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As is quite evident from the title the kind of literature that evolved during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) is famously known as the Victorian Era literature.

The literature of the Victorian Age (1832-1901) entered a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of this era was preceded by romanticism and was followed by modernism or realism. Hence, it can also be called a fusion of romantic and realist style of writing. Though the Victorian Age produced two great poets Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning, the age is also remarkable for the excellence of its prose.

Characteristics of Victorian Novels

Victorian novels tend to be idealised portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance; love and luck win out in the end. They were usually inclined towards being of improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. While this formula was the basis for much of - earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more complex as the century progressed.

Characteristics of Victorian Poetry

Victorian Poetry was also indifferent from the already stated style. Much of the work of the time is seen as a bridge between the Romantic Era and the modernist poetry of the next century. Alfred Lord Tennyson held the poet laureateship for over forty years. The husband and wife poetry team of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning conducted their love affair through verse and produced many tender and passionate poems.

The reclaiming of the past was a major part of Victorian literature and was to be found in both classical literature and also the medieval literature of England. The Victorians loved the heroic, chivalrous stories of knights of old and they hoped to regain some of that noble, courtly behaviour, and impress it upon the people both at home and in the wider empire.

In dramatic, farces, musical burlesques, extravaganzas, and comic operas competed with Shakespeare productions and serious drama by the likes of James Planche and Thomas William Robertson. The discoveries of science seem to reflect considerable and particular effects upon the literature of the age. The Victorians had a mission to descnbe and classify the entire natural world. Much of this writing was not regarded as literature but one book, in particular, Charles Darwin's ‘On the Origin of Species’, remains famous. The theory of evolution contained within the work shook many of the ideas the Victorians had about themselves. Although it took a long time to be widely accepted, completely changed following thoughts and literature.

The old Gothic tales that came out of the late 19th-century are the first examples of the genre of fantastic fiction. These tales often centred on larger-than-life characters such as Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective of the times, Barry Lee, big time gang leader, Sexton Blake, Phileas Fogg, and other fictional characters of the era, such as Dracula, Edward Hyde.

Common Themes in Victorian Literature

If one studies possibly, all the great writers of this period, you will mark three general characteristics. Firstly, literature in the Victorian Age tended to come face to face with realism. This reflected more on practical problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human progress. Secondly, the Victorian literature seems to deviate from the strict principle of ‘art for art's sake’ and asserts its moral purpose.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Ruskin Bond — all were the teachers of England with the faith in their moral message to instruct the world. Thirdly, this was more like the age of pessimism and confusion. The influence of science was strongly felt here. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's some immature works seem to hold doubtful and despairing stains but his ‘in Memoriam’ comes out as a hope after despair. Although characterised as practical and materialistic, the literature of the Victorian Age portrays a completely ideal life. It was an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood were emphasised by poets, essayists, and novelists of the age.

Influence of Victorian Literature

The persistent popular embrace of Victorian literature has had a profound influence on modern literature and media. Writers such as Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters still sell robustly on most book resellers’ lists and are frequently adapted into films and television productions, both directly and in modernised retellings. In addition, many modern novels such as ‘4 Great and Terrible Beauty’ demonstrate that the intricate cultural mores of the Victorian Era find a home in the modern cultural psyche.

Famous Victorian Novelists and Poets

Significant Victorian novelists and poets include: Matthew Arnold, the Bronte sisters, Christina Rossetti, Joseph Conrad, Robert Browning, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edward BulwerLytton, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot, George Meredith, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gissing, Richard Jefferies, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Philip Meadows Taylor, Alfred, Lord Tennyson biography, William Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, George MacDonald, G. M. Hopkins, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll.

Victorian age in English literature

Green Land | March 02, 2024 | 0 comments

As is quite evident from the title the kind of literature that evolved during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) is famously known as the Victorian Era literature.

Characteristics of Victorian Novels

Characteristics of Victorian Poetry

Common Themes in Victorian Literature

Influence of Victorian Literature

Famous Victorian Novelists and Poets

Victorian Period

19th century novel achieves full respectability with George Eliot. Yet the master of early Victorian novelists was Charles Dickens. The success of his books depend on their quality of comedy and pathos and their attacks on public abuses. Dickens entertains everybody. His novels came out originally not in book form but in parts in an illustrated monthly magazine. They were read aloud in the family. Some of his novels were staged and were adapted to film and musical performance. His successful novels are “Pickwick Paper”, “David Copperfield”, “Bleak House”, “Our Mutual Friend”, “Great Expectations” etc. The “Pickwick Paper” is the story of an office boy who contracts to get a job as a reporter on a London daily newspaper. He travelled England by coach writing news reports to drawings and also sketches. The story is important for its comic and pathetic incidents. He was a dramatic writer.

“David Copperfield” is his most delightful book. It is an autobiographical fairy tale. We share the view points both of child and adult. We see Dickens’s smile and pity. We experience Steerforth’s seductiveness to David.

“Bleak House” is the best integrated book. The plot has two main lines. The chancery case of the estate of Jarndyce and Jarndyce so iong drawn out that caused absorb all the benefits and the discovery that the orphan Esther Summerson is the illegitimate child supposed dead of Lady Deadlock. The saintly Esther is to marry John Jarndyce for whom she keeps house but he releases her to marry a young doctor. Dickens created Jot of characters in this novel. The home of Esther is to set up with her doctor. The narration conveys many symbols, metaphors, fables of good and bad. We find various bleak houses in the novel.

“Our Mutual friend” introduces three subjects in the first three chapters of the novel that is the recovery of a body from the Thames, the Veneering’s dinner party and Sylas with his wooden legs. The themes always do not hold together but Dickens’s parts are better than other writers whole. This novel important for it’s narration of every part. The wit and satire of the novel make it a Victorian novel. Dickens’s “Hard Times” is a satire on the industrial life and the government policies.

“Great Expectations” combines narrative and analysis. It is a story with single focus of consciousness.

“Expectations are thirst on Pip. Pip is a little boy brought up by his harsh sister who was the wife of a simple blacksmith. Pip is given money from a mysterious source. He imagines Miss Havisham to be his benefactor. Pip rises in the world turns his head. In London he embarrassed by his brother in-law Joe. Miss Havisham trained up beautiful Estella to take revenge on men. Estella chooses to marry Pip’s rival who his social superior. The story of “Great Expectations” is not only important for Pip’s great expectation but also Dickens’s style. Dickens’s simile is like Homer’s simile in the “Hiad”.

ln a sense “Great Expectations” is a romantic autobiography. Dickens combines myth making with a world of experience. Charles Dickens is a pre-eminently the novelist of London and lower middle class people. He portrayed the life of London street and middie class people. He was a painter of London life. His novels focus the realistic picture of London life that is the social, political and the life of industrial revolution. Dickens shows man woman to be struggling together for the welfare of society. Dickens appears as a moralist as well as a social reformer. He is interested in the problem rather than the incidents. He doesn’t portray rather comic and humorous character with a touch of pathos.In fact Dickens is not only a representative novelist of Victorian age but also a typical Victorian novelist.

Write a note on Dickens's novel

Green Land | February 19, 2024 | 0 comments

“Great Expectations” combines narrative and analysis. It is a story with single focus of consciousness.

Victorian Period

English literature of the last decade of 19th century is termed as Naughty Nineties. Because it was a revolt against the tendencies of early decades of queen Victoria. The Victorian era achieved much scientific knowledge and developed incomes of industry trades and commerce. But at the end of the era a new revolt arose. The publications of two magazines “Yellow Book” and “The Savoy” gave expression to the revolt-against Victorian ideas. The revolt of the nineties has three aspects. Firstly, they emphasized the old idea of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Secondly, they worship power rather than beauty. Thirdly, they challenged the values of art and life and criticise the idea of Victorian compromise.

The nineties was a period of literary activity. Poetry, novel and drama flourished with new Vigour. Huxley, Oscar Wilde are some of the important writers of nineties. They reacted against Victorianism. They wanted to restore the spirit of romance to novel. They made novel a criticism of social documents. In poetry we also find a similar reaction. Poetry became pessimistic in tone. It was a period of indecision and disillusionment. The drama of the nineties alse marks a new beginning. In fact the nineties was a revolt against Victorian ideals of manner and morality.

Write a short note on ''Naughty Nineties'' of Victorian Literature

Green Land | December 02, 2023 | 0 comments

Secondly, they worship power rather than beauty. Thirdly, they challenged the values of art and life and criticise the idea of Victorian compromise.

Victorian Period

First of all in the Victorian Age the dominating literary form was the novel. It was in fact easier to be read and understood by simple people, its plot was more interesting than any other literary forms, the main protagonists of the novel were the same people who read it so that they felt deeply involved in the adventure told, the writer and his readers shared the same opinions, values, and ideals because they belonged to the same middle class, the setting was mainly that of the same city where readers lived. In conclusion the novel was a kind of mirror which reflected society and where a self-identification of the readers was possible. Of course the middle class readers were the most avid consumers, particularly women: they had the money to buy or to borrow books. they had plenty of free time to dedicate to reading, but they also had enough privacy to read. The problem of privacy was in fact very important: poor or working people lived in narrow houses and more than a single family often shared the same flat or, at worst, the same room. So they didn't have the possibility to read because reading needed silence, tranquility, light.

In order to improve the reading public, in this period they started to publish novels in instalments: every week few pages of the novel (or a complete chapter), were included in one of the periodicals issued. This kind of publication had an important advantage on the price of the novel but also on the writers: they could check the reaction of their public to the plot and, if parts of it were not appreciated, they could decide to change it in accordance with the taste of readers. This happened because, if not satisfied, the readers could stop buying the magazine determining the failure of the novel and of its writer.

The novelists represented society as they saw it but, being aware of the problems created by industrialisation, (exploitation of women and children, terrible living conditions, etc.y they used their novels in order to put in evidence these evils and to stimulate people to find remedies to them. In this sense ‘didacticism' was the dominating aim of most of the novels of these years. As a consequence the narrator is generally omniscient: he operates a marked division between good and evil characters, he judges people and actions, he makes its stories finish with a wise distribution of ‘punishment for the evil characters, ‘retribution’ for the good ones.

The plot of the novels was generally very long and complicated by many sub-plots: the writer also wanted to give a marked impression of reality so that he presented not only the adventures of the main characters, but also those of the secondary ones. .

What are the characteristics of the Victorian Novel?

Green Land | November 11, 2023 | 0 comments

Victorian Period

Victorian poets are also known as later nineteenth century poets. Most of the writing of this period reflects current social, economic, and intellectual problems. The poetry of this period shows the crisis of religion.and philosophy because of the development of science.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Tennyson is one of the most skilled and self-conscious poets of the Victorian Age. He is typical Victorian who adopted the conventional religious and social views and values of his age. His early poems were not much accepted, but gradually he sharpened his skill. Tennyson's later poems are serious, thoughtful, and musical. His poem 'The Idylls of the King' is preferred by many people even today. In ‘Morte a’ 'Arthur'he turned Malory's story into poetry. He. did experiment with different meters. In his long poem ‘In Memoriam’ he ‘laments for the death of his friend Arthur Hallam. Tennyson's shorter poems are generally better than longer ones. Ulysses is his most controlled and perfectly written poem which presents the heroic voice of the aged hero. 'The Princess'is the collection of his fine lyric which shows his best mysterious and musical quality.

Robert Browning

Browning is a major Victorian poet who voiced the mood of optimism in his works. For Browning the intellect was more important than the music. His great knowledge was the result of his self-study and travels. His reputation is higher as the writer of dramatic monologue. One of his successful dramatic poems is ‘Pippa Passes’. We find many such poems in his dramas, but his natural gift was in poetry. Sometimes we notice his poetic style very difficult. It is because of his unusual knowledge of words and his strange sentence structure. Sordello is a good example of his difficult poem. ‘The Ring and the Book’ is a poem based on a book that he found in Florence. Asolando is a collection of many fine poems which was published on the day of Browning death. ‘

