English Literature

called the Victorian age. Victorian is a descriptive term for

the time when Victoria was Queen of England, from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian period of England is known as a time of industrial progress, colonial expansion, and public fastidiousness in morals. The Victorian period in the United States had many of the same characteristics.

Poets: A. Tennyson, the Brownings, A. Swinburne, R. Kipling,
W. Henley
Limericks: E. Lear
Novelists: W. M. Thackeray, Ch. Dickens, the Brontës, G. Eliot, A. Trollope, Th. Hardy, R. Stevenson
Books for children: L. Carroll
Science fiction: H. G. Wells
Horror stories: B. Stoker
Detective fiction: Conan Doyle
Drama: B. Shaw, O. Wilde

Alfred began to write poetry at an early age in

the style of Lord Byron. Tennyson studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined the literary club. Tennyson was very popular in his own time: he was poet laureate of Britain for over 40 years. Among his works are “Crossing the Bar”, and “Idylls of the King” (a retelling of the legend of King Arthur). “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, a poem that celebrates the heroism of a British cavalry brigade in its doomed assault on much large forces. Tennyson was buried in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Alfred Tennyson

(1809-1892)

London. He was educated at home where he had access

to his father's extensive library. At an early age he was inspired by the work of romantic poets such as Byron, Keats and Shelley. In 1845 he began corresponding with Elizabeth Barrett after reading and enjoying some of her poems. The couple eventually married in secret and then eloped to Italy in 1846. Although quintessentially a Victorian poet, Browning's work was hugely influential in heralding in modernism. After his wife's death in 1861 Browning returned to England and continued to write poetry. His best known collections include “The Ring and the Book” (1868-69) and “Men and Women” (1855). His last collection of poems “Asolando” was published on the day of his death. Robert Browning is buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, London, England. His memorial stone is made from Italian marble and porphyry.

Robert Browning

(1812-1889)

Hall, County Durham, England. Young Elizabeth benefited from a privileged

life in the country. Although frail at times, she still enjoyed physical pursuits like riding her pony and attending social gatherings with family and friends. Similar to her future husband Robert Browning, she was a voracious reader. Her father encouraged her to write, and in 1820 had fifty copies of her narrative poem “The Battle of Marathon” printed. Elizabeth is best known for “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. The love that Browning's had for each other has been much celebrated. In 1861 Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in her husband’s arms. Her husband survived her by twenty-eight years.

Elizabeth Browning

(1806-1861)

Born in London the son of an admiral, he was

educated in France, Eton and Balliol College Oxford, although he failed to graduate. While he had had plays published and some evidence of poetic voice, his first serious poetic excursion was with “Poems and Ballads” in 1866. Swinburne continued to write continuously and his output was truly impressive. He also took up literary criticism and wrote on Baudelaire, Blake, Hugo, Byron and many others. The criticism was variable in quality and ranged from incisive erudition to simply unjustified attacks. He remained with Watts-Dunton in Putney until his death in 1909. He was a prolific writer of poetry, plays and novels. Notable works were “Ave Atque Vale”, “The Tale of Balen”.

Algernon Swinburne

(1837-1909)

Rudyard's earliest years in Bombay were blissfully happy. But at

the age of five he was sent to England, where he was desperately unhappy. When he was twelve he went to the College at Westward, where the Headmaster fostered his literary ability. Kipling come back to India when he was 17. At 21 he published his first book of poems. A year later he wrote a book of short stories about India. Between 1887 and 1899, Kipling visited many countries. During that time he wrote some of his best works. These were his children’s stories about animals and some history books. In 1907 he had accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Rudyard Kipling

(1865-1936)

Light that Failed (1890)
The Ballad of East and West
The Light

That Failed (1891)
Life's Handicap (1891)
Barrackroom Ballads (1892)
Tommy (1892)
Gunga Din (1892)
Many Inventions (1893)
The Jungle Book (1894)
The Second Jungle Book (1895)
If (1895)
The Seven Seas (1896)
Captains Courageous (1897)
The Day's Work (1898)
A Fleet in Being (1898)
Kim (1901)
Just So Stories (1902)
Puck of Pook's Hill (1906)
Rewards and Fairies (1910)

Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor. Henley

was born at Gloucester and educated at the Crypt Grammar School. At the age of 12 Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. After his recovery Henley earned his living in publishing. In 1889 he became editor of the ‘Scots Observer’, an Edinburgh journal on the lines of the old Saturday Review but inspired in every paragraph by Henley's vigorous and combative personality. Henley collaborated with Robert Louise Stevenson four plays and wrote several volumes of poetry. Epitomized in his most famous poem, “Invictus”, is Henley’s characteristic admiration for courageous, active, and joyful acceptance of life’s difficulties. Among his works are “Views and Reviews”, “The Song of the Sword”, “London Voluntaries”, “Macaire”, “Pro Rege Nostro”, etc.

He spent his early years first as a draughtsman for

the Zoological Society, then as an artist for the British Museum. He published accounts of his trips to Italy, Albania and Corsica. He also visited the Holy Land and Greece. He is chiefly remembered for his nonsense poetry, the first volume of which was written for his patron's grandchildren in 1846 and was simply entitled A Book of Nonsense. It contained Lear's favourite poetic format, the limerick, and was illustrated throughout. His poetry was henceforth marked by an air of ludicrous fantasy, as well as a unique inventiveness. Since his death, appreciation of his artistic work, the water-colours in particular, has risen. His real fame, however, was secured by poems from “Nonsense Songs” (1871) such as “The Owl and the Pussycat”.

Edward Lear

(1812-1888)

India. After his father died he was sent to England.

He was educated at Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1837 Thackeray started his career as a hard working journalist. In the 1840s Thackeray started to gain name as a writer. Thackeray also began writing novels and in 1844 Fraser's Magazine serialized Barry Lyndon. In 1847 Thackeray published his most famous novel “Vanity Fair”. This was followed by “The History of Henry Esmond” (1852), “Newcomes” (1853) and “The Virginians” (1857). Although a successful novelist, Thackeray continued to write articles for journals such as Punch Magazine. In 1859 he became editor of the Cornhill Magazine, a monthly literary journal published by George Smith. He died suddenly on Christmas Eve 1863 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

(1811-1863)

William Makepeace Thackeray

of the greatest English novelists. He mocked and denounced the

social evils of Victorian England as well as showing humour and pathos. Dickens told a good story without fear of sentimentalizing his characters. Dickens, a man of keen social conscience, used his books to portray the suffering of the working class at the time of the Industrial Revolution. His works include “A Christmas Carol”, “David Copperfield”, “Oliver Twist”, and numerous other novels. He created many memorable characters, including Bob Cratchit, Fagin, Urian Heep, Jacob Marley and Samuel Pickwick. His sentimentality and caricature are still widely appreciated, and many of hic characters, with their unusual names, have entered popular folklore. Dickens established (and made profitable) the method of first publishing novels in serial installments in monthly magazines. He thereby reached a larger audience including those who could only afford their reading on such an installment plan. This form of publication soon became popular with other writers in Britain and the United States.

Charles Dickens

(1812-1863)

and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) Barnaby

Rudge A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty (1841) Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) Dombey and Son (1848) David Copperfield (1850) Bleak House (1853) Hard Times (1854) Little Dorrit (1857) A Tale of Two Cities (1859 Great Expectations (1861) Our Mutual Friend (1865) The Mystery of Edwin Drood - unfinished; (1870)

Thornton, Yorkshire, the third child of six. The Reverend was

later appointed as curate in the small village of Haworth on the Yorkshire Mores where Charlotte spent most of her life. Charlotte wrote a series of poetry as well as four novels: “The Professor”, “Jane Erye”, “Shirley” and “Villette”. In 1848, devastated by the loss of her 3 remaining siblings, she became dependent upon famous editors and friends for support.  In 1854 she married and in 1855 at the age of 39, she died from tuberculosis and pregnancy complications.

Charlotte Brontё

(1816-1855)

poet, best remembered for her one novel “Wuthering Heights”. Emily

was born at Thornton in Yorkshire, the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë and the fifth of six children. In 1837, Emily commenced work as a governess at Law Hill, near Halifax. Later, with her sister Charlotte, she attended college in Brussels. It was the discovery of Emily's poetic talent by her family that led her and her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, to publish a joint collection of their poetry in 1845. Owning to the prejudices on female writers, all three used male pseudonyms, Emily's being "Ellis Bell". She subsequently published her only novel “Wuthering Heights” in 1847. Although it received mixed reviews when it first came out, the book subsequently became an English literary classic. Like her sisters, Emily's constitution had been weakened by their harsh life at home and at school. She died on December 19, 1848 of tuberculosis.

Emily Brontё

(1818-1848)

Evans, a woman counted among England's best writers. Born in

1819, she spent the first twenty years of her life receiving an evangelical education and managing her father's household after her mother's death. Then she moved to Coventry and turned toward translating and journalism. After several years in London, she met George Henry Lewes, a man-of-letters estranged from his wife with no possibility of divorce. Notoriously, Evans and Lewes began living together in 1854, and did so until his death in 1878. He encouraged her to move toward the writing of fiction. These fictional works include Scenes of “Clerical Life” (1857), “Adam Bede” (1859), “The Mill on the Floss” (1860), “Silas Marner” (1861), “Romola” (1862-63), “Felix Holt” (1866), and “Daniel Deronda” (1876). “Middlemarch” (1871-72) is often regarded as her masterpiece. Evans died in 1880, shortly after marrying J. W. Cross, an old friend and admirer.

George Eliot

(1819-1880)

servant, was born at Russell Square, London. Educated at Winchester

College and Harrow School, he became a clerk in the Post Office in 1834 and was transferred to Ireland as post-office surveyor in 1841. Trollope wrote an astonishing number of novels, and several volumes of short stories. How this enormous total was achieved in spite of official work (of which, lightly as he took it, he did a good deal, and which he did not give up for many years), of hunting three times a week in the season, of whist-playing, of not a little going into general society, he has explained with his usual curious minuteness. His most successful books describe life in the imaginary cathedral city of Barchester. They include “The Warden” (1855), “Barchester Towers” (1857).

Anthony Trollope

(1815-1882)

a poet, generally regarded as one of the greatest figures

in English literature. He was born near Dorchester in Dorset. His first novel “The Poor Man and the Lady” was finished in 1867 but failed to find a publisher. Over next 25 years, Hardy produced 10 more novels. “Tess of the d’Ubervilles” (1891) attracted criticism for its sympathetic portrayal of a ‘fallen woman’ and was initially refused publication. Besides, he wrote the novels “Far from the Madding Crowd”, “ Jude the Obscure”, “the Mayor of Casterbridge”. In 1898, Hardy published his first volume of poetry “Wessex Poems”, a collection of poems written over the previous 30 years. Hardy died in 1928, dictating his final poem to his wife on his deathbed. Hardy was buried in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Thomas Hardy

(1840-1928)

the 19th century, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Robert Louis

Stevenson lived a brief but remarkable life. Author of more than 40 books — novels and collections of essays and poems — Stevenson is best known for his adventure tales including “Kidnapped”, “The Black Arrow”, and “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, “Treasure Island”, the famous children’s adventure story. Stevenson spent the last few years of his life as a planter and storyteller on Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. Called "the tale-teller" by locals on the island of Samoa, Stevenson was equally admired by British readers for his writings about the art of craft of literature.

(1850-1894)

Robert Louis Stevenson

an English writer and logician. Although by profession a mathematician

at Oxford University, he is known internationally as the popular author of “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass”. These two books are very popular not only with children but with adults. Both books tell stories of exiting and original adventures and have humorous characters. In the original editions, the imaginative illustrations by John Tenniel added to the attractiveness of the text

Lewis Carroll

(1832-1898)

was born in Bromley, now a section of Greater London.

He was 8, when he bloke his leg on the cricket field. While being ill he read many books on natural history. While a student, H. Wells was interested in biology, and his earliest works were textbooks. Later he became a professional writer of science fiction. Wells devoted more than 50 years of his life to literary work. He was the author of more than 40 novels
and many short stories and articles.

(1866-1946)

Herbert George Wells

Ireland. He began publishing his stories in magazines regularly during

his eight-year term at Dublin Castle: “The Crystal Cup” (1872), “The Chain of Destiny” (1875), “The Spectre of Doom” (1880). In 1878 Stoker accepted the job as business manager for Sir Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre. In 1882, Stoker published his first book “Under the Sunset” and his first full-length novel “The Snake's Pass” followed in 1890. His most famous work is “Dracula” (1897), which is considered one of the best horror tales ever written. Dracula tells the story of a vampiric Count, pursued relentlessly by those who would see him destroyed. In 1905, Sir Henry Irving died, and his death caused Stoker to have a stroke, but Stoker continued to write, publishing, among others, “The Jewel of Seven Stars” (1903), “Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving” (1906), and “The Lair of the White Worm” (1911).

Bram Stoker

(1847-1912)

capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. His father was an artist and

architect by profession. His mother was a good story-teller. This talent Arthur took from his mother and it helped him as a writer. He was one of the first to start the fashion of the detective stories. In 1887, he published his first detective story “A Study in Scarlet”. Its main characters were Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and they became the most popular characters of a great many of Conan Doyle’s stories. He wrote more than 20 stories about Sherlock Holmes. After his death in 1930, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson continued to be among the favourite characters of English literature. Besides detective stories he also wrote historical novels and fantastic stories.

(1859-1930)

was the only son and third and youngest child. At

fifteen Shaw began working as a bookkeeper in a land agent's office. Outside of work, books, theater, and art captured his attention, but it was music that pervaded his home. His first years in London, 1876-1884, were filled with frustration and poverty. Shaw spent his days in the British Museum reading room writing novels and reading, and his evenings attending lectures and debates by the middle class intelligentsia. He became a vegetarian, a socialist, a skillful orator, and developed his first beginnings as a playwright. Shaw began his journalism career as a book reviewer and art, music, and drama critic. Shaw's writings were often controversial as in “The Philanderer” (1898), a play about the "new woman," and “Mrs. Warren's Profession” (1898), depicting organized commercial prostitution. Shaw was known for his outspokenness and barbed humour. His many plays include “Pygmalion”, “Androcles and the Lion”, Man and Superman”, “Saint Joan”, etc.

George Bernard Shaw

(1856-1950)

mother, Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (1820-96), was a writer of

verse and prose. Wilde spent most of his career in England. After graduating from University, Wilde turned his attention to writing, travelling and lecturing. Wilde wrote poems, essays, reviews, letters. He attracted the attention of his audiences by the brilliance of his conversation, his knowledge. In his works, especially in tales, he glorifies beauty of nature and beauty of devoted love. The theme of most of his works is quite realistic. He shows the contrast between wealth and poverty. His own sympathy for poor, labouring people is quite evident. When released from prison in 1897, he lived in Paris. In 1898 he published his poem “Ballad of Reading Gaol”, revealing his concern for inhumane prison conditions. He died in a cheap Paris hotel at the age of 46.

(1854-1900)

Oscar Wilde

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