essay questions for victorian period

University of Houston Libraries

Victorian literature research guide.

• Victorian Literature
• Background Information
• Literary Criticism
• Primary Sources
• Need More Help?

In this guide

In this guide, you will find information on resources to help you with your papers and assignments, including how to find:

• background information (or reference sources),
• literary criticism, and
• primary sources.

You will also find information on MLA style, as well as details about how a librarian can help you in the research process.

If you have any questions along the way, please contact me ! 

• Next: Background Information >>

English Librarian

• Last Updated: Jan 12, 2024 10:29 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uh.edu/VictorianLiterature

MSU Libraries

Research guides.

• Need help? Ask a Librarian

British Victorian Period Research: Free Web Sites

• Online Catalog
• Guides to Research and Reference Works
• General Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
• Biographical Dictionaries
• British History Dictionaries and Handbooks
• Periodical Indexes and Annual Bibliographies
• Periodicals and Newspapers as Primary Sources
• Book Length Bibliographies
• British Government Documents
• Primary Sources Online

Free Web Sites

• Contact Information

Consider also using our British Isles Free Websites research guide.

History Highway: a 21st Century Guide to Internet Resources Reference and DMC 4 West (CD) D 16.117 .H55 2006

An annotated bibliography of web sites.

ALPHABETICAL LIST BEGINS HERE.

ARCHON Directory

The ARCHON Directory includes contact details for record repositories in the United Kingdom and also for institutions elsewhere in the world which have substantial collections of manuscripts noted under the indexes to the National Register of Archives.

A2A Access to Archives

The A2A database contains catalogues describing archives held locally throughout England and dating from the 8th century to the present day. In Jan., 2006 it contained 8.7 million items held in nearly 400 record offices and other repositories.

BRANCH: Britain, Representation, and Nineteenth-Century History

Free, expansive, searchable, reliable, peer-reviewed, copy-edited, easy-to-use overview of the period 1775-1925.  Unlike dry chronologies that simply list dates with minimal information about the many noteworthy events of a given year, BRANCH offers a compilation of a myriad of short and long, peer-reviewed articles on not only high politics and military history but also “low” or quotidian histories (architecture design, commercial history, marginal figures of note, and so on).  See tab for How to Use at top.  Search with keywords.  Browse in the topic clusters (subjects). Use the timeline.

British History Online

British History Online is the digital library of British historical sources for historians of Britain located worldwide seeking access to texts and information about people, places, and businesses from the medieval through modern periods. Texts from the Centre for Metropolitan History, the Victoria County History Project, Survey of London, and early journals of the Houses of Commons and Lords are also present.

British History Sources 1500-1900

Connected Histories brings together a range of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain with a single federated search that allows sophisticated searching of names, places and dates, as well as the ability to save, connect and share resources within a personal workspace. There are a number of research guides in this website on such topics as: crime and justice, family history, history of London, Imperial and Colonial History, local history, Parliamentary history, poverty and poor relief, religious history, searching for images. 

British Library: Victorian Britain

What was life in Victorian England like?  The British Library shares posters, pamphlets, diaries, political reports, and illustrations on this period.  History is told via a set of essays by Liza Picard that explore topics like "The Working Classes and the Poor" and  "The Rise of Technology and Industry."  Essays include documents and descriptions.

British Library Newspaper Library

We now offer British Newspaper  Database 1600-1900 .  The free web site is the home page for the British Library's newspaper department, sometimes referred to as "Colindale..." Within the site is the online catalogue of the collections. We have their collection of 19th century British newspapers online; see above in the periodical and newspaper section of this research guide. But you may find other news here for free as well as information about newspapers there.

British and U.K. Studies

This guide is a list of scholarly resources in British and UK Studies. Intended primarily for librarians; it may be useful to scholars in this field.  It is curated and managed by members of the European Studies Section (ESS) of the Association of College & Research Libraries. For additional resources on Northern Ireland, see the Irish Studies guide. Users are free to copy and edit content from this guide for their own purposes.

Carlyle Letters Online: a Victorian Cultural Reference (CLO)

Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle were very gifted and prolific 19th-century letter-writers; they had an immense circle of friends, family and acquaintances in Scotland, England, Europe, and North America; through their letters they interacted with many of the outstanding writers, thinkers and political figures of their time. 35 plus print volumes have been published of their letters since the 1950s, in a project led by Edinburgh University and Duke University. M.S.U. Libraries has many volumes of the print edition at PR 4433 .A44 v. 1-28,30 in Main. Thomas Carlyle was one of 19th century England's prominent historians, writing one of the first interpretive histories of the French Revolution.

Charles Booth's London: Poverty Maps and Police Notebooks

Charles Booth (1840-1916) was a British businessman and social reformer remembered today mostly for his efforts to document poverty in 19th c. London.  He published a multi-volume work, Inquiry into Life and labor in London, published 1889-1903.  It is perhaps best known for Booth's Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, which are color-coded according to wealth distribution in London on a street-by-street basis.  In this web site you can explore a digitized version of one of his "poverty maps" and use a slider at screen bottom to transition to a modern-day Google map.  You can search to explore particular neighborhoods or streets, some explore some of of Booth's notebooks to learn more about his research process.  The notebooks include a series of entries by policemen who helped Booth survey neighborhoods for his maps.

Charles Darwin Research Guide

by M.S.U. librarians.

Charles Darwin's Beagle Library

The books that were aboard the HMS Beagle , 1831-36, during Darwin's voyage.

Charles Darwin's Library

Charles Darwin was a man of science and letters, and his library was impressive. This digital project created by the Biodiversity Heritage Library offers interested parties a virtual reconstruction of the surviving books owned by Darwin, and it includes over 330 titles. 

Charles Darwin Letters

Darwin's letters to people held in the collections of University of British Columbia Woodward Library.  40 to Jim Scott Burdon Sanderson about research on insect-eating plants. 80, part of Fox/Pearce (Darwin) Collection 1821-84, detail observations or natural history of insects, birds, and eggs.

Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the HSM Beagle

Story map by ESRI's Matt Artz combines geography and history to create an interactive spatial timeline of Darwin's journey, incorporating his words and period imagery.  Covers 1831-1836.

Clergy of the Church of England Database

From 1540 to 1835, the Church of England was one of Britain's largest employers.  Search clerical records for more than "155,000 individual clerics or schoolteachers" from over fifty different archives in England and Wales. Search by name and fields such as diocese, location, and date range, and browse people, locations, and bishops according to diocese.  Reference section contains bibliographies, lists of bishops and locations, and a glossary.  Directed by Arthur Burns at King's College London, Kenneth Fincham at the University of Kent, and Stephen Taylor at Durham University.

Darwin Online

The most complete, largest, most used resource on the naturalist Charles Darwin.

Grandeur of Life: a Celebration of Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species

An online exhibit of books from the History of Science Collection at the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, Missouri, one of the world's foremost independent research libraries devoted to science, engineering and technology, a not-for-profit, privately funded institution, open to the public.

Charles Peirce Collection of Social and Political Caricatures and Ballads

The Charles Peirce Collection of Social and Political Caricatures and Ballads brings together a range of fabulous prints published in London during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This collection eventually found its way to the American Antiquarian Society.

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire

Detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies.  Over 150 films are available for viewing online.  Search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or keyword.  Over 350 of the most important films in the catalogue are presented with extensive critical notes by academic researchers.  This is a joint project of Birkbeck and University College London, British Film Institute, Imperial War Museum, and British Empire and Commonwealth Museum.

Crace Collection of Maps of London  

This is the essential guide through the history of London: some 1200 printed and hand-drawn maps charting the development of the city and its immediate vicinity from around 1570 to 1860. The maps were collected, mainly during the first half of the nineteenth century, by the fashionable Victorian society designer, Frederick Crace. After entering the site look for the link to "See all the items in this exhibition." From the British Library Map Collections.

Curran Index

Indexes 19th c. periodicals, functioning as a correction tool for the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (click "Search Indexes" and then scroll down to link to Wellesley Index on lower right of screen).  Indexes also Metropolitan Star, Calcutta Star, Church Quarterly Review, New Monthly Magazine.

Darwin Correspondence Project

Contains 2,000 or more letters, full text, to or from Charles Darwin from 1821-1882, and summarizes the contents of up to 14,500 letters. Includes online copies of some 5,000 of his letters from the published volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin . Includes biographical information about those to whom he wrote, those who wrote to him, and people he mentioned in his letters. See also the bound volumes of Darwin's letters, edited by Frederick Burkhardt and Sydney Smith, in Main stacks at QH 31 .D2 A33 1985 v. 1-16.

Darwin Manuscripts from the Cambridge Digital Library

Goal  is to provide access to over 30,000 manuscript pages. Little background information.  Great image quality, with color, high resolution, detailed transcriptions, editor notes.  Can refine searches in the Cambridge Digital Library to this collection, but cannot search within the Darwin mss themselves.  Darwin's handwriting was not very readable, so having transcriptions is helpful.

Darwin Manuscripts Project

16,094 transcribed images of Darwin's sketches, letters, and scientific writings.  MSS are here divided into four searchable categories:  edited mss, catalogues, journal (his pocket diary 1838-1881), and featured collections.  Site is American Museum of Natural History's.

The largest, most complete, most used resource on the naturalist Charles Darwin.

Dickens in Context

From the British Library. These resources will allow you to investigate the key themes of Dickens' novels alongside original source material from the British Library. Literary manuscripts, newspapers, letters, workhouse records and many more fascinating collection items will help students open up the social, cultural and political context in which Dickens was writing.

Digital Bodleian

The single, central portal to the multiple and separate digital collections created by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University over the past two decades. Designed for item-level searching or collection-level browsing; links to each collection unfold as one scrolls down. Collections range from medieval and Oriental manuscripts to late-20th-century political posters, and include maps, ephemera, games, and texts. Only collection-level materials are identified on the home page.

Digital Panopticon: Tracing London Convicts in Britain and Australia, 1780-1925

Research project exploring the impacts of various punishments on approximately 90,000 people who were sentenced at London's Old Bailey between 1780 and 1925. Brings together "millions of records from around fifty datasets" into a searchable database, including trial records, transportation records of convicts who were sent to Australia, etc.  The "convict lives" pages feature brief biographies of individual convicts whose life histories were "reconstructed using the Digital Panopticon website." The historical background section offers helpful contextual information about the British criminal justice system at that time. Research and teaching section contains themed research guides as well as resources for this site in school. The Arts and Humanities Research Council funded this project, with the work done collaboratively by the Universities of Liverpool, Sheffield, Tasmania, Oxford, and Sussex," with Barry Godfrey, professor of Social Justice at the University of Liverpool, as the principal investigator.

Dissenting Academies Project

In 1662, the Parliament of England passed the Act of Uniformity - which required adherence to many rites and ceremonies prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. One of the rites required was episcopal ordination for all ministers. In response, other Protestant religious communities established a number of dissenting academies, which were "intended to provide Protestant students dissenting from the Church of England with a higher education similar to that at Oxford and Cambridge, from which they were largely excluded." This digital humanities project, created by the Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English, allows visitors to learn more about these academies through an extensive database and encyclopedia of 220 academies that existed between 1660 and 1860. The database also includes thousands of individuals who were involved in the academy as tutors or students.

