The Victorian Novel
Features
The 19th century saw the novel become the leading form of literature in English.Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart, mixed with a heavy dose of sentiment. While this formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more complex as the century progressed.
Features:
- omniscient narrator who comments the plot and distinguishes right and wrong
- long and complicated plots
- deeper anlysis of the characters
- a final chapter where the whole texture of events is explained and justified
- generally it has a happy end
- it is full of symbols
| Early-Victorian Novel | Mid-Victorian Novel | Late-Victorian Novel |
| Social and humanitarian themes | Persistence of Romantic and Gothic tradition and a psychological vein | A scientific look at human behaviour and discontent with values (Naturalism) |
| Charles Dickens | Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte | Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde |
