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The Victorian era, as stated many times, was a period of change and transformation. It, therefore, formed a bridge between the history and the modern era. The books written during this time depict these changes and also the circumstances and all the aspects of daily living during those times. The literature of the Victorian era also formed a chain between the authors of the romantic genre and those of the modern authors, i.e. the twentieth century
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Novels came into existence in this era. Books were not called novels before this time, and the latter were called so because of the kind of writing, the stories and the kind of issues raised in these novels. A novel was thus named because it was new, hence the term novel.
The likes of Jane Austen and Walter Scott had paved the way for the new literature. Theirs was an observance of life from the eyes of the most unlikely people. The furore and frenzy created was such by the writers of the Victorian era that they are revered and read till date.
Here is a list of some of the most renowned novelists of the Victorian era.
1. Lewis Carroll
2. Thomas Hardy
3. Charlotte Bronte
4. Rudyard Kipling
5. Oscar Wilde
6. George Elliot
7. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
8. Charles Dickens
9. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
10. Robert Browning
11. Alfred Lord Tennyson
12. Anthony Trollope
13. H G Wells
14. Algernon Charles Swinburne
15. Wilkie Collins
16. Bram Stoker
17. William Thackeray
18. Joseph Conrad
19. Matthew Arnold
20. Robert Louis Stevenson
21. Anna Sewel
The common thread of all the novels of the Victorian era is that they portray an individual undergoing severe hardships and failures before rising to the occasion. It may involve a person wronged who sets things to right and getting justice in the end, or someone losing all money and working hard to get back to the way things were before.
They idealized the concept of justice and hard work and truthfulness. They also depicted the wrong doers as losing in the end, or being at the receiving end of the backlash, thereby inculcating the sense of right versus wrong. Thus, there was always a moral to be learnt by the end of it. Later on, the plots and stories became even more complicated and engaging.
Te literature of Victorian era also emphasized on children, perhaps due to the prevalence of child labor. They also tried to involve the children in reading from an early age and also the concept of compulsory education took form. Authors began to write books primarily for children and young adults. On the lines of science and academic literature, none comes close to Charles Darwin and his fantastic work, Origin of Species.
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