Emancipation of Women 1750-1920

A detailed history of the English Suffragette movement, including biographies, information on women in the 19th century, pressure groups, strategy and tactics, and parliamentary reform acts.  Click on individual women in the movement.

English Heritage

English Heritage exists to protect and promote England's spectacular historic environment and ensure that its past is researched and understood. English Heritage is the Government's statutory adviser on the historic environment. Clicking on the Site Map near top left of the screen will allow one to find information about various historical sites.

Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade

Created here at Michigan State University by History Dept. prof. Walter Hawthorne and others working with MSU Matrix.  Has two parts: an open access journal, the Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation and a database of over 5 million entries from primary sources and translated into metadata.  Has a federated search function.  Using keywords scholars can retrieve metadata related to people, places, and events.  Records include links to geographical places, archival documents, and related people.  Information in the database comes from libraries, archives, museums, and other collections.

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe

These links connect to Western European (mainly primary) historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. They shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries (and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social, and cultural history). Covers medieval and Renaissance, Europe as a supranational region, as well as documents of individual countries. From Brigham Young University.

European History Primary Sources

Provides links to free scholarly websites of digitized primary documents and online digital archives on European history.  Browse by country, language, time period, subject or type of source.

Fashion History Timeline

This is open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries.  It offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on specific artworks, garments and films for those interested in fashion and dress history. Decade and century overview pages offer visual examples of period styles, a visually rich fashion dictionary defines key terms, and hundreds of examples of dress analysis from antiquity to the present day model the complicated task of discerning whether something is fashionable  or merely everyday dress, as well as the historical implications of that distinction. It features a search-able Source Database of reliable academic publications on fashion and dress history and a much more extensive Zotero database that students and researchers can draw on and contribute to. It is a project of the History of Art dept. at New York University.

Florence Nightingale Digitization Project

Began in 2014 as a collaborative effort between the Florence Nightingale Museum in London, England, the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, the Royal College of Nursing and the Wellcome Library. More collaborative partners are in the process of joining the Project. Together, these institutions have compiled their holdings into a collaborative database consisting currently of more than 2,300 letters handwritten or narrated by Florence Nightingale that for the first time are now available to researchers through a single source.

Food in the West: A Timeline, 1700-2001

Learn about culinary trends related to food, drink, feasts, agriculture from the ancien regime to the present.

Girton Girl

In 1885, popular British writer Annie Edwards penned A Girton Girl . The title refers to Girton College, part of the University of Cambridge network and the first residential college for women in Britain. Despite the title, the main character in this novel does not attend Girton, yet the story nevertheless provides contemporary readers with a glimpse into Victorian ideas about gender roles in education and society. Here readers may browse the fully digitized book, along with a number of Edwards's other novels, courtesy of Oxford University and the Internet Archive. While published in limited numbers at the time, many of Edwards's novels were serialized in newspapers throughout the late nineteenth century or adapted for the theater. This resource will be of interest to literary and history scholars alike as it offers historical context and insight into popular literature at the turn of the twentieth century.

Great Britain Historical Database Online 1841-1939

Large database of British nineteenth and twentieth-century statistics. It contains: Statistics from the 1861 Census and the Registrar General's reports, 1851-1861; Employment statistics from the census, 1841-1931; Demographic statistics from the census, 1841-1931; Mortality statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1861-1920; Marriage statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1841-1870; Trade union statistics for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), 1851-1918; Official poor law statistics, 1859-1915 and 1919-1939; Small debt statistics from county courts, 1847-1913." Free but registration is required.

Historical Directories (U.K.)

Historical Directories is a digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919. It is not comprehensive. It contains high quality reproductions of comparatively rare books, essential tools for research into local and genealogical history. Historical Directories is produced and owned by the University of Leicester.

Search by location, keyword, or decade. Directories are useful for finding historical name/address information and for studying trades in particular places in particular time periods.

History of Parliament

History of Parliament is a research project creating a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the thirteenth century. It consists of detailed studies of elections and electoral politics in each constituency, and of closely researched accounts of the lives of everyone who was elected to Parliament in the period, together with surveys drawing out the themes and discoveries of the research and adding information on the operation of Parliament as an institution.

History Online (U.K.)

History On-Line provides high-quality information resources for the teaching and learning of history. There are currently over 40,000 records providing details of books and articles, U.K. university lecturers, U.K. current and past research, and evaluated links to web sites and on-line resources. This information is freely available, and can be searched or browsed. Information about books included comes from noted English publishers who are supporting the development of the database. There are a great many links to U.K. and Irish history web sites, general reference sources, archives, museums, and libraries, links to U.K. government information, and links to digitized primary resources. The History in Focus section is a new occasional series taking a thematic approach to history. Each issue introduces a topic (for instance, war, medical history, the Victorian era), and provides citations to books, reviews, web sites, and conferences on it to stimulate interest.

Images Online

Images Online gives instant access to thousands of the greatest images from the British Library's collections which include manuscripts, rare books, musical texts and maps spanning almost 3000 years. The range of images available include illustrations, drawings, paintings and photographs.

Images of England

Images of England is a ‘point in time’ photographic library of England’s listed buildings, recorded at the turn of the 21st century.It contains a photographic record of England's 370,000 listed buildings. It is a part of the web site of the National Monuments Record.

You can view over 300,000 images of England’s built heritage from lamp posts to lavatories, phone boxes to toll booths, mile stones to gravestones, as well as thousands of bridges, historic houses and churches.

Institute of Historical Research (U.K.)

The IHR at University of London is an international research/information center whose mission is to support the study of (primarily) British history. IHR offers an open-access library, conferences and seminars open to the public, postgraduate degrees, research training, and networking for those students, digital and print research material, and publishes the journal Historical Research. This web site is a portal to its online info and that of its partners: British History Online, Centre for Contemporary British History, Centre for Metropolitan History, Victoria County History, England's Past for Everyone, London's Past Online, etc. IHR's library catalog provides access to the chief printed primary sources for medieval and modern history of Great Britain and western Europe, their colonial expansion, and the history of the Americas. Also offers access to their research centers. History in Focus features original articles, book reviews, and links to historical resources on selected topics.

Interactive Historical Atlas of the Disciplines

Aims at collecting and mapping data related to the history of the disciplinary structure of science. Launched in 2018 at the University of Geneva, this collaborative website provides several tools to explore the various 'classifications of the sciences' put forward by numerous scholars over the centuries, and to visualize the evolution of disciplinary borders from Antiquity to our days. The ultimate goal of this project is to reconstruct the genealogical tree of the sciences, namely, the "table of contents" of the history of human knowledge. As such, the present atlas should be of interest not only to historians, but also to philosophers, sociologists and anyone interested in the history of their discipline and its relations to others sciences.

Internet Global History Sourcebook

The Global History Sourcebook is dedicated to exploration of interaction between world cultures. It does not, then, look at ''world history''as the history of the various separate cultures (for that see the linked pages, which do take that approach), but at ways in which the "world" has a history in its own right. Specifically this means looking at the ways in which cultures contact each other, the ways they influence each other, and the ways new cultural forms emerge.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Collection of primary sources of historic documents from the early modern period to the present for both Europe and the Americas. Includes links to other sources of information on modern history and on the nature of historiography, and links to maps, images, and music.

Intute: Arts and Humanities (U.K.)

Once there was a web site called Humbul Humanities Hub, which offered a great deal of academic history information for the U.K. Now Humbul's material is part of this web site whose goal is to provide access to the best Web resources for education and research, selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists. There are over 21,000 Web resources listed here that are freely available by keyword searching and browsing. Fields covered include humanities in general, art and the creative, history, languages, literatures.

Irish History Online

Irish History Online provides bibliographic data on historical writing dealing with Ireland during all periods from prehistoric times to the present. It is a guide to the work of historians rather than to original sources, unless they have been edited and republished by historians.  It lists books, articles in books and articles in journals, including, notably, local history journals.

Irish Studies

This guide is a list of scholarly resources in Irish Studies. Intended primarily for librarians; it may be useful to scholars in this field. It is curated and managed by members of the European Studies Section (ESS) of the Association of College & Research Libraries. For additional resources on Northern Ireland, please see the British and UK Studies guide. Users are free to copy and edit content from this guide for their own purposes.

IsisCB Cumulative: Open Access Bibliography for the History of Science, 1913-1975

This is a digitized version of the Isis Cumulative Bibliography of the History of Science, covering materials indexed from 1913-1975, on all topics in the history of science for all historical periods.   There are seven large HTML files corresponding to the seven volumes of the printed bibliography issued during this period.  It is a companion to IsisCB Explore, covering the files 1974 to present.  Over 154,000 citations to 83,000 articles, 44,000 books, 20,000 reviews, 6,000 chapters.  Made possible by Sloan Foundation, History of Science Society, University of Oklahoma Libraries, University of Oklahoma History of Science dept. 

Jisc Archives Hub

The Archives Hub is a free online service giving access to descriptions of archives held in UK repositories (such as universities, company archives and local history centres). It does not hold any archive material itself but provides a means to cross-search archival descriptions from different institutions.It also provides descriptions of online resources, often including digital content, and holds information on individual repositories. Use the Archives Hub to find unique sources for your research, both physical and digital. Search across descriptions of archives, held at over 380 institutions across the UK.  New descriptions are added every week, often representing collections being made available for the first time.

John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera

The John Johnson Collection is one of the most important collections of printed ephemera in the world. It was assembled by John de Monins Johnson between c.1923 and 1956 and was housed at the Oxford University Press (where it was called The Constance Meade Collection of Ephemeral Printing) until its transfer to the Bodleian Library in 1968. Johnson collected retrospectively, establishing 1939 as his terminus ante quem (although there are exceptions). While the majority of material dates from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, there is ephemera dating back to 1508. There are over 1 million items in the original collection. The material is principally British. Contains political/satirical prints and pictures of London trades and professions.

John Snow Archive and Research Companion

John Snow's contributions during the early years of inhalation anesthesia, and his investigations during two mid-century cholera epidemics in Victorian London, are landmarks in anesthesiology, epidemiology, medical cartography, and public health.

This Web site contains an archive of searchable texts of Snow's published writings, most appearing in medical journals, and recorded presentations and comments at medical society meetings between 1838 and his death in 1858. The archive will also include selections from writings by some of Snow's contemporaries, whether supporters, skeptics, or outright antagonists.

This site is also an online companion to Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow (Oxford University Press, 2003), by Peter Vinten-Johansen, Howard Brody, Nigel Paneth, Stephen Rachman, and Michael Rip, with assistance from David Zuck. The bibliography is available in searchable text, and all figures are reproduced.

