Victorian literature refers to English writing during the time Queen Victoria was the queen of England (1837–1901). During the Victorian era, the novel became the most popular type of writing in English. Books from this time show major changes in many areas of life, including scientific discoveries, economic growth, technological inventions, changes in social classes, and the role of religion. The number of new novels published each year grew from 100 at the start of the period to 1000 by the end. Well-known novelists from this time include Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the three Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë), Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling.
The Romantic period was a time when writers focused on emotions and personal feelings. During the Victorian era, writers often addressed social problems. Thomas Carlyle wrote about the harmful effects of the Industrial Revolution, which he called the "Mechanical Age." This awareness influenced other writers, such as poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and novelists Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. Barrett Browning’s poems about child labor helped her become successful in a world where women writers often used male names to be taken seriously. Dickens used humor and a friendly tone to discuss issues like unequal wealth. Hardy used his novels to challenge religious beliefs and social systems.
Poetry and theatre were also important during the Victorian era. Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson were the most famous poets of Victorian England. Theatre did not produce important works until the final years of the 19th century. Notable playwrights of the time included Gilbert and Sullivan, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde.
Prose fiction
Charles Dickens is the most well-known novelist from the Victorian era. He focused on creating strong characters, which made him very popular during his time and continues to make him one of the most widely read authors in the world. Dickens began his writing career with Sketches by Boz (1833–1836), a collection of short stories published in newspapers and magazines. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837), was written when he was 25 and became an instant success. All of his later works sold very well. The humor in The Pickwick Papers had a satirical tone, which appeared throughout his writing. In the early 1800s, most novels were published in three volumes, but Dickens revived the practice of monthly serialization by releasing The Pickwick Papers in twenty parts from April 1836 to November 1837. Each part needed to include something new, like a plot twist or a new character, to keep readers interested. Dickens worked hard to create stories that entertained people while also commenting on social issues and the struggles of the poor. His most important works include Oliver Twist (1837–1839), Nicholas Nickleby (1838–1839), A Christmas Carol (1843), Dombey and Son (1846–1848), David Copperfield (1849–1850), Bleak House (1852–1853), Little Dorrit (1855–1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860–1861). His later novels became darker over time, showing a common trend in Victorian writing.
William Makepeace Thackeray was Dickens’ main competitor during the early part of Queen Victoria’s reign. His writing style was similar to Dickens’, but he often used sharper, more pointed satire to describe his characters. Thackeray’s novels often focused on middle-class society, unlike Dickens’ works. He is best known for The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) and Vanity Fair (1847–1848), which are examples of a popular type of Victorian novel: a historical story set in recent times.
The three Brontë sisters—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—wrote important books during this time, though Victorian critics did not at first recognize their value. Jane Eyre (1847), written by Charlotte Brontë, is a major Victorian novel with Gothic themes inspired by earlier Gothic writers. It shares features with Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), such as dark, lonely mansions and supernatural elements. Alongside Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), Jane Eyre is considered one of the greatest English novels. Emily Brontë’s only novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), is an example of Gothic Romanticism written from a woman’s perspective. It explores themes like class, myth, and gender. Anne Brontë’s second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), was written in a realistic style rather than a romantic one. It is often seen as the first long-lasting feminist novel.
Elizabeth Gaskell wrote important books during this time, including Mary Barton (1848), Cranford (1851–1853), North and South (1854–1855), and Wives and Daughters (1864–1866).
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) also wrote major works during this time, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–1872), and Daniel Deronda (1876). Like the Brontës, she used a male name when publishing her books.
Later in this period, Thomas Hardy wrote well-known novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy’s work showed both a critical view of urbanization and a love for the peaceful countryside life.
Other important novelists from this time included Anthony Trollope (1815–1882), Wilkie Collins (1824–1889), George Meredith (1828–1909), and George Gissing (1857–1903).
Poetry
Robert Browning (1812–1889) and Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892) were important poets in England during the Victorian era. Thomas Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, but he did not publish a collection until 1898. The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was published after he died in 1918. Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) was also an important writer of the time, especially for his poems and writings about literature. Early poetry by W. B. Yeats was published during Queen Victoria’s reign. Significant theatrical works began to appear in the last decades of the 19th century, starting with the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan in the 1870s, the plays of George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in the 1890s, and Oscar Wilde’s (1854–1900) play The Importance of Being Earnest.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning first became familiar with each other’s work through their poetry. Both wrote poems influenced by their relationship. Matthew Arnold and Gerard Manley Hopkins created poems that blend the celebration of nature found in Romantic poetry with the style of poetry from the early 20th century. However, Hopkins’s poems were not published until 1918. Arnold’s works included themes later explored by other poets, while Hopkins used poetic forms similar to those in Old English works like Beowulf.
Victorian writers often looked back to the past, showing interest in both ancient Greek and Roman literature and medieval English stories. This trend began with Letitia Elizabeth Landon and her poetry. Victorians enjoyed stories about knights and chivalry, hoping to inspire similar behavior in people at home and in the British Empire. A major example of this is Alfred Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, which combined stories about King Arthur, especially those by Thomas Malory, with ideas of the time. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood also used myths and folklore in their art. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was the leading poet of this group during his time, though his sister Christina is now considered by scholars to be a more skilled poet. Another important poet, Augusta Webster, focused on future issues, including the roles of women in society.
