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Victorian Politics
Britains prime ministers can be dismissed at any time by a vote of no confidence. The Whig party became known as the Liberal party. The Tories came to be called the conservatives. Victorian politics emphasized compromise and slow reform.
Victorian Thought
Victorian thinkers shared a deep confidence in humanitys ability to better itself.
Responses to Industrialization
Victorian thinkers admired the material benefits industrialization brought, but deplored the brutality of factory life and of industrial slums. The economic theories held by the Victorians to deal with the changing conditions of the industrial age can be divided into 3 groups
Responses to Industrialization
Laissez-faire theory: Government should stay out of business affairs. Reformist liberalism: Government intervention and regulation were sometimes necessary to protect the rights of the weak against the strong. Socialism: Some favored public ownership of major industry and called for government measures to promote equality and help the poor.
Victorian Literature Literacy and the impact of the written word increased during the Victorian Age Books held enormous popularity and influence.
Victorian Poetry
The Victorian Age produced a large and diverse body of poetry. Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the most popular poet of the era. Robert Browning was also a notable poet of the time. Naturalism found its strongest voice in Thomas Hardy.
Victorian Poetry
Rudyard, Kipling wrote fiction and childrens stories as well as poetry.
Victorian Drama
Drama in the Victorian Age seemed uninspired. Only toward the end of the century did the theatre begin to show some sparkle.
Victorian Fiction
Novels were deeply loved by Victorian middle class. Novels were published chapter by chapter in weekly and monthly magazines which kept readers curious. Romanticism had a major impact on the Victorian novels of sisters Emile Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, and Anne Bronte.
Victorian Fiction
Charles Dickens surpassed all other Victorian novelists in popularity. Dickens treated social problems realistically and became an outspoken voice for social reform. Toward the end of the century, British novels leaned more and more to naturalism. Thomas Hardy was the most highly regarded of late Victorian Naturalists
Nonfiction Prose
British Writers penned a steady supply of histories, biographies, essays, and criticism. Thomas Carlyle and Thomas Babington Macaulay were the greatest of the historians.
Nonfiction Prose
Elizabeth Gaskell wrote Life of Charlotte Bronte , which is considered the outstanding literary biography of the era and is still a primary source of information on the Bronte family.
1809-1892
Robert Browning
1812-1889
Robert Browning
Browning published his first book Pauline, at age twenty-one. Pauline, a highly personal record of his religious skepticism, was poorly received as were the poem he published and the play he produced. In 1846, he married Elizabeth Barrett, a famed poet.
Robert Browning
After his wife died in 1861, Browning moved back to London and quickly became a popular figure Today Browning is admired for his dramatic monologues and for his masterly blending of natural speech rhythms with strict poetic forms.
1806-1861
Charles Dickens
1812-1870
Charles Dickens
Dickens is ranked with Shakespeare as a writer who holds one of the most important places in popular culture. As a child Dickens worked long hours in a factory pasting labels. His experiences were prominently placed in his novel. Dickens taught himself shorthand and became a court reporter.
Charles Dickens
His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was published in 1837. His other most loved works include
Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield Great Expectations
Charles Dickens He had a unique ability to combine humor with horror. Dickens displayed a passion for social reform in all his fiction.
Matthew Arnold
1822-1888
Matthew Arnold
Arnold was the most modern of all the great Victorian poets. The continuous theme of his poems was peoples isolation and alienation from nature and from one another. He had a pessimistic outlook. Arnold viewed society as increasingly materialistic and self-serving.
Thomas Hardy
1840-1928
Thomas Hardy
Hardy was both a novelist and a poet. He held a pessimistic view of the world. Hardys novels depicted people struggling to survive in an indifferent natural universe and an uncaring human society.
Thomas Hardy
Hardy was trained as an architect but decided to focus his energy on writing. Response to his novel Jude the Obscure was so hostile that he abandoned fiction and focused on poetry.
1844-1889
A.E. Housman
1859-1936
A.E. Housman
Housman devoted his life to teaching and translating the great Latin poets. His poetry was extremely romantic and melancholy. His intolerance of imperfections in himself or others left him with few friends. The best of Housmans poems have been marked for immorality.
1828-1882
George Meredith
1828-1909
George Meredith
Meredith turned to fiction after his first book of poems failed to sell. He is primarily known as a novelist, but he always thought of himself as a poet first and foremost. His poems evoke the power of nature and the joy of humanitys relationship to it.
Christina Rossetti
1830-1894
Christina Rossetti
She was the younger sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Many critics consider her to be the greates female poet in all of English literature. Her poems are known for their rare simplicity and lyrical grace and precision.
Rudyard Kipling
1865-1936
Rudyard Kipling
Kipling was equally talented in writing poetry and prose. His books which have become childrens classics include,
The Jungle Book Captain Courageous
Victorian Entertainment
The Victorians were particularly good at being entertained and at entertaining others or themselves. Their performances at home were amateur, but they entered the spirit of do it yourself family parties with elaborately organized entertainments. The hosts and guests joined in charades,
dancing, games, fireworks, magic lantern shows and piano sing songs making their own lively entertainment.
Music
Music was one of the greatest pleasures with thousands of people playing musical instruments at home for pleasure. Most cities, towns and villages had a Glee club, village band, music society or choir. Music groups sprang up everywhere and by 1857 'The Halle Orchestra' of Manchester was compared to 'The London Philharmonic Society'.
Music
Music helped to pass winter evenings and all governesses were supposed to teach this refinement to young ladies. Dancing was closely associated with musical ability.
Dancing
Dancing was a living tradition with local variations. Both Victoria and Albert were musical and they influenced the popularity of music and dancing in Victorian homelife and society. The Queen gave evening concerts at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. In 1840, the Prince upgraded the Queen's Private Band into a good string orchestra.
Dancing
Waltz & Polka:
The Victorians loved dancing. Johann Strauss the elder (1804-49), as part of the coronation festivities had brought the new Viennese waltz to England. Queen Victoria thought Prince Albert waltzed beautifully. Newer square dances were popular as were older dances such as the Sir Roger De Coverley, jigs, hornpipes, country dances, flash jigs.
Dancing
Then in 1840 everyone started to do the Polka which was sweeping Europe among rich and poor. Dancing at home, in assembly rooms, in taverns, on the village green, at places of amusement, such as Vauxhall and Cremorne Gardens and at Royal residences was very popular. The lively simple Polka dance was popular with the laboring classes.
Fairs
Fairs were held all over Britain from city to village green, but the first special fair of the Queen's new reign was held in Hyde Park. Every kind of article from ribbons to pies was sold. The Victorians loved the macabre and looking at freaks from fat men, fat women to the contrast of living skeletons, two headed ladies and for a time the so called Elephant man to mind reading dogs and performing horses. The crowds loved them all.
Dress designed by Charles F. Worth for empress Elizabeth of Austria and painted by Winterhalter in 1865 .
Slim fitting trained dress with cuirasse bodice 1876. By 1878 the cuirasse bodice reached the thighs.
The cuirasse bodice of 1880 reached thehem actually becoming the princess panel dress. It made an exceptionally form fitting draped sheath dress which was elongated even further by the train.