Matthew Arnold

Arnold was a great poet and critic of his time. He had been a professor of poetry in Oxford for ten years. His works truly represent his age. A sad undertone runs through nearly all his poetry. His views of modern life, of its complexity, its sick hurry and divided aims are Present in his poetry. Amold was also the headmaster of Rugby School. He wrote a poem entitled ‘Rughy Chapel’. 'Thyrsis’is a poem of lament for his friend, Clough. In his poem ‘The Scholar Gipsy’ the poet talks about an Oxford man who joins a band of gypsies and wanders with them. ‘Memorial Verses’ is his sad poem in which the poet laments for the deaths of many poets at home and abroad. He also wrote a critical sonnet of Shakespeare, whom he praised too much. One of his other poems, ‘Empedocles on Ema’, has been highly praised, perhaps because it is not altogether sad.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Rossetti was a poet as well as a noted painter. His sonnets are among the most musical in English. Many critics have accused him of writing a moral poems belonging to the Fleshy School of poetry. But he argued that poetry ought to be based on the senses. Many of his poetic lines are written in way a painter's eye captures the beauty of the thing. Rosseti wrote about nature with his eye on it, but did not feel it in his bones as Wordsworth does. Rossetti was too fond of alliteration.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Another great poetess of this time was Elizabeth Barrett, who, on her marriage, became Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Some of her poems are ¢ too long, but in a sonnet she could not write too much because the form is limited to fourteen lines. Thus much of her best work is contained in Sonnets from the Portuguese. She pretended at first that these sonnets were translated from the Portuguese; they were really an entirely original expression of her love for Robert Browning.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Swinburne followed the poetic style of Rossetti, but could not use alliteration so much successfully in his poems as did Rossetti, Critics argue that his poetry does not contain much thought, though it can be sung well. When his work ‘Poems and Ballads' appeared in 1866, he was much blamed for moral reasons. A later book of Poems and Ballads is not so much offensive as the previous one. It shows his interest in French writers and includes the laments for them. ‘Tristram of . Lyonesse' is usually considered to be his best work. It tells the undying story of Tristram and Iseult.

Edward Fitzgerald

One of the greatest poetic translators was Edward Fitzgerald. He translated six of Calderon's plays 'The Agamemnon’ of Aeschylus and ‘The Rubaivat' of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam. Most translations jose something and are not as good as the originals, But this book is considered by some Persian scholars to be better than Omar Khay)yam's work, In this translation of ‘The Rubuiyat’, he entirely omitted the hidden meanings of the original. The other poets of this age are Arthur Clough, and Christina Rossetti.

Fleshly School of Poetry or the Pre-Raphaelites

The Fleshly School Poets or the Pre-Raphaelites were inspired by the Italian painters before Raphael. In 1848, a group of three young painters, who were also poets, founded the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. They followed a medieval outlook, art for the sake of art, sensuous and clear word painting, and a poetry rich in music and melody. Due to their detailed description of scene and situation, and the frank and free dealing of sexual passion, they are also referred to as the 'Fleshly School’.

D. G. Rossetti was the chief among these young poets, as well as painters. He is sometimes criticised as a fleshly poet because his poems contain sensuous pictures of feminine beauty. But he combines the physical beauty with spiritual beauty in ‘The Blessed Demozel’. He also wrote about nature, but instead of feeling like Wordsworth, he studied it. He was also fond of alliteration, as in "flying hair and fluttering hem."

A. C. Swinburne was a follower of D. G. Rossetti, but he misused alliteration. He wrote much political verse, but he had a new rich music in his verse drama ‘Atlanta in Calydon'. Though his music is good, there is a lack of thought in his poetry. He was also criticised for moral . reasons when his Poems and Ballads was published in 1866. His best work is considered to be Tristram of Lyonese.

William Morris was also influenced by Rossetti. His early works ‘The Defense of Guenevere’ and ‘Other Poems' (1858), 'The Life and Death of Jason' (1867), and ‘The Earthly Paradise' (1870) are purely romantic in method and style, with an undertone of sadness.

Write an essay on the major poets of the Victorian Age.

Green Land | August 02, 2023 | 0 comments

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Robert Browning

Matthew Arnold

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Edward Fitzgerald

Fleshly School of Poetry or the Pre-Raphaelites

Victorian Period

Victorian Era marked a significant age in the field of literature. The occupation of the Queen on the throne of England had a liberating effect on the females all over Europe and the Americas. The most prominent female writers of Victorian Era are as below.

Judith Sargent Murray

Judith Sargent Murray was an early American essayist, who's religious, and political writing, as well as personal letters, helps us understand that period of history. She also wrote one of the earliest feminist essays in America.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

She is the famed author of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin', a book which helped build anti-slavery sentiment in America and abroad. This novel expresses her moral outrage at the institution of slavery and its destructive effects on both whites and blacks. When Stowe met President Lincoln in 1862, he is said to have exclaimed, "So you are little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War!"

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte

Now considered as the pioneers of feminist literature, the sisters are authors of literary classics Jane Eyre’, ‘Wuthering Heights‘ and ‘Agnes Grey’ respectively.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A major poet, but often thought to be a bad one, she catered to popular tastes. While few today recognise her name, some of her lines are still very familiar, such as these: “Laugh and the world laugh with you; Weep, and you weep alone." (From 'Solitude’)

Kate Chopin

‘The Awakening’ was her only second novel and she is remembered for her writing. Although regarded as a classic towards the end of the century, during initial days it was infamously known as a scandal in 1899. Now it is widely used in women's studies courses. The novel describes one woman's awakening and subsequent revolt against socially prescribed roles for women and their sexuality.

Louisa May Alcott

An American novelist, she is best known for the novel ‘Little Women’, set in the Alcott family home, in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868. This novel is loosely based on her childhood experiences with her three sisters. The novel was followed by 3 others, which did not gain the popularity of her first novel.

Jane Austen

She was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the upper middle class, earned her a place as one of the most widely i read writers in English literature. Her realism and biting social commentary are responsible for cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics. She is known for her novels ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility' among others.

George Eliot

Mary Ann Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers a of the Victorian Era. Though female authors were published under their Bs own names during Eliot's life, she used a male pen name, to ensure her He works were taken seriously. " She is the author of seven novels, including ‘Adam Bede‘ (1857), ‘Mill on the Floss' (1860), and ‘Daniel Deronda‘ (1876), most of them set in provincial 4 England and well known for their realism and psychological insight

Write a short note on the women novelists of the Victorian Period.

