Novelists of the Early Victorian Period

 Novelists of the Early Victorian Period

1.

1. The novel made rapid progress in the Early Victorian Age.

2. Novel reading became one of the chief occupations of the educated class.

3. As a result, the scope of the novel is enlarged.

4. Earlier in the 18th C, novels dealt with contemporary life and manner.

5. Now novels could adopt all-purpose literature. 

6. The novels produced during this period took various shapes - sermons, political pamphlets, social essays and autobiographies and poems in prose.

7. The theatre could be the rival of fiction, but the theatre has fallen down.

8. So the Early Victorian saw the heyday of English novels.

9. The two outstanding novelists were Dickens and Thacker Bay.

10. Others were Disraeli, the Bronte sisters, Charles Reade, Collins and Trollope.

11. The novelists of the Early Victorian Age were spokesmen of their age.

12. The novelists of the Later Victorian were critical of their age.

13. 'Honesty is the best policy', and' Nothing for nothing' were the dictums which the Victorians honoured in their business relations.

14. They produced literature that may be termed as truly national.

2.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) 

1. Charles Dickens is the chief of the Early Victorian Age.

2. In fact, he is the most popular of all the English novelists.

3. With his 'Pickwick papers', Dickens became popular.

4. Dickens followed Smollett. His other works were, ' A Tale of Two Cities, 'David Copperfield' and many more.

5. During the Victorian period, there was a swing from romance to coldly picturesque.

6. Too much emphasis on feelings often led Dickens to sentimentalism as it happened in the case of Richardson.

7. Dickens's novels are full of pathos.

8. But Dickens sentimentalism,is his idealism.

9. Dickens seeks to embody in his art, the inner life of man with a moral purpose.

10. His theme is the worth of man's thoughts, affections, and religious instincts.

11. He values the quality of honour, courage and magnanimity.

12. In his Tale of Two Cities, Dickens said, "Greates is the love path".

13. Dickens believed that this world is the best world.

14. He had faith in the better element of human nature.

15. All his characters came out from the pit of suffering and distress. They then come out purer than before.

16. Most striking in Dickens is his humour.

17. Dickens had the knack of uniting humour and pathos in a  sort of tragic comedy.

18. The best example of humour is the comedy of Peggoty and Beekis in David Copperfield.

19. Dickens is next to Shakespeare in creating a vast number of characters.

20. Dickens was also a realist.

21. He was a novelist with a purpose.

22. Humanitarianism is the keynote of his work.

23. He was one of the foremost reformers of his age.

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

1. Thackeray was more interested in the manners and morals of the aristocracy.

2. Thackeray was born to rich parents.

3. He was cynical towards the world, he used this cynicism very well.

4. Thackeray was a realist also. He himself said, "I have no brains above my eyes; I describe what I see."

5. He gives a true and accurate picture of the vicious element of society.

6. The result is that he satirizes them. But his satire is kindled with humour.

7. He is also a moralist.

8. The beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice in his character is so obvious, that, we do not have to think over it. It has a vivid picture.

9. His prose is charming, pure and simple. He delights the readers with his natural easy and superb style.

10. Thackeray is most remembered for his living characters.

11. He does not only hold up the mirror to life but presents life itself.

12. In Henry Esmond (1852) he gave a true picture of Queen Anne.

13. Vanity Fair (1846) brought him popularity.

14. Penedennis (1849) was an autobiography.

15. His other novels are Newcomers and Virimians. Every scene, every person, acts, scenes, characters are real in Thackeray.

And that is the greatness of Thackeray "as a novelist".

Minor Novelists

1.  Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1841)

1. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1841):- His first novel was Vivian Grey (1826-20). Here he gives a portrait of a dandy intellectual adventurer.

2. But he had no scruples.

3. He was a politician also. He became the Prime Minister of England during the reign of Queen Victoria.

4. His other works are Coningslay(1849), Sybil(1845) and Tancrad(1847).

2. Bronte sister

1. Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) depicted in her novels her strong romantic passions.

2. These passions were avoided by Dickens and Thackeray.

3. She brought lyrical warmth to her novels.

4. Her masterpiece was Tame Eyre (1849).

5. Her novels depicted strong feelings.

6. The dreams of Charlotte can be seen very clearly in this novel.

7. Her other novels are 'The Professor', 'Villette and Shirley'.

8. In her novels, we find her with irony and strong reservations.

3. Emily Bronte (1818-1848)

1. Emily Bronte was very original.

2. Her Wuthering Heights has many aspects.

3. It has the troubled rebellious elements of romanticism.

4. It is a tragedy of love.

5. It was fantastic, powerful, savage and moving.

6. It is considered as one of the masterpieces of world fiction.

4. Mrs. Gaskell (1810-1865)

1. Mrs. Gaskell as a novelist dealt with social problems.

2. She lived in Manchester for many years.

3. So she had a clear idea of the evils of industrialisation.

4. Her novels picture the miseries of the working class.

5. Her novels were Mary Barton and North and South.

6. Ruth(1853) Mrs. Gaskell shows sympathy, for an unfortunate girl.

5. Charles Kingslay (1819-1875)

1. Charles Kingsley was the founder of the Christian society.

2. He was actively interested in the co-operative movement.

3. His works were Hypatia, Westward Ho, Hereward the Wake and many more.

6. Charles Read (1814-1884)

1. Charles Read wrote novels with a social purpose.

2. 'It is never too late' is a picture of the horrors of prison life.

1. 'Put yourself in his peace' is against the trade unions.

3. In his novel, 'The Cloister and Hearth (1867), he shows the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

7. Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

1. His novels show great mastery in the art of plot construction.

2. His best novels are, 'The Women in White and 'The Moonstone'.

8. Anthony Trollope (1815-1888)

1.  His novels depict the authentic picture of real life.

2.  He brought no changes in its true scenes. 

3. He had a great skill of storytelling.

4. His style is easy, uniform and impersonal.

5. His notable works are - Barchester Towels, The Warden and many more.

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