Legacies of British Slave-ownership Project

Legacies of British Slave-ownership is the umbrella for two projects based at University College London t racing the impact of slave-ownership on the formation of modern Britain: the ESRC -funded Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, now complete, and the ESRC and AHRC -funded Structure and significance of British Caribbean slave-ownership 1763-1833 , running from 2013-2015.  You can search or browse.  In browse you can examine at the commercial, cultural, historical, imperial, physical, and political legacies.     "In 1833 Parliament finally abolished slavery in the British Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape. The slave trade had been abolished in 1807, but it had taken another 26 years to effect the emancipation of the enslaved. However, in place of slavery the negotiated settlement established a system of apprenticeship, tying the newly freed men and women into another form of unfree labour for fixed terms. It also granted £20 million in compensation, to be paid by British taxpayers to the former slave-owners. That compensation money provided the starting point for our first project. We are now tracking back to 1763 the ownership histories of the 4000 or so estates identified in that project."

Lewis Walpole Library

Contains English caricatures and political satirical prints from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Literary History

"Literary History is an index to free scholarly and critical articles, covering more than 300 English and American authors of the 19th and 20th centuries.  With over 7,000 citations, we have the largest collection of free links on these authors on the internet.  All links are screened by a literary scholar and must meet minimum academic standards to be included in the index."  Good, reputable resource for free scholarship and general information on literature. 

Livingstone Online

This is a digital museum and library to encounter the written and visual legacy of famous Victorian explorer David Livingstone (1813-73) created in partnership by University of Maryland Libraries, the David Livingstone Centre, the National Library of Scotland, and other archives with Livingstone holdings.  Use it to study African history, nineteenth-century travel, and the British Empire. It will contain 11,000 manuscript images and 700 critically-edited transcriptions by 2017, making it among the largest on the internet related to any single historical British visitor to Africa.

London's Past Online, a Bibliography of London History

Produced by the Centre for Metropolitan History in association with the Royal Historical Society Bibliography, London's Past Online is a free online bibliography of published material relating to the history of the Greater London area.  It is based on Heather Creaton's bibliographies, for which see the online catalog. 

Medical Heritage Library

The Medical Heritage Library is a "digital curation collaborative" between numerous leading medical libraries, including the August C. Long Health Science Library at Columbia University, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and the Wellcome Library, to name just a few. These libraries are working together on this remarkable collection that provides insight into the history of medicine in the United States and Great Britain. Through the website's Content tab, visitors can browse hundreds of medical journals, pamphlets, and books dating back to the sixteenth century. Researchers can also conduct a keyword Search in order to find relevant material within this extensive (and still growing) collection.

Moving Here: 200 Years of Migration to England

While in the 19th and early 20th centuries it can be said that "the sun never set on the British Empire," the story of those who came to Britain from elsewhere is sometimes overlooked. This is an archive of documents, images, and first-hand narratives from over 30 local, national, and regional museums and libraries around Britain that looks primarily at the Caribbean, Irish, Jewish, and South Asians living in Britain. Begin with the migration histories area.

National Archives (U.K.)

This site is primarily useful if you will be going to the U.K. to do research. The National Archives of England, Wales, and the United Kingdom is one of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1000 years of British history, from the 11th century to the present. This government agency was formed in 2003 by bringing together the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission. This web site offers online catalogs of primary source materials and some online texts. Some of their  research guides are here .

NINES: Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-century Electronic Scholarship

NINES is a scholarly organization devoted to British and American 19th-century studies containing searchable and browsable texts, images, and bibliographic citations on the period. Offers access to these projects: British Women Romantic Poets, Collective Biographies of Women, Letters of Christina Rosetti, Letters of Matthew Arnold, Poetess Archive, Rossetti Archive, The Swinburne Project, The William Blake Archive, U. of Virginia Special Collections, Victorian Literature and Culture Series of U. of Va. Press, Victorian Studies Bibliography, and resources of Romantic Circles.

Nineteenth Century Periodicals

From Marist College Library, this guide provides a list of 19th century periodicals available online. These periodicals have been digitized by outside institutions and made available to the general public by these institutions.  Their continued availability is at the discretion of the digitizing institutions. The periodicals have been categorized by date, place of publication and subject.  The subject categories were chosen to reflect major areas of publication.

NYPL Digital Collections: Pictures of Science: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration

This digital collection draws upon the materials selected for an exhibition called "Seeing Is Believing," held in the Library's Gottesman Exhibition Hall, October 23, 1999 - February 19, 2000. Natural history materials were included very selectively in that exhibition; however, natural history materials have their own separate presentations in NYPL Digital Gallery, devoted to plants and to animals respectively. "Although not providing a comprehensive history of scientific and medical illustration, these images open a window on the radical shift in the cosmology of early modern Europe that began around 1543 with the publication of seminal works by Copernicus and Vesaliius, and continued with the work of Newton, Harvey, Darwin, Curies and others."

OAIster...Find the Pearls

OAIster is a broad, generic, information retrieval resource for information about publicly available digital library resources provided by the research library community. Using the search engine provided, scholars are able to identify full-text resources in repositories that are freely accessible with no restrictions on the Worldwide Web. This is a project of the University of Michigan Library. All subject fields are covered. Suggest using keywords in the subject search such as Victorian period, British empire, names of literary authors or historians or historical personages, or broad topics.

Old Book Illustrations

"Old Book Illustrations was born of the desire to share illustrations from a modest collection of books, which we set out to scan and publish. With the wealth of resources available online, it became increasingly difficult to resist the temptation to explore other collections and include these images along with our own." Contains links to book illustrations first published in the 18th century through the first quarter of the 20th century.  We particularly emphasizes Victorian and French Romantic illustrations up to the death of Gustave Dore. "We also focused our efforts on offering as many different paths and avenues as possible to help you find your way to an illustration, whether you are looking for something specific or browsing randomly. The many links organizing content by artist, language, publisher, date of birth, and more are designed to make searching easier and indecision rewarding." Access by artist, engraver, format, publisher, technique, title.  General and advanced search options.  Advanced search can be filtered by broad categories, such as buildings, animals, plants, people, etc.  Be sure to read the Terms of Use page, a link at the bottom of the entry page. 

Parliamentary Archives of the United Kingdom

Parliamentary Archives of the United Kingdom holds several million historical records relating to Parliament. You'd have to go there to use most of them for research. This web site does offer some online exhibitions, though, on Thomas Telford, Parliament and India, Sport, suffragettes and women in Parliament, and Gladstone. We have some Parliamentary information right here in the M.S.U. Libraries, click here.

Price of One Penny: a Database of Cheap Literature, 1837-1860

By Marie Leger-St. Jean, U. of  Cambridge. Price One Penny: Cheap Literature, 1837-1860 (POP). contains a database which catalogues early Victorian penny fiction and thereby enables easy access to surviving copies and accurate bibliographic information. Search by title. Browse by authors, publishers, periodicals, and libraries that have such works in their collections.

Prince Albert: His Life and Legacy

From Royal Collection Trust.  Contains over 17,500 digitized documents and photographs, most not published before.  Highlights Albert's influence on British culture and society and his patronage of the arts, including photography and his love of the painter Raphael.  Explore section offers "specific themes, biographies, and media that contextualize his life and times" with visual essays and interactive timeline.  Will contain 23,000 items, when finished,  by end of 2020.

Proceedings of the Old Bailey London 1674-1913

"This is a fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court." Also includes historical background information and a bibliography (contains citations on: publishing history; associated records; crime, criminal justice and punishment; Old Bailey Courthouse; London and hinterlands; community histories; gender and the proceedings; and general and useful web sites.)

Queen Victoria's Scrapbook

Site provided by the Royal Household to offer information, learning materials, documents and other media about the life of Queen Victoria, and, in particular, her Diamond Jubilee.

RIBApix is a growing database dedicated to providing exceptional and unique images from the collections of the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects, the world’s most extensive visual archive devoted to architecture. RIBApix covers world architecture of all periods together with related subjects such as interior design, landscape, topography, planning, construction and the decorative arts. Many of the images are also of social documentary importance. Do simple free–text searches, or do a more structured search by categories, such as subject, architect and building or combinations of these.

Royal College of Physicians Museum and Archive Collections

Search RCP collections to uncover a wealth of information on the history of medicine and the RCP.   Near complete records of the RCP's activities for 500 years. Manuscripts and personal papers of eminent physicians. 300 oil and sculptural portraits of physicians and over 5,000 prints and drawing. Silver and decorative art collection. Rare medical instruments and artefacts.

Scottish Bibliographies Online

Contains the Bibliography of Scotland, the Bibliography of Scottish Gaelic, and Bibliography of the Scottish Booktrade.  They contain details of materials on Scotland or held in Scottish libraries.

Tate Collection

The Tate Britain is the home of British art from 1500 onwards. Click on "Collection Displays" in mid-screen. Then you can click on the display theme "British art 1500-1900." The last four or five rooms have Victorian art in them. And yes, you can see actual paintings and their descriptions.

Texts and Calendars--British Society Publications Indexing Online

M.S.U. Libraries contains the publications of a great many British historical, record, archaeological, and archival societies. Many are focussed on history, archaeology, and records at the county level. The access/indexing to their contents is often not very good. Some societies publish indexes to their own material from time to time; some do not. M.S.U. Libraries may, or may not, have item level records in the online catalog. Not many researchers know about or use these publications. Some contain only primary sources, some only secondary sources, and some contain a mixture of both kinds of materials. Some societies publish more than one series of publications. The Royal Historical Society Bibliography online indexes this material and the link here goes to that resource.  In the Full Search mode try entering the county name into the "Journal or Series" box on the search form in the "Bibliographic criteria" search.  After identifying useful material, do a search in our online catalog to find our call number. If the piece does not have its own entry; do an author seach, using the name of the society as the author. For example: author Anglo-Norman Text Society. We have older book bibliographies indexing this sort of material by Mullins (Main Z 2016 .M8, .M8 1983, .M83) and Stevenson (Main DA 750 .S25 ser. 4 v. 23.)

Trans  Atlantic Slave Trade Database

From Emory University, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, this offers both quantitative and qualitative information about the slave trade in Spain, Uruguay, Portugal, Brazil, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the United States, Denmark, and the Baltic, from the 16th through the 19th centuries.  Three sections:  searchable database of voyages, statistics/estimates of the slave trade by nation and ports of em and disembarkation, and African names database.  Bibliography of documentary sources and archival materials.  Overview essays on the Atlantic slave trade, racial/ethnic fallout, abolition movement.  Lesson plans and educational resources.  Images from 19th c. archival materials.  Maps.  Timeline/chronology.  Searchable in both English and Portuguese.

Victoria and Albert Museum

The V&A is the greatest museum of art and design. The most comprehensive collection of British design and art from 1500 to 1900.

Victoria Research Web, Scholarly Resources for Victorian Research

This web site helps scholars investigate all aspects of 19th-century Britain, by advising about archives, providing bibliographies and research guides, giving journals publishing in this field and their submission guidelines, listing e mail discussion lists and organizations, providing texts and course syllabi, and giving information on planning a research trip to Britain. Search the last 10 years of the Victoria e list. Learn about using the new British Library. Use the Curran Index to Wellesley Revisions, the Van Arsdale guide to researching periodicals. Learn about newspaper research. Find pictures of people and places.

Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive

Look for published illustrations of Shakespeare's characters, by name.  Look for illustrations by genre (comedy, history, or tragedy).  Or by illustrator/editor (illus. found in books of the period). Or by location (interior or exterior). Or by title of the play.  Or for illus. in preliminary materials (such as title pages of books). Or by act or act header.  Author of site is a faculty member at Univ. of Cardiff.