Green Land | July 31, 2023 | 0 comments

Judith Sargent Murray

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte

Now considered as the pioneers of feminist literature, the sisters are authors of literary classics Jane Eyre’, ‘Wuthering Heights‘ and ‘Agnes Grey’ respectively.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Kate Chopin

Louisa May Alcott

Jane Austen

George Eliot

Victorian Period

The Victorian age doesn’t mean precisely the years during which Queen Victoria reign. Victorianism means an attitude to life and society. Too many influences work on the Victorian age. It was an change of internal and external changes. The literature of the society shows the growing social consciousness. The political turmoil, the industrial revolution, the life of working class people, the political, intellectual and philosophical debate were reflected in the works of the authors. Therefore we can say that there has been an attempt on the part of the authors to bring about a compromise between the various forces of the Victorian era.

A compromise was necessary between the rich and the poor. Life was easy for those who had many power and wealth. On the other hand, millions suffer from poverty. The Victorian society witnessed class consciousness that is conflict between rich and poor. Tennyson’s poetry adequately show the various tendencies and the compromises of the Victorian era. There was a compromise between democracy and kingship. It seems that people accepted the democracy. Victorian society witnessed the freedom of women. There was compromise between war and peace, revolution and reconciliation, The most glaring conflict that Victorian age witnessed is the conflict between science and religion. The discovery of scientific theories brought doubt in the mind of the people. They were not sure whether to have faith in science or religion. The Victorian people suffered from faith and doubt. However; of all the Victorian authors Tennyson is called the poet of Victorian compromise because in his poetry we find both the characteristics of the age. He tried to bring about a compromise between Science and religion. His poems present the conflict between science and religion, the material advancement and spiritual crisis of the age. His important poems are Locksley Hall, Ulysses, Tithonus, Oenone, In Memoriam ete. These poems express the idea of compromise between the various issues of Victorian age.

The Victorian time frame was a period of logical inconsistency, frequently alluded to as the Victorian Split the difference: On the one hand, there was the progress made possible by the Industrial Revolution, the rising wealth of the upper and middle classes, and Britain's and its empire's growing power; On the other hand, the working classes were subjected to injustice, disease, poverty, and other forms of deprivation. The Industrial Revolution brought about rapid change: As new factories and industries were established and thousands of people moved to the cities for work, towns, and cities expanded at an incredible rate. The country's progress and status as a global power were demonstrated by its new industries, inventions, and developments. The middle classes had the opportunity to improve themselves and their fortunes while the upper classes continued to prosper. Church, family, and home values were fundamental during Queen Victoria's reign (1837–1901). The father was an authoritarian figure in the family, and the mother played a submissive role. Society's intense concern for female chastity imposed the concept of the "fallen woman" on thousands of women. Generally, sexuality was suppressed, both in its public and private forms. Prudery at its extremes led to the denigration of nudity in art and the elimination of words with a sexual connotation from everyday speech. Respectability and morality were important, and society became almost pure. Buildings and monuments were erected to honor civic pride and identity.

Altruism and noble causes were important, so libraries, washhouses, and swimming showers were likewise worked to permit individuals from the working classes to work on themselves. However, in actuality, this was extremely unlikely. In Victorian towns and cities across the country, the working class mortality rate, disease, and poverty were among the worst in the world. Overcrowded rooms and filthy slums were where people were forced to live. Young children were compelled to work, such as in textile mills, mines, and chimney sweeps, and poverty and debt were considered crimes that could only be dealt with in prison. It is abundantly clear that Victorian morals, beliefs, and values were not reflected in the world around them. Despite this, many reformers struggled to improve and alter working-class and lower-class conditions, particularly in education and health care. Ideas of racial superiority influenced patriotism in the late 19th century. Therefore, the Almighty obligated the British to impart their superior way of life to native people everywhere. This mentality became known as "Jingoism."

The term "Victorian Compromise" came to be used to describe this era because the Victorians, who lived under the strict rule of Queen Victoria, had to give up many important aspects of individuality and ways of speaking. This Victorian trait eventually showed up in Victorian literature, as was to be expected.

What is victorian compromise ?

Green Land | March 08, 2023 | 0 comments

Victorian Period

The Victorian Period (1832-1901)

The Victorian Period (1832-1901) consists mainly of Wuthering Heights , In Memoriam, Victorian spirit ,George Eliot, Victorian compromise, The Oxford Movement, Bronte- Sisters important short notes etc. Here, these things are discussed in small areas.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is the novel of Emily Bronte published in 1842-It is unique in the English novel and is regarded as the crown of the Victorian women novelists. It is regarded as a Gothic novel full of violent passion. The central figure of the novel is Heathcliff who is the present owner of the house Wuthering Heights. He is severe, gloomy and brutal in aspect and atmosphere firmly rooted in local tradition and custom.In Wuthering Heights, we find that Mrs. Nelly Dean is the narrator who is also presented as a very important character. Through her narration, we are able to meet all the characters in the novel. Mr. Earnshaw, Mrs. Earnshaw, Hindley, Edgar Linton, Isabella Linton, Hareton, Little Cathy and others play significant role in the novel. Heathcliff is a foundling and is found by Mr. Earnshaw in Liverpool. In Withering Heights, he is brought up as one of the children of the family. A passionate love springs up between him and Catherine, the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw. Once Catherins declares "Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself but as my own being." Such kind of passion grows in the minds of the lovers. Being continuously beaten by Hindley and Edgar Linton and being frustrated by the words of Catherine, Heathcliff flees from the Wuthering Heights. After three years, he returns and marries Isabella. Because Catherine has already been married to Edgar Linton who is the owner of the house Thrushcross Grange. Latter on, he manages to become the owner of both the houses. He is able to take revenge upon Edgar Linton and Hindley. It is said that he meets the soul of Catherine in every night after her death.

