Novelists of the Victorian Age

To evaluate my assignment please click here

Name: - Kailash Baraiya

Study: M.A., Sem-02,

Roll No: 10

Enrolment No: 2069108420170001

Subject: - Victorian Literature

Paper No: 06

Topic: Novelists of the Victorian Age

Submitted To: Pro, Dr. Dilip Barad,              Department of English, M.K Bhavnagar University

 Introduction of Victorian Age:-

                         

                       The Victorian period generally begins in 1837 and ends in 1901. As a matter of expediency, these dates are sometime modified slightly. 1830 is usually considered the end of the romantic period in English, and thus makes a convenient starting date for the Victorian age. Similarly, since queen Victoria's death occurred so soon in of the previous century provides a useful closing date for the period.

              Generally Victorian age is also considered as the age of prose and especially of novel. In comparison to other forms of literature novel is a quite modern form. Novel spent its childhood in the second half of the 18^th century, while in the second half of the 19^th century; novel seemed to be much matured, adult and young. The 18^th century novelists like Richardson, Fielding Smollet and Sterne who gave a good move to English novel but the Victorian novelists led this form to the pick of the perfection.

                The early Victorian navel as cultivated by Disraeli, Trollope Dickens. Thackeray etc. was essentially a transcript from life. Instead of seeking inspiration from the middle ages or the world of romance, the Victorian novelists concentrated on the social, Political, economic aspects of Victorian society. The Victorian reader found in novel what he looked for, and the early Victorian novelists provided him a historical perspective of the age in a historical perspective of the age in its varied aspects the early Victorian novelists did not very much bother about coherent plotes. The structure was loose, and the progress of the story was loose, and the progress of the story was hampered by episodic instructions, unconnected descriptions and moral sermons by the novelists.

                   A noteworthy feature of the age was the  rice of the women novelists like Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Bronte sisters enriched the English novel. They wrote passionately in a poetic language but their range was limited and there were autobiographical patches in their works. Moreover, by the end of the nineteenth century the novel as a species of litterer had thrust itself into the first rank. Therefore this period is essentially regarded as an age of or novels. Because during this age or period novel made a phenomenal progress as various types of novel can be observed such as Domestic novels, Psychological novels, and Historical novels, which were cultivated by many prominent novelist as enlisted below.

Ø Charles Dickens

Ø Thomas Hardy

Ø Georgie Eliot

Ø William Makepeace

Ø Charlotte Bronte

Ø Emily Bronte

Ø Anne Bronte

Ø George Meredith

                  So, let’s elaborate these novelists by observing their novels in detail,

Charles Dickens:-

                      

                   Charles john Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812-9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his life time, and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novel and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

                  Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of 'The Pickwick Papers' within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humor, satire and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly and weekly instalments, Pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for navel publication. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience’s reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist  Expressed distress at the way Miss Moocher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha, pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.

His creative works are:-

Ø The Pickwick Papers

Ø David Copperfield

Ø Oliver Twist

Ø A Tale Of Two Cities

Ø Great Expectations

Thomas Hardy:-

               Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novel and in his poetry by romanticism, especially on the decaling status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native south west England.

Some of his Works Are:-

Ø     

Ø The Mayor of Caster Bridge

Ø Under the Greenwood Tree

Ø Jude the Obscure

Ø Far From The Madding Crowd

           During his lifetime,Thomas Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets, who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra pound, W.H. Auden and Philip Larkin.

             Many of his novel concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Hardy’s Wessex eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon,Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in Southwest  in  and South central England. Two of his Novels. 'Tess of the d' Urberevilles' and 'Far from the Madding Crowd', were listed in the top 50 on the BBC ‘S survey the Big read.

George Eliot:-

               

             Mary Anne Evans, known by bar pen name George Eliot, known by her pen name George Eliot was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bead (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silos Mariner (1861), Middlemarch (1871-72), and Daniel Deronda (1876) most of which are set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.

               She used a male pen name, she said,to ensure that her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot’s the stereotype of women writing only lighthearted romances. She also wished to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as an editorand critic. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Laws, with whom she lived for 20 years.

                   Eliot’s Middlemarch has been described by Martin Amiss and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.

 William Makepeace Thackeray: -

                       William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19^th century. He is known for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a Panoramic Portrait of English society.

                  Henry Edmond is the most perfect novel of Thackeray. This gives the most complete and accurate picture of the past age. It is a historical novel which got publication in the year of 1852, the novel deals with the story of the early life of Henry Edmond. This novel is a typical example of Victorian novels. Thackeray’s work of historical fiction tells its tale against the backdrop of late 17^th –and early 18^th century England –specifically, major events surrounding the English restoration and utilizes the English restoration and utilizes characters both real and imagined.

Charlotte Bronte:-

                

                     Charlotte Bronte is the name among the successful novelists of the Victorian Age. She was born on 21 April 1816 and passed away on 31 march 1855. She was an English novelist and poet. Charlotte Bronte the eldest of the three Bronte sister who survived into adulthood and whose novels are English literature standards. in 1824 the four eldest Bronte daughters were enrolled as pupils at the clergy Daughter’s school at Cowan Bridge. The following year Maria ill, left the school and died : Charlotte and Emily, understandably, were brought home.

Charlotte Bronte’s famous navels like:-

Ø Jane Eyre

Ø Shirley 

Ø The Professor

George Meredith:-  

       

               Meredith was born in Portsmouth England, a son and grandson of navel outfitters. His mother died when he was five. At the age of 14 he was  five at the age of 14 he was sent to a Moravian school in Neuwied, Germany, where, he remained for two years. He read low and was articled as a solicitor, but abandoned that profession for journalism and poetry. He collaborated with Edward Greyffydh peacock, son of Thomas Love Peacock in publishing a privately circulated literary magazine, the monthly observer. He married Edward peacock’s widowed. Sister Mary Ellen Nicholls in 1849 when he was twenty-one years old and she was twenty-eight.

His some famous work like:-

Ø The Death of Chatterton

Ø The Ordeal of Richard Federal

            In 1909, he died at his home in box Hill, surrey. He is buried in cemetery at Dirking Surrey.

          At the end of this assignment I can say that all the novelists were prominent in the Victorian age.

Source: Net and Text