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1832-1901

Living in the Victorian Age


Britain became the world leader in manufacturing. Factory towns grew into large cities, and banks, retail shops, and other businesses expanded. Such changes increased the growth of an industrial working class and a modern middle class. These two important classes were able to live better lives because of the low cost and large variety of mass-produced factory goods.

Living in the Victorian Age


Britain expanded its merchant fleet and its powerful navy. Economic and military power helped Britain acquire new colonies in far-flung parts of the globe. The Victorian Age was also a time of social concern. Brutal factory conditions and stinking slums bred poverty and disease.

Victoria and Albert


In 1840 Queen Victoria insisted on marrying her first cousin, a German prince named Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Many Britons disliked the marriage, but Alberts wisdom and impartial advice did much to soften the personality of the queen. Victoria and Albert restored a sense of dignity to the monarch.

Victoria and Albert


When Albert died, Victoria went into deep mourning and left day-to-day government in the hands of her prime ministers. Victorias limited involvement in political affairs helped to turn Britain into the modern constitutional monarchy it is today.

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.

Domestic Problems and Reforms


Trade policy and electoral reform dominated domestic politics during the first half of the Victorian Era. Corn Laws put high tariffs on grain which helped British landlords and farmers by discouraging food imports. However, the laws angered consumers by tending to keep food prices high.

Domestic Problems and Reforms


Parliament repealed the Corn Laws in 1846 in hope of increasing the supply of food. Over the following decade, Parliament changed other trade laws and put an end to protectionism restriction of imports to protect domestic producers.

Domestic Problems and Reforms


Britain adopted a policy of free tradeallowing imports and exports with few or no restrictions. In 1838, a group of radicals drew up a Peoples Charter demanding, among other things, universal suffrage for males. New demands for electoral change led to the Second Reform Bill of 1867 and to almost complete male suffrage in 1885.

Domestic Problems and Reforms


Women began to attend universities. Parliament reduced the working day for women and children, established a system of free grammar schools, legalized trade unions, improved public sanitation, and regulated factories and housing.

Empire and Foreign Policy


Britain was not alone in its pursuit to form a world empire during the Victorian Age. British diplomats tried to protect and expand the British empire while promoting a balance of power within Europe

The Imperialist Urge


Those who supported a policy of mercantilism did so with the arguments that colonies would provide raw materials and markets for British industry and would offer a home for British settlers.

The Crimean War


Britain fought in only one major European war during the Victorian years. The Crimean War (1853-1856) got its name because it took place on the Crimean peninsula in southern Russia. The war was a result of Britain, France, and Turkey trying to stop Russian expansion.

Britain as a World Power


Britain gained wealth and power in the last three decades of Victorias rule. It gained control of the new Suez canal in Egypt. It acquired African territories such as Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

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.

Religion and Science


Many Victorians were influenced by evangelicalism, a movement that linked strict personal morality with a strong commitment to social reform. The Oxford Movement expressed a second strain of religious thought, seeking a return to more traditional church ritual.

Religion and Science


Charles Darwins theory of evolution stirred tremendous controversy. It was seen as a direct challenge to Biblical truth and traditional religious faith.

Victorian Literature Literacy and the impact of the written word increased during the Victorian Age Books held enormous popularity and influence.

Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism


Romanticism was now part of mainstream culture, save but slightly stale. Realism, focusing on more down-toearth or prosaic events especially suited to prose, helped the creation of the British novel.

Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism


Realism often dealt with family relationships, religion and morality, social change, and social reform topics of special interest to middle-class readers. Naturalism-an outgrowth of realism sought to apply the techniques of scientific observation to writing about life in the Industrial age. Naturalists promoted social reform.

Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism


Some writers blended romanticism with realism or naturalism. Two major literary movements took place: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood- a group of painters and poets formed about 1848, sought to ignore the ugliness of industrial life by portraying nature with the fidelity found in medieval Italian Art.

Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism


Aesthetes- appeared toward the end of the Victorian Age, sought to create works whose sole reason for being was perfection of beauty.

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.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

1809-1892

Alfred Lord Tennyson


Tennyson was named Baron and given the title Lord, by Queen Victoria in 1883. He was committed to responsible action, and he believed in the inherent goodness of people. Queen Victoria appointed him Poet Laureate of England.

Alfred Lord Tennyson


Some of his most notable works include:
In Memoriam, A.H.H. The Lady of Shalott Idylls of the King

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.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

1806-1861

Elizabeth Barrett Browning


She was one of the best known poets of her time. Elizabeth received no formal education but learned eight languages on her own. She had already published four extremely popular volumes of poems by the time she reached adulthood.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Browning had a longtime illness that made her something of a recluse. She married Robert Browning in 1846 in Italy.

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.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

1844-1889

Gerard Manley Hopkins


None of his work was published during his lifetime, but he was the most innovative poet of the Victorian Age. Hopkins abandoned the beliefs of his Anglican parents and became a Catholic. He quit writing for seven years.

Gerard Manley Hopkins


In 1877, he was ordained as a priest and wrote some of his finest poetry. He died of Typhoid fever one month before his forty-fifth birthday.

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.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1828-1882

Dante Gabriel Rossetti


Rossetti was a successful painter as well as a poet. He founded was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood at age 20. In his later poems, Rossetti anticipated the pessimism of many modern writers.

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.

The Music Hall


Victorian prudery inhibited many Playwrights because of the outwardly respectable ideas that were common. In contrast the Music Hall with its double entendres drew the less attractive violent fringe of theatre audiences. This Victorian institution catered chiefly for the working man and lasted to the end of World War I when it was replaced by the cinema.

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.

The Derby Day Races


All classes mixed at Derby week which was both a fair and a race week. Sellers of food and drink with trays slung round necks catered for the masses. Derby Day was held at Epsom racecourse and was a wonderful holiday in May or sometimes June. Weather could be fine and sunny or wet and if not too bad the races went ahead.

The Derby Day Races


Then in 1859 to amazement snow fell before and during the race. This has been the only time in history snow has fallen during the Derby. Racing, the sport of kings, was much loved by the masses. The races gave the poor an opportunity to enjoy their favorite pastimes of skittles, sparring and boxing.

Pastimes, Sports, and Fitness


In the early period indoor games ranged from whist, cribbage, bridge and patience. Men could enjoy more outdoor sports than women especially real tennis, shooting, rowing, billiards, cricket, fishing, and deer stalking. Later women joined some of these pastimes.

Pastimes, Sports, and Fitness


Early Victorian gentlewomen were more limited and played croquet and skated. Everyone walked and promenaded. They were graceful walkers with good deportment. They hunted, rode horses and mastered archery. A few would mountaineer despite the cumbersome nature of wearing crinolines or bustles.

Pastimes, Sports, and Fitness


Between 1870 and 1900 sporting activities for both sexes grew rapidly. Women soon played golf and cricket, sailed, swam and bathed publicly. Once the bicycle arrived in 1881 cycle clubs for enthusiasts formed and it was a wonderful way for young couples to socialize with limited supervision.

EARLY Victorian Fashion (Approximately 1838)

A Child in her confirmation dress (approximately 1851)

Lace bertha neckline 1856

Dress designed by Charles F. Worth for empress Elizabeth of Austria and painted by Winterhalter in 1865 .

Apron style top layer half skirt over bustle.

Tiered soft bustle ball gown of 1872

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.

Dress of 1889 showing signs of elevation at the sleeve head.

Tailor made suit of 1895

Evening gown with train 1890

Early to mid Victorian swimwear for Women.

Late Victorian Swimwear

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