In Memoriam

In Memoriam"In Memoriam" has been written as an elegy by Alfred Tennyson in 1850 on the death of his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. It was composed over seventeen years from 1833. Tennyson has recorded his grief in a series of one hundred and thirty one short poems in iambic tetrametre quatrains rhyming abba. "In Memoriam" is the progress from bitter grief and doubt to a sense of certainty and hopefulness that the universe is dominated by love. Stages in the gradual rise of spirit are marked by Christmas seasons. But the rise is interrupted even the middle section by torments of heart. Chiefly responsible for the gloom is the scientific depiction of man as a misbegotten animal in an indifferent universe.Tennyson accepts evolution as divinely ordained. He believes that universe is moving to a divine purpose. Mankind will evolve on earth towards the higher man. "In Memoriam" is more than a pastoral elegy like Milton's "Lycidas" or Shelley's  "Adonais". It gained the ears of the Victorian public for its philosophical preachment. Tennyson is known as the Victorian oracle and secures the poet-laureateship. Queen Victoria once told Tennyson, " Next to the Bible In Memoriam is my comfort ". Many humanists of the age find in the poem the definite answer to the quarrel of science versus faith. The Modern Age ignores the philosophical preachings of " In Memoriam". But it is praised for its certain sections because of their eloquent lyricism.

Victorian Spirit

The Victorian Period is the period of ism, progress and prosperity. Among the Victorian poets, Alfred Tennyson has highlighted the Victorian spirit in his poems. But other two famous poets, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning almost fail to represent the spirit of the age in their poems. They are different from Alfred Tennyson and other Victorian Poets.Tennyson is generally regarded as the most complete and comprehensive poet of the Victorian Age. His poetry represents the social, political, moral, philosophical and religious problems of his time. Actually, in every age, there is someone either poet or the other who represents in his writing the very spirit of that age, and prosperity in home and abroad. In this very period, the expansion of the British empire spread over a very large portion of the world. The English were prospering and growing richer and richer everyday. This prosperity was seen particularly in the industrial and the scientific fields. In the national life, there was the moderation in politics, refined culture, religious liberalism and the rise of democracy. Compromise and construction were very keen in the national life. All the things were found and reflected in the life of the Victorian people known as the Victorian spirit.

George Eliot

The Victorian Period is a famous period of women novelists. Some women novelists have played a very significant part in the development of English novel in this age. George Eliot whose real name is Mary Ann Evans is the greatest novelist and short story writer of all the women novelists of the 19th Century.Eliot has written Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. In her novels, we do not find the passionate intensity and ardour of the novels of Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte. But she portrays intellectual and moral passion with consummate mystery. She came under the influence of Herbert Spenser and G.H. Lewis. She lived with them. In Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Eliot has presented the torments of a miser with penetrating insight. She has drawn a picture of working class people of industrialized England. The themes of her novels are common to all her fiction. Different critics have criticized Eliot from different points of view. David Cecil has regarded her as the first modern novelist. George Eliot makes English novel intellectual. Novels before her were instinctive. Secondly, she gives to English novel a depth of psychological realism. Her characterization is remarkable in the history of English novel. Eliot is able to give her novels a well-knit structural pattern and a dramatic unity.

Victorian compromise

We know that the Victorian Period is the period of progress, prosperity and ism. It is an era of social change. The people of that age were facing several problems in their life. They were suffering from doubts, unrest and confusion in their souls. The Industrial Revolution, the rise of democracy and the advancement of science were the chief force of spirit of the Victorian Age. The literature of the Victorian Period is also influenced by these spirit. It reflects peace, order and stability. Its ideals are "Compromise" and "Construction". A dualism of reason and emotion, materialism and mysticism, religion and science or faith and doubts is very common in this period. Similarly, we find that a compromise between the old and the new, between freedom and restrictions is also noteworthy. Actually, the literature of this period bears the influence of Romanticism. Thus Romanticism is fusioned with intellectualism. Morality or prudery is the center of all thoughts. However, we see that the Victorians are mediocre. They always desired to discover some compromise which would none the less soothe their conscience and restore their faith. But this compromise was not outraging but their intellect and their reason completely. So, the Victorian compromise means a search for a temporary golden mean.

The Oxford Movement

Oxford movement is a religious movement in the Victorian Period (1832-1901). It is led by John Henry Cardinal Newman and introduced by John Keble. In 1833, Keble introduced this movement in one of his speeches. At that time, he was the professor of poetry in the University of Oxford. Then he also started another movement called High Church Movement. We know that he was one of Wordsworth's admirers. It is said that Oxford Movement had resemblance to the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. It was a protest against materialism and powerful church. It was against the great aspiration for return to the spirit of the Middle Age. It was a break against Protestantism and returning the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church Cardinal found universality and the principal of authority only in Roman Catholicism.In fact, Oxford Movement was intended to bring new life to Anglican Church by a revival of the doctrine and practices of an earlier period. So Newman chose literature as a weapon. The leaders of the movement tried to oppose liberalism and restore the doctrine and authority of the early church. They wanted to continue teaching it. Their belief can be epitomized through one sentence---"I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church ". Oxford Movement ended practically when Newman entered the Catholic Church in 1845.

Bronte- Sisters

Victorian Period is a great period of women novelists. Among them, Bronte-Sisters are specially mentionable. They have played a very significant part in the development of English novel. They have written many novels which are studied with rapt attention even today. Though their novels are remarkable, in some respects they do not surpass their limited range and outlook in them.We know that there are three sister of Brontes. Bronte-Sisters are Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte. The first two of them are the novelists of genius. Charlotte has written John Eyre, Shirley, and Villete. Her first novel, The Professor is based on her personal experience during her stay in boarding school in Brussels. But John Eyre is her best-known novel. Modern woman enters fiction for the first time and struggles with fundamental problems posed by love and sex through the portrayal of John Eyre. Emily Bronte has written less than her sister, Charlotte Bronte. But she surpasses her elder sister in sheer genius. Wuthering Heights which is unique in English literature is her only novel. Because she died the year after its publication. In this novel, she writes a tragedy of love, at once fantastic and powerful, Savage and moving. She shows the ties that bind Catherine to Heathcliff are beyond sex. Anne Bronte is not able to compose anything important because of her premature death. However, the importance of Bronte-Sisters is immense in the history of English novel. The arrival of a new writing is felt in English literature with their writing. They are pioneers in English fiction of romantic type.

Some Important Short Notes On The Victorian Period (1832-1901)

Green Land | September 03, 2018 | 0 comments

The Victorian Period (1832-1901)

The Victorian Period (1832-1901) consists mainly of Wuthering Heights , In Memoriam, Victorian spirit ,George Eliot, Victorian compromise, The Oxford Movement, Bronte- Sisters important short notes etc. Here, these things are discussed in small areas.

