1850-1900

1837-1901 ( longest so far) Preceded by George Followed by Edward Early partHouse of CommonsWhigs and Tories 1850 onwardsWhigs became Liberals and Tories became Conservatives Long period of prosperity, peace, national self confidence, refined sensibilities ( Reform Act 1832) Gradual political , industrial reform and widening of voting franchise Away from rationalism of Georgian eraassociated with moral values of social and sexual restraint

Upheavals in society Reform Bill 1832political power to middle class House of Commons became ruling power (Queenfigurehead) Abundance for few; squalor for many( inequity); unrest Queen emphasized rectitude and moral propriety Industry and commerceflourished Growth of trade, foreign relations, arts, science Age of democracy , education and industrial revolution Middle class and poor divide widened Reflected in literature

Age of prose specially novel ( large number and greater perfection) England entered upon a free period Literaturefrom pure romance to gross realism struggled for expression Age of newspaper, magazine, modern novel Modern problems and modern ideals

An era of peacesurges of French revolution died downhopes and ideals gradually emerged Material developmentboth advantages and disadvantages--Revolution in commercial enterpriseimmense advance in the use of mechanical devicesnew era of prosperity appalling social conditionssqualid slums exploitation of cheap labor ( missionary efforts were called forth)

Intellectual Developments numerous intellectual activitiesrevolution in scientific thought---Charles Darwinoutburst of social and political theorizingpopular education became practicalgreat increase in Press and Literary writings

Alfred Lord Tennyson ( 1809-92) Robert Browning (1812-89) Elizabeth Barrette Browning ( 1806-61) Charles Dickens ( 1812-70) William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63) Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59) John Ruskin (1819-1900) Mathew Arnold (1822-88)

Moralitydeference to the conventions ( indecorous actssmoking in public; lady riding bicycle)new morality a reactionVictorian Court favoredmorality reflected in Tennyson, Dickens, Browning, Carlyle Idealistic age --Truth, justice, love, brotherhoodideals expressed Revoltagainst the deadening effects of conventionsCarlyle, Arnold, Thackeray, Browning, Swinburne, Morris

Intellectual developmentliterature was affected by the new ideas in science, religion and politicsOrigin of Speciesshook the foundations of scienceTennyson, Arnold, Carlyle Victorian struggle between hope and doubt; optimism and anxiety New Education Education Acts certain education compulsory produced reading public demand for booksnovel was most popular middle of 19th century the richest

International influenceInteraction among American and European writers fresh and stronginfluence of great German writers ( Carlyle and Arnold)sympathy wave for Italians ( Brownings, Swinburne, Morris and Meredith were deeply absorbed in the long struggle of the followers of Garibaldi and Cavour)Italian freedom rejoiced
No supreme writer though general literary level was highmore of intellectual horizons, noble endeavor and bright aspirations

Political, historical concerns; scientific matters; classical mythology internal movement from doubt and profound despair to tentative assertions of belief and hope.

Poet Laureate (1850) Poems ( The lady of a Shallot; The Palace of Art) Two volumes of poetry ( Morte dArthur, Ulysses, Locksley Hall ) The Princess new womenserio-comic attempt In Memoriummeditations on life and death; new theories of the day; beautiful sketches of English scenery; deeply emotional Maud and Other Poems ( Monodramalove, hate, hope, despair; glorification of war and bloodshed)

Idylls of the King Enoch Arden Three historical plays : Queen Mary, Harold, Becket; The Falcon, The Cup , The Foresters Mirror the feelings and aspirations of his time ; newspaper of the Age; sound and sense; pictorial quality

ParacelsusPoem Sordello Play Volume Bells and Pomegranates ( six Plays) Volume : Dramatic Romances and Lyrics Men and Women Dramatis Personae --Philosophical / Religious ; Love ; Lighter themes ( Pied Piper ) Life must ever be a striving for something beyond our reach; it is Gods task to make the heavenly period perfect the earthen; robust optimism; human soul

Rabbi Ben Ezra Grow old along with me The best is yet to be The last of life for which the first was made Our times are in His hand Who saith, A whole I planned Youth shows but half; trust God: see all nor be afraid

Prospice Fear death?to feel the fog in my throat The mist in my face When the snows begin and the blasts denote I am nearing the place The power of the night, the press of the storm The post of the foe Where he stands: the Arch Fear in a visible form Yet the strong man must go For the journey is done and the summit attained

The Cry of the childrenprotest of humanity against child labor Poems, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Last Poems

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers And that cannot stop their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the meadows; The young birds are chirping in the nest; The young fawns are playing with the shadows; The young flowers are blowing toward the west But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free.

"For oh", say the children, "we are weary, And we cannot run or leap If we cared for any meadows, it were merely To drop down in them and sleep. Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping We fall upon our faces, trying to go; And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping, The reddest flower would look as pale as snow. For, all day, we drag our burden tiring, Through the coal-dark, underground Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron In the factories, round and round.

And all day, the iron wheels are droning; And sometimes we could pray, O ye wheels (breaking out in a mad moaning), Stop! be silent for to-day!"

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints!I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!and, if God choose, I I shall but love thee better after death.

Poetry : doubt of the ageconflict between science and religionsorrow, regret , resignation Strayed Reveler & other poems; Empedocles on Etna & other poems; Poems; Dover Beach; Elegies: Thyrsis, The Scholar-Gypsy, Rugby Chapel Prose : cavalier spirit aggressive, light-hearted, self-confidentprotests against barbarisms of societybut light satire, banterdominated by moral sincerity

Fights of nature and the human misery contrast between hope and realitywishes a peaceful world which is almost impossible
Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Criticism: Essays in Criticism ( Study of poetry, Wordsworth, Byron, Discourses in America) ; On Translating Homer; Friendships Garland ( to reform the middle class) ; Culture and Anarchy ( Barbarian : aristocratic crude in soul ; Philistine : middle class narrow-minded, self-satisfied); Literature and Dogma ( Plea for liberty in religion) ; God and the Bible; Last essays on Church and Religion; Intellectual rather than Inspirational

More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us. Without poetry, our science will appear incomplete; and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry. Science, I say, will appear incomplete without it. For finely and truly does Wordsworth call poetry the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science; and what is a countenance without its expression?

Although I certainly am rather pained to find myself after my long and arduous labors for the deliverance from Philistinism of this nation in general, and the civilization and embellishment of the great middle class in particular, an object of aversion and mistrust to my countrymen , when I expected from them nothing but gratitude and love, still I have learnt to try and wrap myself on these occasions in my own virtue, knowing very well that the benefactors of mankind are seldom popular, and that your public favorite is generally some Barabbas

Pickwick, Oliver Twist, Old Curiosity Shop, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby, A tale of two cities, Great Expectation Odd, grotesque, uproarious, sentimental characters vigor and boundless fun--fought against injustice, championed the weak against the strongmingled humor and pathosmade vice more hatefulinstrument of morality and justice

In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can be exposed to; but the child is small, and its world is small, and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high . . . . . .suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape

Essayist and novelist Realistviews on social life, wars Vanity Fairnovel without a herorevolves around two women Pendennissatire on society The Newcomes The Virginians