Drama
In drama, plays such as farces, musical burlesques, extravaganzas, and comic operas were popular alongside Shakespeare productions and serious plays by writers like James Planché and Thomas William Robertson. In 1855, the German Reed Entertainments started improving the quality of musical theatre in Britain, which eventually led to the famous comic operas by Gilbert and Sullivan. This was followed by the first Edwardian musical comedies in the 1890s. The first play to perform 500 times in a row was Our Boys, a London comedy by H. J. Byron, which opened in 1875. This record was later broken in 1892 by Charley's Aunt, written by Brandon Thomas, which performed 1,362 times. After W. S. Gilbert, Oscar Wilde became the leading poet and dramatist of the late Victorian period. Wilde’s plays, especially The Importance of Being Earnest from 1895, are more well-known today than many other Victorian plays. They are more similar to the works of Edwardian dramatists like George Bernard Shaw, whose career began in the 1890s. The Importance of Being Earnest is a comic masterpiece that used humor to comment on the aristocracy and showed great skill in wit and clever ideas. It has remained very popular. In recent years, the plays of Arthur Wing Pinero have been performed again.
Children's literature
During the Victorian era, people are given credit for helping to create the idea of childhood. This happened partly because they worked to stop children from working in factories and made school attendance required for all children. As children learned to read, books written for young people became more common. Well-known writers, such as Charles Dickens, created stories for children, like A Child's History of England. At the same time, new writers focused only on writing for children, including Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Anna Sewell (Black Beauty), and R. M. Ballantyne (The Coral Island). Other authors, like Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island) and Anthony Hope (The Prisoner of Zenda), mainly wrote for adults, but their stories are now often read by children. Other types of children's books included funny or playful poetry, such as Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." Stories about school life, like Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes and Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling, became popular classics.
Most of these books were not created to entertain children directly. However, as more pictures were added to books, children began to enjoy reading and learned lessons in a more fun way. Reading for pleasure became accepted, which made fairy tales and folk tales more popular. Books about different topics were written by many authors, allowing children to read about subjects they found interesting. Books and magazines were often divided between those for boys and those for girls. Stories for girls usually focused on home life and family, while stories for boys often centered on adventures.
Nonfiction
The Victorian era was a time when people worked hard to understand and organize the natural world. Many writings from this period are not considered literature, but one book, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, is very famous. This book introduced the theory of evolution, which changed how Victorians saw themselves and their role in the world. Although it took time for people to accept this idea, it greatly influenced later thinking and writing. Thomas Henry Huxley, a scientist who lived around the same time as Darwin, helped spread Darwin’s ideas through his writings.
Other non-fiction books from this time also had a big impact. John Stuart Mill wrote about logic, economics, freedom, and a philosophy called utilitarianism. Thomas Carlyle wrote important books about history, such as The French Revolution: A History and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, which influenced political ideas. Thomas Babington Macaulay’s writings on English history helped shape a view of history called the Whig narrative. John Ruskin wrote influential books about art and supported artists like J. M. W. Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. John Henry Newman’s religious writings, especially his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, caused strong debates in the Church of England after he converted to Catholicism.
Important reference books were published during this era, including the Oxford English Dictionary, which became the most important historical dictionary of the English language. Other notable works include the Dictionary of National Biography and the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
In the United States, Henry David Thoreau and Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Rural Hours influenced Victorian writing about nature. In the UK, Philip Gosse and Sarah Bowdich Lee were popular nature writers early in the Victorian era. The Illustrated London News, started in 1842, was the first illustrated weekly newspaper and often included articles and pictures about nature. As more people lived in cities, books, articles, and illustrations about nature became widely read.
Gothic stories from the late 19th century were the first examples of fantasy fiction. These stories often featured larger-than-life characters, such as Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective, and fictional figures like Dracula, Edward Hyde, and The Invisible Man. These tales usually included elements like monsters, ghosts, curses, and hidden rooms, and often took place in settings like castles or cemeteries. Sometimes, the monsters from these stories appeared in real-world locations like London. Gothic literature blends romance and horror to excite and scare readers.
The influence of Victorian literature
Writers from the United States and British colonies like Australia, New Zealand, and Canada were influenced by British literature. They are often grouped with Victorian literature, even though they were slowly creating their own unique styles. Victorian writers from Canada include Grant Allen, Susanna Moodie, and Catherine Parr Traill. Australian writers include poets Adam Lindsay Gordon and Banjo Paterson, who wrote the poem "Waltzing Matilda." New Zealand writers include Thomas Bracken and Frederick Edward Maning. From the United States, important writers of this time include Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry James, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman.
A challenge with the term "Victorian literature" is that early works from this period differ greatly from later works, which share more similarities with the Edwardian period. Many writers from this time created works during Queen Victoria's reign, but their writing styles are often seen as more aligned with the Edwardian era. These writers include Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker, H. Rider Haggard, Jerome K. Jerome, and Joseph Conrad.