Wuthering Heights

In Memoriam

Victorian Spirit

George Eliot

Victorian compromise

The Oxford Movement

Bronte- Sisters

Important Short Notes , Victorian Period

Victorian novel focusing on its salient features

The Victorian Period abounds in the variety of literary forms. It is one of the fruitful periods in the history of English literature. Novel is a recent literary form flourished full to the brim in this period. It is distinguished separately for its special features. The Victorian novel continues to be largely in the tradition of Fielding. Its plot is generally loose and ill- constructed. Its main outline seems to be similar. The story consists of a large variety of characters and incidents clustering round the figure of the hero. These characters and incidents are connected together rather loosely by an intrigue. The story ends with the ringing of wedding bells and discuss on victorian novel focusing on its salient features.

The Victorian novel is an extraordinary mixture of sentiment, melodrama and lifeless characters. The novelists may not construct a compact plot.But They tell the story so well. They are so entertaining that children still love to read and enjoy a novel of Dickens or Thackeray. They give us comprehensive pictures of contemporary life. David Copperfield and Vanity Fair are concentrated wholly on the life and fortunes of a few principal characters. They also provide panoramas of whole societies. In the Victorian novel, "A hundred different types and classes, persons and nationalities, jostle each other across the shadow screen of our imagination." A Victorian novelist is a man of varied moods. His range of mood is as wide as his range of subject. He deals with all aspects of society. So he renders human moods in all their manifold variety. He is not a specialist in any one mood or temper. Generally, we are unable to categorize the Victorian novels and novelists. David Copperfield of Charles Dickens seems to be a story of vast schoolboys. His Great Expectations is another novel dealing with the treatment of childhood.

The Victorian novelists are entertaining story-tellers. They have also creative imagination in ample measure. Their imagination works on their personal experience and transforms and transmutes them. They are often fantastic and romantic. They generally believe in fate or destiny. In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hardy represents himself as a fatalist. The Return of the Native also deals with the same subject. The role of nature and her treatment in these novels are noteworthy. Actually, the creative imagination of the Victorian novelists works on the setting of their story and transform it.The creative imagination is also seen in their humour. Each of them is a humorist. Each is a humorist in a style of his own. They have created a number of immortal figures of fun, each comic in his own different way. There are hundreds of fine jokes and witty remarks spread all the Victorian novel. In Great Expectations, Dickens wants to show that Pip wants to be a gentleman. So Pip who is an orphan goes to London to become a gentleman. The most important expression of this creative imagination is to be seen in characterization. "The Victorians are all able to make their characters live." Their characters may not always be real. There may be much in them that is improbable and false. But they are amazingly and indomitably alive. They are wonderfully energetic and vital. They are all individuals living their own existence and lingering long in our memory. A Victorian novel has a crowded canvas. It is crowded with living and breathing individuals. The Victorian novel lacks uniformity. It is extremely unequal. It is an extra-ordinary mixture of strength andweakness. It is technically faulty. This is so because it is still in its infancy. It is still considered as a light entertainment. It does not seem to be a serious work of art. This artistic weakness also arises for other reasons. The great Victorian novels were not published in book-form. But they were published as serial stories in magazines and periodicals. They show a definite decline from the earlier English novel. Because free and uninhabited treatment of the animal side of life is frowned upon. Only a partial one-sided view of life is presented. For these reasons, the Victorian novelists cannot be ranked with the very greatest writers of the genre. Yet they have greatness in them. They have their imperfection. Their plots are improbable and melodramatic. Their endings are conventional and their construction is loose. They do not have any high artistic standards. But their merits also are many. They are very entertaining. They can capture and hold the attention. They have creative imagination and have the incomparable gift of humour.

Discuss the Victorian novel focusing on its salient features.

Literaturemini | July 31, 2018 | 0 comments

Victorian novel focusing on its salient features

Victorian Period

The Victorian Period can be regarded as the period of progress and prosperity. It is a very significant age. Because we find several changes in different sectors in this period. These changes are obvious in politics in economics, in religion and even in literature. Science and realism have also brought a great change in the mind of the Victorians. Realism becomes dominant in the social life of the Victorian people. Mills, industries and factories advance Industrial Revolution and they change their mode of life. So the impact of science on Victorian literature is immense. Many factors were active in the Victorian Period. They were nothing but the movements at that time. Among them, two prominent factors in the life and literature of the era are remarkable. They are the steady advance of democratic ideals and the progress of scientific thought. Both these movements profoundly affected the literature of the period, both directly and indirectly. The advance of science profoundly affected the outlook and temper of man as well as intellectual activity during the period. The evolutionary theories of Charles Robert Darwin and Herbert Spencer completely revolutionized the contemporary views about man and society. Faith in "The Biblical" view of creation was shaken. It was replaced by the Darwinian theory of evolution through struggle for existence According to Compton-Rickett, science influenced the literature of the period in two ways. First, it fostered a spirit of restlessness and by increasing man's material resources. It commercialized contemporary life. Wordsworth lamented the increasing materialism at the very outset when he cried out-

The world is too much with us, late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers".

Matthew Arnold laments over the death of the religious faith in many of his poetry too. "Dover Beach" is one of them. In "The Scholar Gipsy", he has regarded the Victorians as the moderns. He considers them to be materialistic.The effects of geological and biological discoveries shook to its depths the old theories of creation. The general spiritual unrest is reflected most remarkably in Mid-Victorian poetry. Scientific creations made the Victorian people sceptic. In this regard, Compton-Rickett says, The questioning note in Clough, the pessimism of James Thompson, the wistful melancholy of Matthew Arnold the fatalism of Fitzgerald, all testify to the sceptical tendencies evoked by scientific research. It did not kill poetry, but it stifled for a while the lyric impulse and overweighed verse with speculative thought". Tennyson wanted compromise between science and religion."Let knowledge grow from more to more", he says. Thus he welcomes the scientific advancement of the age. But he also wishes that more of faith should dwell in the human heart as in the past, so that together, science and religion, may make one nusic and contribute to the happiness and well being of man. The scientific method is more important even than matter of science. It invades the art of the age. In accuracy of detail it would be impossible to rival the scenic descriptions of Tennyson. His nature poetry is like the work of an inspired scientist. If we pass from poetry to history and fiction, we can see the dominance of the scientific method more clearly. In the poetry of Tennyson and the novels of Thomas Hardy, nature no longer remains a, "kindly mother" with a "holy plan" of her own. Tennyson speaks of Nature as "red in tooth and claw". He is conscious of the grim struggle for survival which goes on within her. Thomas Hardy is even more explicit. He paints both the ugly and the beautiful in Nature. He regards "mutual butchery" as the law of Nature. He gives a knock-out blow to the romantic exaltation of Nature. He makes us see her in her true colours.

