Library: British Literature by Credo Reference: Victorian Era

About the Victorian Era

Victorian: Topic Page
Period of mid- and late- 19th century in England, covering the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901.
Victorian Era: General Surveys
From Reader's Guide to British History
The explosion of documentary evidence which the Victorian age produced has helped make it the most intensively studied of any period of British history. As result, in a brief introduction of this sort, it is possible to consider only works which make some effort to encompass the period as a whole.

Genres

Detective Fiction: Topic Page
Genre of novel or short story in which a mystery is solved mainly by the action of a professional or amateur detective.
Historical Novel: Topic Page
Genre of fictional prose narrative set in the past.
Mystery: Topic Page
Or mystery story, literary genre in which the cause (or causes) of a mysterious happening, often a crime, is gradually revealed by the hero or heroine.
Poetry: Topic Page
Imaginative literary form, particularly suitable for describing emotions and thoughts.
Romance: Topic Page
In literature, tales of love and chivalric adventure, in verse or prose, that became popular in France about 1200 and spread throughout Europe.
Science Fiction: Topic Page
Literary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story.
Short Story: Topic Page
Short work of prose fiction, usually consisting of between 500 and 10,000 words, which typically either sets up and resolves a single narrative point or depicts a mood or an atmosphere.

Novelists

Brontë: Topic Page
Family of English novelists, including Charlotte Brontë, 1816–55, English novelist, Emily Jane Brontë, 1818–48, English novelist and poet, and Anne Brontë, 1820–49, English novelist.
Anne Brontë (1820 - 1849): Topic Page
Anne Brontë was the youngest of the famous trio of literary sisters. Anne's literary endeavours, like those of Emily Brontë, went unacknowledged in her brief lifetime.
Charlotte Brontë (1816 - 1855): Topic Page
English novelist and member of the Brontë family. Her most famous novels are Jane Eyre (1847) and Villette (1853).
Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902): Topic Page
British writer best known for The Way of All Flesh (1903), a semiautobiographical novel satirizing family life in mid-Victorian England.
Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898): Topic Page
English writer; an Oxford mathematics don who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872) and the nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark (1876).
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)
From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Say “Wilkie Collins” to a late Victorian reader of fiction and he or she (Collins appealed to both) would have fired back two words: “sensation” and “bohemian.”
Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924): Topic Page
Pen-name of Teodor Józef Konrad Nałȩcz Korzeniowski, a British novelist, born in Ukraine.
Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870): Topic Page
English author, born in Portsmouth, one of the world's most popular, prolific, and skilled novelists.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881): Topic Page
British Conservative politician and novelist. Authored the novel trilogy Coningsby, Sybil, and Tancred (1847).
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930): Topic Page
Writer, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, born in Edinburgh, EC Scotland, UK.
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 - 1865): Topic Page
British writer noted for her Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) and her novels depicting the oppression of workers in 19th-century England.
Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928): Topic Page
English novelist and poet, born near Dorchester, one of the great English writers of the 19th century.
Charles Kingsley (1819 - 1875): Topic Page
English writer. He was one of the first clerics to support Charles Darwin, whose ideas he partly incorporated into The Water Babies (1863). His popular historical novels include Hereward the Wake (1866).
George Meredith (1828 - 1909): Topic Page
English novelist and poet. His works, notable for their social satire and analysis of character, include the novels Beauchamp's Career (1876) and The Egoist (1879) and the long tragic poem Modern Love (1862).
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894): Topic Page
British writer of essays, poetry, and novels, including Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and Kidnapped (1886).
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863): Topic Page
English novelist, born in India; satirised social pretensions in such novels as Vanity Fair (1848).
Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882): Topic Page
English novelist; major novels include Barchester Towers (1857) and The Way We Live Now (1875).

Essayists, Critics & Reformers

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881): Topic Page
British historian and essayist whose works, such as The French Revolution (1837), are characterized by his trenchant social and political criticism and his complex literary style.
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882): Topic Page
British naturalist who revolutionized the study of biology with his theory of evolution based on natural selection. His most famous works include Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).
Richard Jefferies (1848 - 1887): Topic Page
English naturalist and writer. His books on the countryside include Gamekeeper at Home (1878), The Life of the Fields (1884), and his best-known collection of essays, The Open Air (1885).
Henry Edward Manning (1808 - 1892): Topic Page
English churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873): Topic Page
British philosopher and economist known especially for his interpretations of empiricism and utilitarianism. His many works include A System of Logic (1843), Principles of Political Economy (1848), and The Subjection of Women (1869).
William Morris (1834 - 1896): Topic Page
English poet, designer, craftsman, and socialist writer. He founded the Kelmscott Press (1890).
John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890): Topic Page
British prelate and theologian. A founder of the Oxford movement, he converted to Roman Catholicism (1845) and was made a cardinal (1879).
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900): Topic Page
English art critic and social reformer. He was a champion of the Gothic Revival and the Pre-Raphaelites and saw a close connection between art and morality.
Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904): Topic Page
English philosopher, critic, & biographer.

Poets

Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888): Topic Page
English poet and critic, son of the educator Dr. Thomas Arnold.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861): Topic Page
An experimental writer, she wrote ballads, political odes, allegories, sonnets, poetic dramas and an epic.
Robert Browning (1812 - 1889): Topic Page
British poet best known for dramatic monologues such as “My Last Duchess,” “Fra Lippo Lippi,” and “The Bishop Orders His Tomb.”
George Eliot (1819 - 1880): Topic Page
Pseudonym of Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans English novelist.
Sir W. S. Gilbert (1836 - 1911): Topic Page
British playwright and lyricist known for a series of comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1879), written with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889): Topic Page
British poet known for a number of works published posthumously, including “The Wreck of the Deutschland” and “The Windhover.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882): Topic Page
English poet and painter; son of Gabriele Rossetti and brother of Christina Rossetti.
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837 - 1909): Topic Page
British poet and critic who wrote musical, often erotic verse in which he attacked the conventions of Victorian morality.
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892): Topic Page
English poet; poet laureate (1850-92). His poems include The Lady of Shalott (1832), Morte d'Arthur (1842), the collection In Memoriam (1850), Maud (1855), and Idylls of the King (1859).