Victorian Studies Bibliography

The Victorian Studies Bibliography has 6 sections: 1) enumerative bibliographies on the period and studies of printing, publishing, libraries, and book production, 2) lists of documents, general histories, and studies in historiography, 3) lists of titles on economics, education, politics, religion, science, and social environment, 4) references to all arts except literature, including architecture, household arts, landscape, music, painting, performing arts, photography, and scripture, 5) references on literature, literary history, and development of literary forms, 6) references on individual authors, including new editions of their works, critical and biographical studies, and journals devoted to individual authors.

Victorian Web

" ...presents its images and documents, including entire books, as nodes in a network of complex connections. In other words, it emphasizes the link rather than the search tool (though it has one) and presents information linked to other information rather than atomized and isolated." "In the Victorian Web we encounter books, paintings, political events, and eminent and not-so-eminent Victorians in multiple contexts, which we can examine when and if we wish to do so." "Originally begun back in 1987 as a means of helping scholars and students see connections between different fields, the site today has greatly expanded the kinds of connections one can find." Contains "115,611 documents and images as of 23 December 2020."  Contains both primary and secondary sources in British Victorian  economics, literature, philosophy, political and social history, science, technology, and visual arts (painting, architecture, sculpture, book design and illustration, photography, decorative arts, including ceramics, furniture, jewelry, metalwork, stained glass, and textiles, costume and various movements, such as Art Nouveau, Japonisme, and Arts and Crafts).  "Includes much material before and after 1837-1901, particularly in sculpture and architecture, and the site also has a good deal of comparative material.   Especially strong in "literature, painting, architecture, sculpture, book illustration, history, religion, though the sections on history and technology include hundreds of documents."  Board of Directors includes George P. Landow (Chair); Jacqueline Banerjee (Secretary); Noah M. Landow (Treasurer); Simon Cooke; and Diane Josefowicz.

Victorian Web Sites: the Victorian Literary Studies Archive

Presents a directory of Web sites related to the Victorian era. Offers access to scholars' home pages, English literature resources, and information on 19th century authors. Provides access to information on British and American authors, various locations of historical significance, and Victorian festivals. Links to WWW search engines and to some information in Japanese. The links are compiled as a service of Mitsuharu Matsuoka. Site maintained at Graduate School of Languages and Cultures, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.

Victorian Women Writers Project

Provides accurate and complete digital texts of works by British women writers of the 19th century. Offerings include anthologies, novels, political pamphlets, religious tracts, children's books, and volumes of poetry and verse drama from over forty authors.

Vision of Britain Through Time

Vision of Britain between 1800 and 2001. Including Maps, Statistical Trends, and Historical Descriptions

Wellcome Library

Through its collections and services, the Wellcome Library provides insight and information to anyone seeking to understand medicine and its role in society, past and present. With over 600 000 books and journals, an extensive range of manuscripts, archives and films, and more than 100 000 pictures, we are one of the world's major resources for the study of medical history. This is one of the world's greatest collections of books, manuscripts, archives, films and paintings on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day.  See especially Welcome Images.

Women's Health, Education, and Employment in the Long Nineteenth Century: a Resource Guide

Produced by ProQuest, this resource guide features primary source content from the Gerritsen Collection (MSU has), British Periodicals (MSU has I and II), and Women's Magazine Archive (MSU has I and II).  Focusing on women's health and medicine, education, and employment in the long 19th century in England and America, its goal is to help people create connections between the topics.  Each topic has a brief description and questions to help generate discussion and ideas.  First there is an introduction with a source on British laws affecting women.  Then the health and medicine section has texts on women's and children's health and domestic home medicine manuals.  Texts on women's education and conduct follow.  The last topic is women's employment and features census materials, essays on this subject, and employment guides.

• << Previous: Primary Sources Online
• Next: Contact Information >>
• Last Updated: Jan 16, 2024 2:44 PM
• URL: https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=95530

Victorian Age in English Literature

The Victorian Age, which derives its name from the reign of Queen Victoria spanning from 1837 to 1901, marked a profound shift in English literature and culture. The emphasis on emotion and imagination of the Romantic era gave way to a new emphasis on social realism, industrialization, and the intricacies of a quickly changing society during this time. With its innovations in technology and urbanization, the Industrial Revolution significantly influenced the Victorian era.

Victorian authors and thinkers were compelled to address the moral, social, and political issues of the day as the world experienced significant change. Thus, the Victorian Age is remembered as a multifaceted age that examined the conflicts between tradition and progress, religion and doubt, and social fairness and inequity, all of which had a lasting influence on English literature and culture.

Table of Contents

Cultural and Historical Background

The Victorian Age was profoundly shaped by its cultural and historical background, which was characterized by several key factors.

It was important to consider the effects of the Industrial Revolution. The effects of the Industrial Revolution were significant. The rapid mechanization of industry and the transition from rural to industrial economies changed the British landscape. This upheaval had a significant impact on the social structure, the nature of labor, and people’s living arrangements, resulting in both economic prosperity and stark inequality.

Read More: Romantic Age in English Literature

Significant social and economic changes occurred, including urbanization. Cities expanded at a rate never before seen, drawing people from the countryside to cities in search of work. New problems with overcrowding, sanitation, the expansion of slums, and the rise of a growing middle class were brought on by this urbanization.

The development of technology and the spread of literacy were key features of this time period. Transportation and communication were completely transformed by innovations like the steam engine and the expansion of the railroads. A culture of reading and intellectual discourse was also fostered by the abundance of newspapers, periodicals, and books that came about as a result of rising literacy rates.

The morality and values of the Victorian era played a significant role as well. A strong sense of decorum, responsibility, and respectability pervaded this time period, which was characterized by Queen Victoria’s personal reputation for having stringent moral standards. These moral principles influenced Victorian literature and social norms.

Literature of the Victorian Age

In contrast to the Romantic era ‘s predominantly lyrical focus, novels rose to prominence during the Victorian age and became the dominating literary form. This change reflected the time’s focus on social realism and examination of the intricacies of the human condition.

Famous novelists who wrote novels during the Victorian era included Thomas Hardy, Charlotte Bronte, and Charles Dickens . Dickens wrote novels like “Oliver Twist” and “Great Expectations,” which shed light on the harsh realities of urban life and the problems of the working class. Dickens is renowned for his vivid characters and societal satire.

Read More: Charles Dickens as a victorian poet

With her novel “Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Bronte provided a comprehensive exploration of love, class, and female freedom by delving into the emotional and psychological depths of her characters, particularly the female protagonist.

In contrast, Thomas Hardy focused on the rural setting and the misfortune of people entangled in the web of fate and circumstance in works like “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and “Far from the Madding Crowd.” The conflicts between tradition and modernity were frequently portrayed in his novels.

Poetry and Romantic Revival

While novels became more popular during the Victorian era, poetry remained an important and significant component of the literary landscape. The Romantic Revival, which saw writers return to earlier Romantic themes of nature, spirituality, and social critique, was an important feature of Victorian poetry.

Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning, two well-known poets of the time, are prime examples of the Romantic Revival in their works. Nature served as a frequent source of inspiration for Tennyson’s poetry, and his collection “In Memoriam” examined topics such as loss, faith, and the human condition. His poem “The Lady of Shalott” is a wonderful illustration of how Victorian poetry combines nature with spirituality.

Robert Browning, who is known for his dramatic monologues, explored the complicated moral and psychological motivations of his characters. In order to examine themes of justice and human nature, his poem “The Ring and the Book” mixes together several perspectives.

Along with these poets, the Romantic Revival had a significant impact on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood , a group of artists and poets that emerged during the Victorian era. With the help of sophisticated visual art, poets like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and Algernon Charles Swinburne, among others, explored themes of beauty, sensuality, and spirituality.

Read More: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Social and Political Essays

The Victorian Era saw a flourishing of social and political essays in addition to the predominance of novels and the resurgence of Romantic themes in poetry. These essays served as a platform for the discussion of important problems pertaining to class, gender, and imperialism, which reflects the period’s intense involvement with important societal issues.

Read More: Romanticism in English Literature

During the Victorian era, authors like John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle significantly influenced the field of social and political essays. Philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill wrote notable works like “On Liberty” and “The Subjection of Women.” He defended individual freedom and promoted gender equality in these essays, pushing society to acknowledge the inherent rights and abilities of all people, regardless of gender.

On the other hand, Thomas Carlyle explored issues related to socioeconomic class and the effects of industrialization. While “Past and Present” offered a critical analysis of the effects of rapid societal change, “Chartism” addressed the frustrations of the working class and their aspirations for political reform.

These individuals were not the only ones who wrote and thought critically about social and political concerns throughout the Victorian era; there were many other authors and philosophers as well. These essays served as a platform for discussions among intellectuals and the development of concepts that would later influence the social and political atmosphere in Britain and beyond.

They contributed significantly to promoting change and bringing attention to pressing societal issues, leaving a lasting legacy in the fields of politics, literature, and social reform.

Key Themes and Characteristics

The Victorian era’s dedication to social realism and critique was a major theme and defining feature of the period. Victorian authors were deeply concerned about the social inequalities and disparities between classes that were prevalent in their rapidly evolving society. The commitment was shown in the meticulous analysis of the lives of everyday people and the portrayal of daily life.

Charles Dickens, a writer best known for his works “Oliver Twist” and “Hard Times,” applied his creative talent to demonstrate the difficult circumstances that the working class had to endure. They revealed the dark side of industrialisation, child labour, and poverty through compelling narratives and characters. Dickens, in particular, rose to prominence as a champion of social change, using his fiction to promote reform and draw attention to the condition of the oppressed.

Along with Dickens, other Victorian novelists like Thomas Hardy and Elizabeth Gaskell also practiced social realism by highlighting the difficulties and ambitions of common people. While Hardy’s writings, such as “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” explored the difficulties of rural life and the injustices experienced by women, Gaskell’s “North and South” highlighted the conflict between industrial capitalism and workers’ rights.

Exploration of Gender and Feminism

Women’s rights and their position in society were extensively explored throughout the Victorian era, reflecting the changing sentiments of the time. Victorian literature played a pivotal role in both examining women’s responsibilities and promoting more gender equality.

Authors who identified as feminists, such as Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and George Eliot, made significant contributions to this discourse. Poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, notably “Sonnets from the Portuguese” and the epic poem “Aurora Leigh,” dealt with issues of love, identity, and the fight for women’s independence. Her works were distinguished by a progressive attitude on gender equality and women’s freedom of expression.

In general, the emotional lives and problems of female characters were given more attention in Victorian literature. Novels like George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” and Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” provided complex depictions of women’s experiences, aspirations, and societal limitations.

Moral and Ethical Inquiry

The Victorian era was characterized by a profound and constant involvement with moral and ethical inquiry in its literature, which reflected the era’s intense reflection on moral conundrums and theological issues. This introspection was influenced by Religious uncertainty and the significant scientific advancements.

