. QUOTE]


Yes I know, but she is often placed together with Victorian writers, rightly or wrongly, and nevertheless represents a good, solid base and context in which to study Victorian literature and to compare with later Victorian works. It is probably for this reason, as well as her status as a writer, that her works are found on most higher education, Victorian literature modules.

I should have also mentioned Browning and Tennyson, especially Tennyson as a good place to start to explore Victorian poetry.

[mortalterror]

Austen wasn't Victorian. The major novelist of the time was Dickens (by popularity, and by endurance), followed by Eliot, Hardy, and Trollope as mentioned. The major poets in order (in my opinion) are Tennyson, Browning, Dante Gabrielle Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti, amongst others.

General scholarship tends to favor a Tennyson, Browning, Arnold triumvirate. Arnold is sometimes supplanted by Hopkins, whom I enjoy much more. Swinburne is probably in there somewhere. Thomas Hardy, like Kipling, was a poet as well as a novelist. Let's not forget William Morris who wrote one of my favorite poems The Haystack in the Floods. It's top stuff and stands alongside Tennyson's Ulysses, Browning's Last Duchess, Hopkins' Wreck of the Deutschland, Rossetti's Woodspurge, Kipling's If, and other masterpieces. Leigh Hunt wrote another of my favorites Jenny Kissed Me, although it's a shorter more modest poem than Morris' Haystack.

[dreamy76]

Hello,

I'd like to write an essay about the Victorian literature and the impacts that effected on it at the time such as the rising of democracy. So any recommended books please.

Many Thanks in advance

[JBI]

General scholarship tends to favor a Tennyson, Browning, Arnold triumvirate. Arnold is sometimes supplanted by Hopkins, whom I enjoy much more. Swinburne is probably in there somewhere. Thomas Hardy, like Kipling, was a poet as well as a novelist. Let's not forget William Morris who wrote one of my favorite poems The Haystack in the Floods. It's top stuff and stands alongside Tennyson's Ulysses, Browning's Last Duchess, Hopkins' Wreck of the Deutschland, Rossetti's Woodspurge, Kipling's If, and other masterpieces. Leigh Hunt wrote another of my favorites Jenny Kissed Me, although it's a shorter more modest poem than Morris' Haystack.

Hmm, I didn't put Arnold because I consider him a prose writer more than a poet, though that is perhaps a minority opinion, and my list was by no means desired to be conclusive (and this is an old topic, so I can't really remember what was going on in my head at the time). Also, I think when Hardy finally moved to poetry, he displaced a shift in sensibilities away from Victorianism, into something more akin to modernism. He certainly experimented away somewhat, from the aesthetics and metrics of the Victorian age.

It's a strange question though, as to who are representative writers of the movement / culture. Meredith, Swinburne, and Hopkins to me seem to be more niched, academic poets than public poets at this point, and in a sense, are also less culture icons than someone like Browning, or Rossetti, or Arnold. The poem of the age though, most certainly, is In Memoriam. I don't think there is much doubt about that, but from there? There are 5-10 other poets I could suggest as inclusive in a sort of Victorian Canon, but none come close to Tennyson or Browning's stature, and most are rather reduced to a few lyrics.

[oblivion252]

The Victorian era was so large and so widespread that any type of theme can be illustrated - there is no DEFINITIVE Victorian novel: because of the shocking differences in thematic analysis at the time.
Two to try though are Matthew Arnold's 'Culture and Anarchy' - this certainly references degrees of Victorian society, but, again, not all of them! Another is George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' which sums up the more social elements of the era but, understandably, leaves out ideas such as the Empire and industrialism.
I know that these two aren't the most accessible examples - 'Culture and Anarchy' can become tiresome, and 'Middlemarch' is long (but brilliant).
For more accessibility, try Hardy's 'The Return of the Native': it has modern literature conventions and I used this to get into Victorian literature.
Good luck!

[Don Quixote Jr]

I am looking for some examples of Victorian Literature that reflects the society of the time. I don't think you can go wrong with Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens. I can't recommend Elliot and Trollope because I've never read anything by them, but you can probably get by with other respondents' recommendations for them.
A final word of advice - put Emily Bronte at the bottom of your list, or better yet, at the bottom of your birdcage, unless you happen to like the Victorian equivalent of Harlequin Romances. Maybe I'm being too harsh here, because I've never read a Harlequin Romance so it's quite possible some (or all) of them don't deserve to be slandered by being compared to Wuthering Heights.

[MissScarlett]

I am looking for some examples of Victorian Literature that reflects the society of the time. I don't think you can go wrong with Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens. I can't recommend Elliot and Trollope because I've never read anything by them, but you can probably get by with other respondents' recommendations for them.
A final word of advice - put Emily Bronte at the bottom of your list, or better yet, at the bottom of your birdcage, unless you happen to like the Victorian equivalent of Harlequin Romances. Maybe I'm being too harsh here, because I've never read a Harlequin Romance so it's quite possible some (or all) of them don't deserve to be slandered by being compared to Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights is the greatest book of its era. Harlequin Romances aren't fit to line the trash if one's over eighteen.

However, Wuthering Heights isn't a good example of Victorian society. It's a story of extremes, not representative of how people usually lived in Victorian times. For that, you need Dickens or Trollope. Hardy is excessively bleak. I love all of his books, but most people wouldn't be that passive.