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Digvijay Pandya, LPU Unit 19: The Victorian Age (Social, Economic, Political, Cultural Conditions and Women Novelists)

Unit 19: The Victorian Age (Social, Economic, Notes

Political, Cultural Conditions and
Women Novelists)

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
19.1 Social, Economic, Political and Cultural Conditions
19.2 Women Novelists
19.2.1 Charlotte Bronte
19.2.2 Emily Bronte
19.2.3 Mrs. Gaskell
19.2.4 George Eliot
19.3 Summary
19.4 Keywords
19.5 Review Questions
19.6 Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Describe social, economic, political and cultural conditions.
Define charlotte bronte and emily bronte.
Explain Mrs. gaskell and george eliot.

Introduction
The Victorian Age in English literature began in second quarter of the nineteenth century and
ended by 1900. Though strictly speaking, the Victorian age ought to correspond with the reign of
Queen Victoria, which extended from 1837 to 1901, yet literary movements rarely coincide with
the exact year of royal accession or death. From the year 1798 with the publication of the Lyrical
Ballads till the year 1820 there was the heyday of Romanticism in England, but after that year there
was a sudden decline.

19.1 Social, Economic, Political and Cultural Conditions

Wordsworth, who after his early effusion of revolutionary principles had relapsed into conservatism
and positive opposition to social and political reforms, produced nothing of importance after the
publication of his White Doe of Rylstone in 1815, though he lived till 1850. Coleridge wrote no
poem of merit after 1817. Scott was still writing after 1820, but his work lacked the fire and
originality of his early years.

Did u know? The Romantic poets of the younger generation unfortunately all died young—
Keats in 1820, Shelley in 1822, and Byron in 1824.

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