Victorian authors grappled with moral dilemmas that were frequently created in the context of rapidly changing social, scientific, and religious atmosphere. For instance, the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin led to serious concerns regarding humanity’s moral obligations and place in the natural world. His book, “On the Origin of Species,” profoundly influenced Victorian thought and disrupted established theological conceptions of creation.

Novels like “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and “Jude the Obscure,” written by authors like Thomas Hardy, examined themes of fate, destiny, and moral judgment. These works highlighted morally conflicted protagonists within an indifferent or even hostile setting.

Literature from the Victorian era also reflects a rise in religious skepticism and doubt. Writers like Matthew Arnold portrayed a sense of spiritual crisis and the eroding of established religious certainties in his poem “Dover Beach.” Victorian literature was known for its contemplative, frequently depressing exploration of faith and ethics.

Notable Figures of the Victorian Age

The Victorian Age was teeming with notable figures who left an indelible mark on English literature and culture, reflecting the spirit and ethos of the era.

Charles Dickens was a prolific novelist and social critic who is regarded as one of the most well-known individuals of the Victorian era. His works, including “Oliver Twist,” “Great Expectations,” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” not only pleased readers with their endearing characters and compelling stories, but also provided insight into the glaring social inequalities and class divisions that characterized Victorian society. Dickens was an advocate of social change, and his writings significantly contributed to increasing public awareness of these issues.

Read More: A Tale of Two Cities as a historical novel

Another notable figure from the Victorian era is Charlotte Bronte, the author of the well-known novel “Jane Eyre.” Her work, which is known for its examination of love, class, and female freedom, is still regarded as a timeless masterpiece. Bront’s portrayal of the bold heroine and her daring story choices subverted the expectations of her period and had a long-lasting influence on feminist literature.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, referred to as the “Poet Laureate of the Victorian Age,” was celebrated for his excellent poetry. His poems, including “The Lady of Shalott,” “In Memoriam,” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” perfectly captured the Victorian preference for romanticism and reflection on the natural world and human emotion. Tennyson’s poems did a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of the age.

The Victorian Age was significantly shaped by Queen Victoria herself. Her nearly seven-decade rule, which was the longest in British history up to that moment, had a significant impact on the culture’s ideals and sensibility. Her dedication to moral principles and family life set the standard for Victorian culture and society. Her status as a patron of the arts and sciences also contributed to the intellectual vitality of the time.

Conclusion:

In the history of English literature and culture, the Victorian era is recognized as a crucial and transformative time. It was distinguished by a diverse range of literary accomplishments, social consciousness, and in-depth moral and ethical inquiry. The Victorian era is still a testament to how writing has the ability to reflect, criticize, and inspire change because of its wide literary output and deep engagement with the opportunities and challenges of the time. It established the foundation for modern literature and culture, making it a period of permanent significance in the history of English literature.

• Critical Appreciation of Tennyson’s “Break, Break Break”
• Tennyson as a representative poet of Victorian age
• Short note on elegy
• Justify the title Pride and Prejudice
• The use of irony in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons

Margin Size

• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

2.1: Introduction to The Victorian Era

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 138972

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

\( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)

\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

\( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\)

\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\)

\( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\)

\( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\)

\( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorA}[1]{\vec{#1}}      % arrow\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorAt}[1]{\vec{\text{#1}}}      % arrow\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorB}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorC}[1]{\textbf{#1}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorD}[1]{\overrightarrow{#1}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorDt}[1]{\overrightarrow{\text{#1}}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectE}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{\mathbf {#1}}}} \)

Learning Objectives

• Recognize and evaluate the influence that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert exerted on the last half of the 19th century.
• Identify and explain the conflicts that defined the Victorian Era.
• Assess the ways in which these conflicts influenced Victorian literature.
• List, define, and give examples of typical forms of Victorian literature.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The Victorian Age—the era when the sun never set on the British Empire, a time when the upper classes of Britain felt their society was the epitome of prosperity, progress, and virtue—Dickens’s words, however, could apply to his own Victorian age as well as they apply to the French Revolution setting of his novel. The Victorian Era was a time of contrasts—poverty as well as prosperity, degrading manual labor as well as technological progress, and depravity as well as virtue.

Snow Hill, Holburn, London (Anonymous).

Queen Victoria

The last seventy years of the 19th century were named for the long-reigning  Queen Victoria . The beginning of the Victorian Era may be rounded off to 1830 although many scholars mark the beginning from the passage of the first  Reform Bill  in 1832 or Victoria’s accession to the throne in 1837.

Victoria was only eighteen when her uncle William IV died and, having no surviving legitimate children, left the crown to his niece.

Victoria receives the news that she is Queen. Engraved by Emery Walker (1851–1933), from the picture by Henry Tanworth Wells (1828–1903) at Buckingham Palace.

Although by the 19th century Britain was a constitutional monarchy and the queen held little governing power, Victoria set the moral and political tone of her century. She became a symbol of decency, decorum, and duty.

Three years into her reign, Victoria married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a region in what is now Germany.  Prince Albert  (given the title “Prince” by Victoria), although he had no actual power in the government, became one of Victoria’s chief advisors and a proponent of technological development in Britain. Together the couple had nine children who married into many of Europe’s royal and noble families. Victoria and Albert were considered the model of morality and respectable family life.

Balmoral Castle, the royal residence in Scotland.

Osborne House, the royal residence on the Isle of Wight.

When Prince Albert died in 1861, Victoria retired from public view, spending time in her Balmoral Castle in Scotland or Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Public opinion of the queen waned as years passed without her resuming her official duties. Even when she conceded to her advisors’ urging to return to London and to honor her public obligations, she continued to wear mourning until her own death. She also commissioned many public memorials to Prince Albert, including the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park (near the original location of the Crystal Palace), Royal Albert Hall, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The Albert Memorial, Hyde Park, London.

Royal Albert Hall, London.

The ornamental dome on the Victoria & Albert Museum was modeled after Queen Victoria’s favorite crown, visible in the portrait below, now on display with the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.

Photograph by Alexander Bassano 1829–1913.

Queen Victoria reigned as Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India until her death in 1901.

Victorian Conflicts

The Victorian Era was, in many ways, paradoxically “the best times” and “the worst of times.”

Conflicts of Morality

Queen Victoria embodied ideals of virtue, modesty, and honor. In fact, the term  Victorian  has in the past been almost a synonym for prim, prudish behavior. At the same time, London and other British cities had countless gaming halls which provided venues not just for gambling but also  opium dens  and  prostitution . With the influx of population into the cities, desperate working class women turned to prostitution in attempts to support themselves and their children. Historian Judity Walkowitz reports that 19th century cities had 1 prostitute for every 12 adult males ( quoted in “The Great Social Evil”: Victorian Prostitution  by Prof. Christine Roth). Because of rampant sexually transmitted diseases among the British military, Parliament passed a series of  Contagious Diseases Acts  in the 1860s. These acts allowed police to detain any woman suspected of having a sexually transmitted disease and to force her to submit to exams that were considered humiliating for women at that time. Police needed little basis for such suspicions, often simply that a woman was poor.

Thomas Hardy’s poem “ The Ruined Maid ” reveals one reason many women turned to prostitution ( ruined  is a Victorian euphemism for an unmarried woman who has lost her virginity): in the poem, two young women converse. One woman, Melia, has left the farm to become a prostitute. When she meets a former friend, the contrast between the two women is pronounced: Melia is wearing fine clothes and is well fed and well cared for. The virtuous young woman, doing honest work on the farm, is wearing rags, digging potatoes by hand for subsistence, and suffering poor health. Hardy forces his readers to question what kind of society would reward prostitution while leaving the virtuous woman in abject poverty.

Conflicts of Technology and Industry

As an advocate of Victorian progress in science and industry,  Prince Albert commissioned the Great Exhibition of 1851 , a type of world’s fair where all the countries in the British Empire had displays and Britain could show off its prosperity to the rest of the world. Albert had the  Crystal Palace , a huge, modern building of glass and iron, built in Hyde Park to house the exhibition. After the  Great Exhibition  ended, the building was dismantled and moved and in its new location was destroyed by fire in 1936.

Video Clip 1

The Albert Memorial Symbol of the Victorian Age

(click to see video)

View a video lecture about the Albert Memorial.

The Albert Memorial commemorated all the same things the Great Exhibition vaunted. The four arms extending from the main statue represent four continents on which the British Empire had holdings: Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas—the sun literally never set on the British Empire. The figures on the frieze are great painters, poets, sculptors, musicians, and architects, representatives of the world’s accomplishments which culminated in the British Victorian culture. The mosaics on the canopy represent manufacturing, commerce, agriculture, and engineering—the foundations of British prosperity. And, of course, in the center, is the gilded figure of Albert himself.

Arm representing Africa.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 held in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London. Source: Exterior: from Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851, 1854 interior: William Simpson (lithographer), Ackermann & Co. (publisher), 1851, V&A.

Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition of 1851 focused attention on the technological advances made during the Industrial Revolution. Although achievements such as the building of the railroad system and the implementation of mechanized factories produced great prosperity for some,  others suffered . Even before the Victorian Era, writers drew attention to these problems. Wordsworth’s “Michael,” for example, portrays a man whose family had made their living from their land for many generations. With the advent of machines to weave woolen cloth, their livelihood, their way of life, was lost. Blake’s “Chimney Sweeper” poems illustrate how  children suffered  in the industrial age.

A girl pulling a coal tub in a mine. Source: Parliamentary Papers 1842.

In addition, working conditions in factories were deplorable. With no safety regulations and no laws limiting either the number of hours people could be required to work or the age of factory workers, some factory owners were willing to sacrifice the well-being of their employees for greater profit. Children as young as five worked in factories and mines. Shelley’s “Men of England” and Barrett Browning’s “The Cry of the Children” are two examples of poems written specifically to address these problems.

The  1833 Factory Act  outlawed the employment of people under age eighteen at night, from 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and limited the number of hours those under eighteen could work to twelve hours a day. For the first time, textile factory owners were forbidden to employ children under the age of nine. Children under age eleven could not work more than nine hours a day. The 1833 Factory Act also stipulated that children working in factories attend some type of school.

The Mines Act of 1842 prohibited females and boys under ten from working below ground in mines.

While these provisions hardly seem protective according to modern standards, the resulting conditions greatly improved  life for many children . Throughout Victoria’s reign, other parliamentary acts continued to alleviate working conditions in the ever-expanding Victorian industrial age.

Conflicts of Faith and Doubt

The scientific and technological advances celebrated at the Great Exhibition of 1851 led to another crisis in Victorian England: a crisis of faith and doubt. During the earlier part of the 19th century, the work of Charles Lyell and other geologists with their discoveries of fossilized remains of animals never seen before led to debates among scientists about the origins of these creatures. Debates about the age of the earth for some called into question the Genesis account of creation. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his  On the Origin of Species . Lyell and Darwin were among many who contributed to scientific theories that some saw as contradictory to established religious beliefs.

These scientific issues together with apparent lack of concern for appalling human conditions among the lower classes led some to doubt the presence of a divine being in the world and others to question the value of Christianity. Literature by writers such as Thomas Hardy and Matthew Arnold questions the presence of  religious faith  in the world.