In fiction, the scientific spirit is no less discernible. The problem of heredity and environment pre-occupies the attention of the novelists like Hardy. Again Compton-Rickett says," The social problems of the carlier Victorians of Charlotte Bronte, Dickens, Kingsley, and Reade, give place to points in biology, psychology, pathology. The influence of Herbert Spencer and of Comte meets us in the pages of George Eliot; while the analytical methods of science are even more subtly followed in the fiction of George Eliot, the early writing of Mrs. Humphry Ward, and the intimate Wessex studies of Thomas Hardy".Certain poets of the Victorian Age apparently show no influence of the scientific movement of the age. The Pre Raphaelites poets and artists are indifferent to it. However their aestheticism and exclusive concern with beauty may also be taken as a reaction to the increasing materialism and matter of-factness of the age. These theories were encouraged and fostered by science. Actually the Pre-Raphaelites follow the theory of "Art for Art's Sake."

Discuss the impact of science on Victorian literature

Literaturemini | July 31, 2018 | 0 comments

The world is too much with us, late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers".

Victorian Period

The Pre-Raphaelite Movement is a literary movement started in 1848 as an organization of painters. They called themselves Pre-Raphaelites. Some artists of that time followed the art forms used before the period of Raphael. We know that Raphael was an Italian artist born in 1483 and died in 1520. The artists from the time span from 1848 to 1860 believed that the artificiality entered into the art from the time of Raphael. So they wanted to seek for the art and painting before Raphael. D.G. Rossetti was the main figure of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.He along with W.H. Hunt and J. Millais formed this group. Later on, Christina Rossetti, W. Morris and A Swinburne joined them. Originally, it was a movement for the painters. But eventually these ideals took the shape of a literary movement. Medievalism, symbolism, sensuousness truthfulness and simplicity are the main features of the Pre- Raphaelite. The Pre-Raphaelite poets exercised poetry and arts equally. They held a conception known as "Art for Art's sake". We have already mentioned that the Pre-Raphaelite poets of England drew their inspiration from the works of Italian painters before Raphael. Like the Romantics, they were also inspired by the Middle Ages. In other words, they were encouraged by their romance, chivalry, superstition and strange combination of the material and the mystical. The return of these poets was to a medievalism different from that of Scott and Tennyson. They added to the charm of medieval literature. In this way, they revive it as a subtle something which differs it from medieval literature itself. The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood identified themselves artistically with the painters, the early Florentines. John Ruskin in his Modern Painters had protested against the academic traditions which kept young artists making school copies of Raphael. Pre-Raphaelitesm put this protest into a practical form. It was basically a protest against the classical tradition and conventional art of the old masters. The Pre-Raphaelitesm writers and painters insisted that a painter should paint whatever he sees. They might be regardless of the formal rules of painting. Hunt and Millais in particular adversely criticised Raphael's great painting, "Transfiguration". They also challenged the classical doctrines explained by the celebrated English painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Pre-Raphaelite looked upon the senses as the gateway to the realisation of the spirit. Beauty was to them sensuous and concrete. Keats's influence on them was strong and deep. For sensual elements of their poetry, they were condemned as the "fleshly school" of poets.

D.G Rossetti is the outstanding spokesman of this pre-Raphaelite poetry.His chief poems appeared in 1870.They were violently attacked for their sensuality by Robert Buchanan. The works of Rossetti consisted of sonnets and ballads. In the sonnets of The House of Life, he pours out his love for his young and beautiful wife. These sonnets are rich to the point of excess and subtle to the point of obscurity. They contain a sort of mystic symbolism. Among his other works The Blessed Damozel, My Sister's Sleep, The Portrait, Jenny and Burden of Nineveh are mentionable. His work is extremely individual and original. It is distinguished in English literature by its rich Italian colouring and its warm sensuous quality.His remarkable poem,The blessed damozel" contains The essence of Pre-Raphaelite spirit.

William Morris found his earliest inspiration in the Middle Ages. He loved everything Gothic. His true genius, his lyrical quality is revealed in his shorter poems. Though he became prominent as a teller of famous stories, he remained essentially.lyrical. This is evident in his great compositions, The Life and Death of Jason and The Ugly Paradise. The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems has been called the single volume of Pre-Raphaelite verse. Its subjects are almost entirely British and French medievalism.

Swinburne was the spoiled child of the Pre-Raphaelite group. Unlike the other members of the group, he was a musician rather than a painter. His poetry lacks rhymes and colours. His characteristic poems in this period are "Hymn to Proserpine", "The Garden of Proserpine". "Laus Veneris", "Faustine" etc. They breathe the spirit of sensuality. Like the Pre-Raphaelite, he demonstrated "Art for Art's Sake". But he manifested the decadent romanticism in his emphasis on pure aestheticism. After Swinburne, we shall consider Christina Rossetti as a Pre-Raphaelite poet. She represented more perfectly the idea of simplicity which was at the root of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. She showed a lyrical gift, a pure sense of melody and remarkable powers of versification in her shorter poems. But she possessed also a fanciful imagination and a love of the country. It is revealed in the most popular of her child poem, Goblin Market".

We have found that Pre-Raphaelite poetry and painting has certain features. The most important characteristics is extreme attention to realistic details. The Pre-Raphaelite painted their pictures with elaborate care. Another feature of the movement is its love of symbolism. Rossetti learnt its secret from Dante. In his famous poem The Blessed Damozel", Christian symbols are worked into the poem. They give to the poem a medieval background. So medievalism is another characteristic of Pre-Raphaelite painting and poetry. But the most interesting feature is the combination of sensuousness and mysticism. All these traits are more or less employed in the poetry are painting of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

At last, we can say that the Pre-Raphaelites were above all artists and art was their religion.They were as free from any moral or didactic purpose as Keats.They aimed at perfect form and finish. They possessed many qualities revealed in their poetry and painting. Sexual passion was dealt with more frankly and freely than was usual at that time. For this reason, they are also referred to as the "fleshly school." They are strongly pictorial in their poetry which abounds in word pictures. It would be wrong to call the Pre-Raphaelites an entirely new school of poets. Because they were influenced by Coleridge, Keats, Scott, and Tennyson. They tried to attain their poetic technique and perfection of form. For this reason. Saintsbury calls Pre-Raphaelitesm a direct and legitimate development of the Romantic Revival in England.

What do you understand by the Pre-Raphaelite Movement?

Literaturemini | July 31, 2018 | 1comments

Victorian Period

The Victorian Period is a great period of women novelists. Some women novelists have played a very significant part in the development of English novel in this age. As a matter of fact, their achievements in many respects are greater than men. They build up a new palace of novel whose foundation stone has been laid by Jane Austen in the previous period. They want to share with the trends and the progress and prosperity of the era. They are able to come out and represent themselves in this sphere. Among the women novelists, Bronte Sisters and George Eliot are the greatest. Bronte sisters are Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte. The first two of them are the novelists of genius.

At first, we shall consider Charlotte Bronte as a Victorian novelist. She has written Jane Eyre, Shirley and Villette.Her first novel, The Professor is based on her personal experience during her stay in boarding school in Brussels. But Jane eyre is her best-known novel. It is famous for its power and subtlety displayed in the portrait of a governess, Jane Eyre by name. She is loved and finally was won by Mr. Rochester. The novel links a highly exciting and romantic story to a sober and honest realism. It's heroine is a new creation. She is a free human being with an independent will. She is willing to take full responsibility for her life. Modern woman enters fiction for the first time and struggles with the fundamental problems posed by love and sex through the portrayal of Jane Eyre.

Shirley has a greater variety of characters including the delightful heroine. In the novel, Charlotte projects the image of her own sister, Emily in the heroine. Here she shows a more normal and less passionate portrayal of life. Again the theme of her novel is the love story of a young girl. Villette is another novel of the past. It is in large measure autobiographical.It describes the love between Lucy Snowe and M. Paul.

Emily has written less than her sister, Charlotte Bronte.But she surpasses her elder sister in sheer genius. Wuthering Heights which is unique in English literature is her only novel. Because she died the year after its publication. In this novel. she has created a stark passionate world. She writes a tragedy of love, at once fantastic and powerful, savage and moving. She shows the ties that bind Catherine to Heathcliff are beyond sex. Wuthering Heights is excellent in the depiction of their destructive passion. It is a sharp representation of their love- hatred and the fury of vengeance. It has also a symmetrical pattern. In other words, the novel possesses stasis disintegration, Heathcliff's revenge and the final reconciliation. Symbolism plays a vital part in it. The author shows a sharp contrast between the two houses-Wuthering Heights and Thruscross Grange and their dwellers.

Mary Ann Evans has written under the pen name of George Eliot. She is the most learned novelist and short story writer of all the women novelists of the 19th century. In her novels, we do not find the passionate intensity and ardour of the novels of Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte. But she portrays intellectual and moral passion with consummate mystery. She came under the influence of Herbert Spencer and G. H. Lewis. She lived with them. Eliot has written Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda. Her novel, Adam Bede announces her arrival of a new writer of the highest calibre. It gives an excellent picture of English country life among the humbler classes.

In The Mill on the Floss. Eliot deals with the life of brother and a sister presented with great sensitiveness. In Romola, she writes. a historical novel of the Italian Renaissance. Felix Holt is a novel of Radicalism of the Reform Bill. It shows the penalties which Eliot has paid for the loss of her early spontaneity. In Middlemarch, she constructs one of the novels gives us an excellent picture of the rural life. They have sense of rich humour which is skilfully blended with tragedy. Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is a shorter narrative. Here the novelist has presented the torments of a miser with penetrating insight. She has drawn a picture of working class people of industrialized England. The themes of the novel are common to all her fiction. The character of Silas Marner has been painted with great care and affection.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell is also a famous novelist in the Victorian Period. She has composed many novels along with the biography of Charlotte Burton North and South, Ruth and Cranford. Almost all her novels deal with the industrial state of Lancashire and full of pity for the working class victims of financial self-seeking. She proves herself to be a tender, gentle and amused humorist in Cranford. In addition to Charlotte, Emily, Eliot and Mrs. Gaskell, there were other women novelists in the Victorian Period. They are Mary Russel Mitford, Anna Elizabeth Bray, Lady G. Fullerton, Ellen Middleton, Catherine Gore and Mrs. Trollope. They were popular novelists as well. But they left little impress on the development of the English novel.

The importance of Bronte-Sisters is immense in the history of English novel. The arrival of a new writing is felt in English literature with their writing. They are pioneers in English fiction of romantic type. They are detached observer of society or group of people. They have painted sorrows and suffering of an individual. They have presented a new conception of the heroine as a woman of vital strength and passionate feeling. Their works are imaginative, emotional and intellectual. But the narrow range of their novels is unmistakable. On the other hand, George Eliot is described by David Cecil as the first modern novelist. She makes English novel intellectual. Novels before her were instinctive. Secondly, she gives to English novel a depth psychological realism. She, for the first time, analyses the characters with a deep penetrating insight. She dissects their motives and makes a philosophical criticism of life. Eliot is able to give her novels a well-knit structural pattern and a dramatic unity.

In fine, we can evaluate our discussion by saying that novels of the Victorian Period have ushered a new era in the history of English literature. Women novelists have played a very significant role in this respect. The contribution of Bronte- Sisters is unforgettable. Emily Bronte has written only one novel which gives a new dimension in English novel. But Charlotte Bronte writes several novels which portray the personal life of women and their dreams and expectations. Besides them, we have gotten George Eliot who is one of the greatest women novelists of the Victorian Age. Most of her novels have drawn a rural life. Here she combines together characters and incidents, humorous and tragic situations. Her treatment of reality makes her a prolific and successful novelist. But we should not forget that the women novelists had to write using their pen name because of the adverse situation.