At the same time, a conviction that Britain had a duty to spread Christianity around the world became one reason, or to some an excuse, for British imperialism.

Conflicts over Imperialism

A desire to expand industrial wealth and to have access to inexpensive raw materials led to the British occupation of countries around the globe. Although the United States and other European countries participated in this type of  imperialism , the  British Empire  was the largest and wealthiest of its time.

Along with their desire for material gain, many British saw the expansion of the British Empire as what  Rudyard Kipling referred to as “the white man’s burden,”  the responsibility of the British to bring their civilization and their way of life to what many considered inferior cultures. The result of this type of reasoning was often the destruction of local cultures and the oppression of local populations. In addition, a religious zeal to bring British religion to “heathen” peoples resulted in an influx of missionaries with the colonialists.

A backlash of protest against the concept of imperialism further divided a British nation already divided by class, religion, education, and wealth. While many British citizens sincerely desired to share their knowledge and beliefs with less developed nations, others found the movement a convenient excuse to expand their country’s, and their own, power and wealth.

Conflicts over Women’s Rights

“The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Woman’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety.” Queen Victoria, 1870

quoted in Lytton Strachey’s Queen Victoria)

Ironically, as seen in this passage from a letter written in the royal third person by Queen Victoria, even the Queen opposed women’s rights. Nonetheless, the Victorian Era did see advancement in women’s political rights. The Married Woman’s Property Act of 1870 gave married women the right to own property they earned or acquired by inheritance. The upper classes were, of course, primarily concerned with inheritances. Before the passage of this act, money or property left to a married woman immediately belonged to her husband. By the late 19th century, women had some rights to their children and the right to leave their husbands because of physical abuse.

Education for women also improved. The idea Mary Wollstonecraft expressed in her “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” in 1792 very gradually, over more than 100 years, became a reality.

The first schools for the lower classes, girls or boys, were Sunday schools organized by churches to teach children basic literacy as well as religious lessons on the only day they were not working full time. Not until the  Education Act of 1870  were public schools in all areas of the country provided by law. Even then, attendance was not made compulsory for another ten years and then only for children aged five to ten.

Girls from the lower classes were included in the first public schools; however, girls from the upper classes continued to receive their basic education primarily in the home and in finishing schools for young ladies.  Cambridge University  and  Oxford University  established the first colleges for women in the latter half of the 19th century. Women were not allowed to attend the existing colleges for men and were not considered full members of the universities until the 20th century.

Although there was an active  woman’s suffrage  movement during the Victorian Era, women did not receive the right to vote until the 20th century.

Take the  Women’s Rights Quiz  on the BBC website to see how much you know about the rights of Victorian women.

The major change in the  English language during the 19th century  was the introduction of vocabulary to communicate new innovations, inventions, and concepts that resulted from the Industrial Age. Language mirrored class distinctions in both vocabulary and accents. The well educated upper classes were distinguished by their speech. Slang and an entirely differently accented English were the marks of the lower classes.

Forms of Literature

As noted in the Romantic Period introduction, a  novel , as defined in the Holman/Harmon  Handbook to Literature , is an “extended fictional prose narrative.” The  novel  was a dominant form in the Victorian Era. Many Victorian novelists—Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Wilke Collins, George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson—wrote  serial novels , novels published in installments over a period of time.  Serial novels  appeared in newspapers or magazines or could be published in independently printed booklets. As larger portions of the population became literate, demand for reading material grew. The  inexpensive booklets , each containing a chapter or other small portion of a novel, were affordable entertainment for the middle classes.

As in the Romantic Period, lyric poetry was popular in the Victorian Era. In addition to the lyric, the  verse novel , a  long narrative poem , such as Barrett Browning’s  Aurora Leigh , Tennyson’s  Idylls of the King , and Browning’s  The Ring and the Book , also was a prevalent form. Browning popularized the  dramatic monologue , a form of poetry which presents a speaker in a dramatic situation.

Non-Fiction Prose

The many conflicts of the Victorian Era provided fertile subject matter for non-fiction prose writers such as  Matthew Arnold ,  Thomas Carlyle ,  John Stuart Mill ,  John Henry Newman ,  Walter Pater , and  John Ruskin .

Popular forms of entertainment  such as the  music hall  and melodramas flourished during the Victorian Era as entertainment became divided along class lines. Popular music and musical plays, separated from legitimate theater in their own venues, provided leisure-time amusement for the middle classes. Robert Browning wrote  closet dramas , plays not actually intended for the stage.  Oscar Wilde  revived the comedy of manners with plays such as  Lady Windermere’s Fan  and  The Importance of Being Earnest .

Key Takeaways

• Although Queen Victoria symbolized decency, decorum, and duty, Victorian society spanned a wide spectrum of prosperity and poverty, education and ignorance, progress and regression
• Victorian society wrestled with conflicts of morality, technology and industry, faith and doubt, imperialism, and rights of women and ethnic minorities.
• Many Victorian writers addressed both sides of these conflicts in many forms of literature.
• Typical forms of Victorian literature include novels, serialized novels, lyric poetry, verse novels, dramatic monologues, non-fiction prose, and drama.

Victorianism

• “ All Change in the Victorian Age .” Bruce Robinson. Britain’s Industrial Revolution. Victorians. BBC History.
• “ Monuments and Dust: The Culture of Victorian London .” Michael Levenson, University of Virginia; David Trotter, University College London; Anthony Wohl, Vassar College. Institute for Advance Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia; Department of English University College London; Cambridge University Press.
• “ Movements and Currents in Nineteenth-Century British Thought .”  The Victorian Web . George P. Landow, Brown University.
• “ Overview of the Victorian Era .”  History in Focus . Anne Shepherd. University of London.
• “ Victorian and Victorianism .”  The Victorian Web . George P. Landow, Brown University.
• “ Victorian Britain .” History Trails. BBC.
• “ Victorian England: An Introduction .” Christine Roth, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.
• “ The Victorian Period .” Dr. Robert M. Kirschen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
• “ Victorians 1837–1901 .” Liza Picard. The British Library.
• “ Victorians 1850–1901 .”  The National Archives .
• “ Queen Victoria .”  The Victorian Web . David Cody, Hartwick College.
• “ Addiction in the Nineteenth Century .” Dr. Susan Zieger, Stanford University.
• “ The Contagious Diseases Act .”  The Victorian Web .
• “ The Great Social Evil”: Victorian Prostitution . Prof. Christine Roth, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.
• “ Opium Dens and Opium Usage in Victorian England .”  Victorian History . Bruce Rosen, University of Tasmania.
• “ 1832 Reform Act .” Taking Liberties: The Struggle for Britain’s Freedoms and Rights. The British Library.
• “ The 1833 Factory Act [from Statutes of the Realm, 3 & 4 William IV, c. 103] .”  The Victorian Web . Dr. Marjie Bloy, National University of Singapore.
• “ 19th Century Poor Law Union and Workhouse Records .”  The National Archives . brief explanation of 1834 Poor Law and images.
• “ Child Labor .”  The Victorian Web . David Cody, Hartwick College.
• “ Corn Laws .”  The Victorian Web . David Cody, Hartwick College.
• “ The Crystal Palace Animation .” The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. University of Virginia.
• “ The Crystal Palace, or The Great Exhibition of 1851: An Overview .”  The Victorian Web .
• “ Great Exhibition .” Treasures.  The National Archives .
• “ The Great Exhibition .” History, Periods & Styles Features. The Victoria & Albert Museum.
• “ The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace .”  Victoria Station .
• “ The Life of the Industrial Worker in Nineteenth-Century England .”  The Victorian Web . Laura Del Col, West Virginia University.
• “ The Reform Acts .”  The Victorian Web . Glenn Everett, University of Tennessee at Martin.
• “ Testimony Gathered by Ashley’s Mines Commission .”  The Victorian Web . Laura Del Col, West Virginia University.
• “ Victorian Science & Religion .”  The Victorian Web . Aileen Fyfe, National University of Ireland Galway and John van Wyhe, Cambridge University.

Conflict over Imperialism

• “ The British Empire .”  The Victorian Web . David Cody, Hartwick College.
• “ British Empire .”  The National Archives .
• “ Kipling’s Imperialism .”  The Victorian Web . David Cody, Hartwick College.
• “ The 1870 Education Act .” Living Heritage: Going to School.  www.parliament.uk .
• “ Gender Ideology & Separate Spheres .” Gender, Health, Medicine & Sexuality in Victorian England. Victoria & Albert Museum.
• “ Gender Matters .”  The Victorian Web .
• “ The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies .”  The Victorian Web . Helena Wojtczak.
• “‘ The Personal is Political’: Gender in Private & Public Life .” Gender, Health, Medicine & Sexuality in Victorian England. Victoria & Albert Museum.
• “ The Suffragettes in Parliament .” History of Parliament Podcasts.  www.parliament.uk .
• “ Suffragists .” Learning: Dreamers and Dissenters. The British Library.
• “ Victorian Britain: A Divided Nation ?” Education.  The National Archives .
• “ Women’s Status in Mid 19th-Century England: A Brief Overview .” Helena Wojtczak. Hastings Press.
• “ Women’s Rights Quiz .” Major Events of Victoria’s Reign. Victorians. BBC History.
• “ Women’s Work .” Prof. Pat Hudson, Cardiff University. Daily Life in Victorian Britain. Victorians. BBC History.

Victorian Language

• “ The Development of the English Language Following the Industrial Revolution .”  The Victorian Web . Jessica Courtney, University of Brighton (UK).
• “ The 19th Century Novel .”  Novels . Dr. Agatha Taormina, Extended Learning Institute of Northern Virginia Community College.
• “ Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Difficulties of Victorian Poetry .”  The Victorian Web . George P. Landow, Brown University.
• “ Justifying God’s Ways to Man (and Woman): The Victorian Long Poem .”  The Victorian Web . George P. Landow. Brown University.
• “ Literary Genre, Mode, and Style .”  The Victorian Web .
• “ Nineteenth Century Drama .”  Theatre Database .
• “ Progress of Journalism in the Victorian Era .”  Bartleby.com . The Growth of Journalism. rpt. from  The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes  (1907–21). Vol. XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two.
• “ Serial Publication .” Prof. Joel J. Brattin, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Dickens. Life and Career.  PBS.org .
• Some Questions to Use in Analyzing Novels . Prof. Stephen C. Behrendt, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
• “ Studies of Victorian Literature .” Dr. John P. Farrell, University of Texas at Austin.
• “ Victorian Literature and Culture .” Prof. James Buzard.  MIT Open Courseware .
• “ Victorian Serial Novels .” Digital Collections. University of Victoria Libraries.
• “ Victorian Women Writers Project .” University of Indiana Digital Library Project.
• “ Why Read the Serial Versions of Victorian Novels? ”  The Victorian Web . Philip V. Allingham, Lakehead University.
• “ The Albert Memorial: Symbol of the Victorian Age .” Dr. Carol Lowe, McLennan Community College.
• “ The Great Exhibition .” Victorians. The British Library.
• “ The Rise of Technology and Industry .” Learning: Victorians. The British Library. images, slide shows, video, podcasts featuring all types of industry and technological advances in daily life, such as cooking and bathrooms.
• “ A Visitor’s Guide to the Great Exhibition, from ‘The Illustrated Exhibitor .’” The Great Exhibition. Victorians. The British Library.

Victorian Literature: Topics in Victorian Literature

• Research Skills
• General Resources
• Bronte Sisters
• Charles Dickens
• George Eliot
• Thomas Hardy
• Topics in Victorian Literature
• Academic Writing This link opens in a new window
• Citing Sources This link opens in a new window
• The Writing Lab

Imperial England

• Print Books

Science and Religion

Other Topics

• << Previous: Thomas Hardy
• Next: Academic Writing >>
• Last Updated: Mar 11, 2024 1:56 PM
• URL: https://libguides.cairn.edu/victorianliterature

Research Guides

Engc21: the victorian novel to 1860.

• ENGC22 Suggested Readings
• The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
• Get Writing and Citation Help
• Get Research Help
• Assignments

Essay Assignments

Essay One: Assignment Paper

Length: 1500 words

Due: Thursday, October 10

Purpose: This essay should demonstrate: 1) A critical, argumentative examination of a course text in terms of the given theme, 2) your use of specific textual evidence to support your claims (i.e., close reading), and 3) your ability to present your ideas clearly and cogently (in terms of grammar, structure, and style).

Instructions: Choose one of our course texts and construct an argument about how the theme of “boundaries” is dealt with in that novel. For instance: How are lines drawn? How is transgression dealt with in the novel? What is at stake in either adhering to or challenging boundaries? Your discussion should fall clearly into ONE of the following categories:

• England vs. Other: Discuss the ways in which England (and/or English) is defined — perhaps defended? — against the national, racial, and/or linguistic other.
• New vs. Old: In what ways did the late Victorian period express anxieties about “age”? This discussion might include questions of change vs. stability, primitive vs. developed, child vs. adult, and so forth.
• Sane vs. Insane: What does it mean to be mad? Is it a “stable” category (pun intended)? You might also consider thinking about “healthy” vs. “unhealthy” as related to “sanity.”
• Natural vs. Unnatural (and/or Supernatural): What precisely is meant by “natural,” and how does it relate to the category or categories that oppose it?

Hints: Your essay should avoid simply listing examples of the category/boundary in question, and it should also avoid summary — aim for a unified argument with deliberate analysis. Also, any essay that stands a chance of seeing 80+ will offer clear and specific definitions for the key terms used.

Course Texts:

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Bram Stoker, Dracula Wilkie Collins, Woman in White Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret George Eliot, Daniel Deronda

H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Permissible Research Sources:

If you choose to do outside research, your sources must be appropriately academic (e.g., books, chapters/essays, journal articles). Non-academic online sources — such as Wikipedia, Spark Notes, About.com, etc. — are absolutely NOT acceptable. Any information that you take from sources outside your own noggin must be cited appropriately in MLA format.

A Word on Choosing...

You will not be allowed to write on the same text (or topic) in Essay 2 that you address in Essay 1, and I tend to frown on too much or too direct repetition when it comes to the final exam, so plan accordingly! 

Essay Two Proposal Option (optional)

Length: 1 page (single-spaced) Due: At any point up to Thursday, 5 November Worth: Up to +10 on your second essay

Purpose: This should be a one-page proposal indicating the topic and approach you plan to take for your second essay (2000-2500 words, due 21 November). You may write on any subject that interests you, so long as it is in relation to at least one of the course texts.

Instructions: Your proposal should include the following:

• The course text (or texts) that you want to look at (as well as other primary texts, if applicable).
• A concise (one- or two-sentence) description of your topic — a thesis statement would be best here, but a nice, specific purpose statement will work as well.
• A list of at least two research sources that you intend to use, accompanied by a brief indication of how/why you want to incorporate that source (e.g., an annotated bibliography).  Example: “Elaine Freegood, “Fringe,” Victorian Literature & Culture (2002): 257-263. I want to use Freegood’s examination of “boundary anxiety” in Victorian culture in my discussion of clothing as a means of decoding and controlling the feminine.
• A paragraph describing why you have selected this topic and explaining some of the major issues you will address — be as specific as you can. Example: “I intend to focus on three particular moments of ‘reading’ clothing in Woman in White: Walter Hartright’s first assessment of Anne Catherick’s ‘respectable’ if unusual dress, as well as...”
• A description of any problems you might have in planning and writing this essay, and any strategies you might have for dealing with those problems.
• A potential title for your essay.

Important: You may NOT focus on the same theme or primary text that you used in your first essay. Also, while you may choose to change your essay topic, text(s), or approach after you have submitted your proposal, I suggest that you come talk to me about any significant differences between your proposal and your final effort.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Bram Stoker, Dracula Wilkie Collins, Woman in White Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret George Eliot, Daniel Deronda R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds 

• << Previous: Get Research Help
• Last Updated: Jun 17, 2022 2:25 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/ENGC21

Library links

• UTSC Library home
• U of T Libraries home
• Catalogue Search
• Renew items and pay fines
• All U of T Libraries' hours
• Engineering
• UT Mississauga Library
• UT Scarborough Library
• Information Commons
• All libraries

University of Toronto Scarborough Library 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4 Canada Email help 416-287-7500 Map About web accessibility . Tell us about a web accessibility problem . About online privacy and data collection .

© University of Toronto . All rights reserved.

Connect with us

Victorian Era Essay

The Victorian Age (or Victorian Era) is the time period in British history that spanned from 1837 to 1901. It is named after Queen Victoria, who ruled during this time. The Victorian Age was a time of great change and progress, as well as conflict and upheaval.

Some of the most important developments during the Victorian Age include the Industrial Revolution, which saw major advances in technology and manufacturing; the expansion of democratic rights, including voting for women; and a dramatic rise in living standards, thanks to improvements in healthcare and sanitation.

However, not everything about the Victorian Age was positive. There was also a great deal of social inequality and poverty, as well as growing discontent among the working classes. The Victorians were also faced with a number of major crises, including the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, and the Boer War.

Despite these challenges, the Victorian Age is often remembered as a time of great achievement and progress. Queen Victoria herself was a popular and influential monarch, and her long reign helped to define British culture and society for decades to come.

The Victorian Period or Victorian Era refers to the time period between Queen Victoria’s reign in England from 1837 to 1901. The people and things of this era would be prudish, straight-laced, and old-fashioned. Another aspect of the Victorian age was that many members of the upper class were snooty and looked down on others, especially the lower class people. Furthermore, this period preceded the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the 1920s.

So, Victorian women didnt have many rights and werent able to vote until much later. In terms of fashion, the Victorians favored very elaborate and detailed designs in their clothing. This was especially true for women who often wore multiple petticoats, hoopskirts, and bustles. Men also dressed quite extravagantly with top hats and tails being among the most popular styles. One thing that both men and women shared was a love for large, heavy jewelry.

Despite all of its quirks, the Victorian Age was a time of great progress and technological advancements. The Industrial Revolution took place during this era, which led to huge improvements in manufacturing and transportation. Many new inventions were created during the Victorian Age as well, including the first passenger railway and the first electric light bulb. All in all, the Victorian Age was a time of great change and development.

From 1884 to 1900, Ruskin focused his attention on mid-Victorianism, defining it as the time from 1851 to 1879 when art and literature flourished in rapid succession. He identified early Victorianism – a socially and politically turbulent span between 1837 and 1850 – with late Victorianism (from 1880 onwards), which was followed by new waves of aestheticism and imperialism. From the Victorian era’s heyday: mid-Victorianism, 1851 to 1879.

The Victorian Age, also called the Victorian Era, is the time period in British history that corresponds with the rule of Queen Victoria. It began in 1837 when she became queen and ended in 1901 when she died. The Victorian Age was a time of great change, both socially and politically. There were also many advances made in technology and industry.

One of the most significant events during the Victorian Age was the Industrial Revolution. This was a time when Britain saw an enormous increase in industrial production. Factories were built and new technologies were developed. The population of Britain also grew rapidly during this time.

The Victorian Age was also a time of great expansion for the British Empire. Many new colonies were acquired and Britain became one of the most powerful nations in the world. Queen Victoria was a strong supporter of the British Empire and she did a great deal to expand it.

The Victorian Age was a time of great social change as well. There were many new movements and ideas that emerged during this time. One of the most important was the movement for women’s rights. Women began to demand that they be given the same rights as men. They also campaigned for better education and opportunities for employment.

The Victorian Age was also a time of great artistic and literary achievement. Many famous writers and artists flourished during this time. Some of the most famous include Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and William Blake.

The Victorian Era saw the debut of several literary genres, including the novel. Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Oscar Wilde are some Victorian writers who emerged during this period. Writers in the Victorian era were constantly reacting to their surroundings. Queen Victoria had an enormous impact on her world, as did she on literature that addressed the issues facing Victorians. The comedy play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is set in late-Victorian England.

Dickens is known for his novels that take place in the Victorian Era. His novels, such as Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities, show the harsh realities that people had to live in during the time period. These novels often showed the good and bad aspects of society and allowed people to see what life was like during the Victorian Age. Eliot’s work is also often set in this time period. Her novel, Middlemarch, takes place in a fictional town in England and shows the different levels of society present during the Victorian Era. Gaskell’s novels are also often set during this time period and focus on similar issues as Dickens and Eliot.

The Victorian Era was a time of great change. Queen Victoria was a strong ruler who helped to shape the era. The Victorian Era is often seen as a time of progress, where many new things emerged. This was also a time of great inequality, where the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. However, it was also a time of great innovation and saw the emergence of many new ideas and technologies. The Victorian Era was a time of great transformation and left a lasting impact on the world.

The Victorian Age or Victorian Era was a time of great progress, where many new things emerged. This was also a time of great inequality, where the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. However, it was also a time of great innovation and saw the emergence of many new ideas and technologies. The Victorian Era left a lasting impact on society that can still be seen today in different aspects such as politics (women’s rights), technology (Industrial Revolution) and art/literature (Charles Dickens).

More Essays

• Child Labor Victorian Era
• Personal Narrative-A Day In Victorian England Essay
• Hard Times Essay
• Victorian Jewelry
• Victorian Civil And Administrative Tribunal Case Study Essay
• Victorian Horror House Short Story Essay
• Tale Of Two Cities Literary Analysis Essay
• The Real Power: Queen Victoria Essay
• Second Great Awakening: Social Reformers In The Antebellum Era Essay
• Queen Elizabeth’s Role In The Falklands War Essay

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

The Victorian Period

27 important questions on the victorian period, when was the victorian period, when was victoria's reign, what was the victorian period like.

• Higher grades + faster learning
• Never study anything twice
• 100% sure, 100% understanding

For my 1st exam I got a C. Then, I started looking for ways to learn better and I came across Study Smart. Since then I have scored a A+, A, A- and another A. I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to hear it. I am so happy with it!!

I was struggling to finish all my first-year subjects for 3 years. Then I discovered Study Smart, which helped me to finish all of them within 3 months.

Because of StudySmart, things are going well in many ways. Before, I always had study stress and no time for anything. Now I feel calm and confident (because of the program). I used to score a B, now I usually score an A or A+.

Hey Chris, I really want to thank you very much for developing the platform, I usually got around C for my exams, now I scored an A+, an A and a A- !!

Since using Study Smart, my average has increased significantly. I even completed a statistics course with a A+ while I'm bad at statistics. I took on extra courses this year, because of Study Smart. Thanks so much!

Ever since I started studying with StudySmart I passed all my exams !!! No more re-sits!! At first, I was happy with a pass and now I only get good grades. Many thanks!

I aced all the courses I studied with Study Smart. For law, I first scored a D, and now an A! I’m 100% sure that I’ll pass all the courses I study with Study Smart.

I always thought I studied well. My grades were fine. I could never have imagined that applying these study skills would have such a huge and direct impact on my grades, my speed and the pleasure I have in learning.

For the first time, I finally feel totally confident about the way I learn. I have the perfect overview and make great progress in terms of speed and the grades I get. Thanks, Chris!

I immediately started to enjoy learning again, and my grades soared. All of a sudden, everything went better. I highly recommend Study Smart to all students..

Being able to create my materials online made the process of studying so much smoother and quicker. I no longer have to spend a huge amount of my time on creating my summaries.

At first, my notes were a mess. Now I use Study Smart to take my notes in a perfectly structured way. It helps me to save a lot of time and do other things I enjoy.

Students that study with Study Smart get better grades. The system applies all the learning methods in such a way that both well-performing students and students who struggle perform much better.

Hi Chris, I would like to thank you very much. Last year I scored C on a course, and this year I got an A+ thanks to your method! Thank you very much!

The largest effect is that my child is more enthusiastic about school! Every parent wants their children to be happy at school, Study Smart made it happen.

In high school, I failed several exams, and that has really changed now. I actually needed this tool very much back then. Since I started studying with StudySmart, I haven't had any D's. My average score is now an A and those are results I would have never had in the past

With my old method, I passed only 3 out of 8 courses. Since I started taking my notes digitally in Study Smart, I have passed all my courses on the first try. For me, StudySmart takes away the stress of wondering if I will pass or not.

Thanks to StudySmart, I passed all my exams, and with better grades than before! On top of that, I have mastered a very good study method now, which I am confident will help me earn my degree.

What made the country become a capitalist society?

What was the downside of this developing into a industrial and rich nation, by what was the victorian age marked as well, what happened with regards to becoming a more social and democratic country, what is the difference between romantic and victorian poetry, what was founded around the middle of the 19th century, the brotherhood's early doctrines were expressed in four declarations:, what type of literature became leading during the victorian period, what made mass production of novels possible, the novels written in this period formed a link and transition between what, who was the best known author of this time, what are the victorians credited for, what happened as children began to read, who were victorian poets, what did the victorian poets write about as well, what is the poem crossing the bar about, what does tennyson reflect on in this poem, who published my last duchess and when, what type of writing does robert browning have, when and by who was "remember" written, what happened in rossetti's life when she was young, who wrote oliver twist, what is oliver twist about, why did people read oliver twist back then and nowadays.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

English Literature

• A unique study and practice tool
• Never study anything twice again
• Get the grades you hope for

Summaries related to Old English Period

Cambridge Checkpoint Science 1

Cambridge checkpoint science workbook 2.

Modern mathematics

The states of matter

Biology chapter 1

Biology chapter 3.

the greek world

The Islamic world

classification and variation

Chapter 5 asia: devastating forces of nature, south africa and argentina, two countries wi….

Do you have questions about the system, the method, features, or anything else, please contact us via WhatsApp, +31 - (0)6 1415 9978.

To cancel, ask for a refund, etc, click here . For any administrative question, please email [email protected]

Home — Essay Samples — History — Victorian Era — Woman question at the Victorian times

Woman Question at The Victorian Times

• Categories: Victorian Era Woman

About this sample

Words: 448 |

Published: Nov 19, 2018

Words: 448 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: History Sociology

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

6 pages / 2634 words

5 pages / 2167 words

5 pages / 2183 words

2 pages / 1116 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Introduction The Great War and the second ordeal of conflict in Europe, played a fundamental in the increase of the rights for women. During the second world war, the British government encouraged house-wives to do the work of [...]

Charlotte Bronte wrote the victorian novel Jane Eyre with the intention to tell the story of how a seemingly mere governess, Jane Eyre, managed to challenge the notion of what a conventional woman during the victorian era was [...]

In the nineteenth century, Victorians used the word 'slum' to describe blighted areas and public squalor. During this time, Britain was primarily industrial and considered by many to be the world leader in the advancement and [...]

In Henry IV, Shakespeare presents a troubled England with a king whose grip on the throne is tenuous at best. Those who had supported his rise to the throne when he overthrew Richard II are now turning against him. The king even [...]

Arguably, Hal, Prince of Wales, underwent a gargantuan transformation throughout the course of 1 Henry IV. As an audience we are thrust into the middle of conflict concerning the prince. At the onset of the play, the Son of the [...]

Authors often perform the task of cultural historians, eternalizing with their written word the popular perspectives and social opinions of their time. Shakespeare himself perfectly encapsulated in his writing the Renaissance [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Victoria's budget shelved some big ideas from the Andrews era. It begs the question, did they ever think them through?

Analysis Victoria's budget shelved some big ideas from the Andrews era. It begs the question, did they ever think them through?

Hospitals canned. Promised kinders delayed. Mental health help halted.

Three big policies — shouted from the rooftops by former premier Daniel Andrews and his ministers Jacinta Allan and Tim Pallas — were shelved in the treasurer's 10th budget.

It begs the question: were these policies properly considered in the first place, or were they just politically expedient ideas?

The fact the state's debt needs reining in — it's still going to hit $187 billion in three years — made these three decisions easier to make.

Government insiders concede that over the past decade Labor has made grand announcements before the heavy policy work had been completed, resulting in cost blowouts and unachievable policies.

"The chickens are coming home to roost in this budget,'' one Labor figure quipped this week, reflecting concerns that Andrews and his close allies in cabinet had borrowed too much money to pay for pet projects in the past.

"It was always unsustainable."

Pallas and Allan have tried to preach fiscal responsibility this week, but burrowing down into the budget reveals spending and debt continue to increase.

Labor dismisses concerns that it is saddling future generations with debt to pay off — ignoring concerns from some economists that the ballooning debt limits its ability to provide new projects and services, or indeed borrow further in the future.

This is a budget that makes a virtue of slowing down projects and programs, without actually killing them off.

But what it has chosen to delay raises questions about what Victorian voters were promised.

It's a pattern that is familiar if you consider the Commonwealth Games debacle, where the state cancelled the games because the cost had blown out well beyond the estimates.

The state's financial watchdog later slammed the Andrews government for — wait for it — failing to do its due diligence.

But in 2022, before the true cost of the Games were known, the Andrews government were able to campaign about bringing the 2026 Games to regional Victoria.

On the eve of the last election, then-premier Daniel Andrews heralded the construction of Australia's biggest ever hospital, to be built right next to his signature train project the Metro tunnel.

It was a vision for Victorian voters of a new campus for the Royal Melbourne and Women's Hospitals at Arden, a once industrial precinct re-imagined thanks to the new train station a drop punt from North Melbourne footy club's spiritual home.

But less than two years later, the $5-6 billion plan was dumped in Tuesday's Victorian budget because electromagnetic fields from trains underneath will interfere with the specialist medical equipment.

This type of interference shouldn't have been a surprise.

The problem of interference was already well known — it was frequently raised by the major hospitals when the Metro Tunnel was being planned, and then built, under them at Parkville.

So, where was the due diligence by the government before making the Arden announcement in the heat of the 2022 state election?

The government is adamant it was aware of the issue, but says the interference once the trains began testing along the new route was higher than anticipated.

The government will still build a new hospital, but it will now be at the existing Parkville site and will cost $2.2 billion.

A spokesman said it would deliver the same standard of care, be delivered sooner and with less disruption to patients.

And there's already questions about how this year's budget sweetener, the $400 payment to parents of government school kids, will be administered.

The premier and treasurer have also swatted away questions about why the $287 million School Saving Bonus wasn't means tested.

Why do parents earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in one part of the city get the same as parents struggling to make ends meet in another?

The government's response to means testing queries is that the means test is if you send your kids to a government school.

Schools have already raised concerns about the extra work they'll have to do to administer the scheme.

There's concern among some policy hard heads that this is politics trumping good policy.

Broken promises and a growing debt

One of the big achievements of the Andrews government was the "Australian-first" Royal Commission into Mental Health.

Among its dozens of recommendations was a plan for the state to make access to clinics easier for people in their own community.

Premier Andrews embraced this idea with gusto, promising that "only Labor" would deliver 50 mental health locals — special walk-in clinics in communities — by 2026.

"This investment is critical. Its time has come. This momentum is undeniable,'' Mr Andrews said in 2021.

But that momentum has been stopped in its tracks.

On Tuesday, we learnt the government couldn't find the required workers, so it's delayed the rollout of the remaining 35 planned walk-in mental health clinics.

Was the policy properly tested in government before announced?

It's the same with the major — and popular — $9 billion reforms to kinder, announced in 2022.

The policy requires thousands of extra staff. And there were warnings at the time that it would be a real challenge to find, and retain the workforce, due to staff burnout and low pay.

"This is a comprehensive, well thought-through plan,'' Mr Andrews said, highlighting a suite of scholarships to attract and train new workers.

But Tuesday's budget delays that promise by years because it cannot find the workforce.

"It's time the Allan Labor government understands that you can't just make promises casually without the proper due diligence when there's a risk, as we've seen, that the truth catches up with you and you waste tens of millions of dollars,'' Opposition Leader John Pesutto said.

The coalition is pegging its hopes of a political comeback on Victoria's growing debt, which for all Mr Pallas' commentary about economic responsibility, continues to grow.

The opposition attacks are from its greatest hits: "Labor can't manage money".

This budget shows Victoria is going to be deeper in the red than initially forecast — to the tune of $1.1 billion.

It's also worth remembering that this year the state is $3.7 billion better off because of an increased slice of the GST pie from Canberra.

Yet, the deficit still got worse.

As for debt, it continues to grow, and is forecast to hit $187 billion in 2027-28.

The interest expense on that debt will cost $9.3 billion alone in that year, that's more than $25 million a day in interest payments.

But Labor seems unperturbed by concerns about its debt.

It sees debt as productive, as part of its plans to not only build infrastructure but to grow the economy.

Redbridge pollster and former Labor strategist Kosmos Samaras said debt didn't carry the same political baggage with voters as it did in the 1990s.

"For the majority of voters, government debt is no different from the daily fluctuations of the stock markets or the annual profit and loss reports of large companies,'' Mr Samaras said.

"It's abstract and has little relevance to their personal life. Government debt only has salience if it results in cuts to critical services, something the current government has avoided so far."

And that's something that this government is acutely aware of.

It will do everything to maintain that balance, even if it means avoiding the really tough decisions of government.

• X (formerly Twitter)
• Early Childhood Education and Care
• Government and Politics
• Mental Health
• Public Transport
• State and Territory Government