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=={{Anchor|Victorian literature (1837-1901)}} Victorian literature (1837–1901)==
{{Main|Victorian literature}}

===The Victorian novel===
{{main|English novel|Novel}}
[[File:Charles Dickens 3.jpg|right|thumb|[[Charles Dickens]]]]

It was in the [[Victorian era]] (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading [[literary genre]] in English.<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'' (1990), p. 93.</ref> Women played an important part in this rising popularity both as authors and as readers,<ref>''Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'', p. 95.</ref> and monthly serialising of fiction also encouraged this surge in popularity, further upheavals which followed the [[Reform Act of 1832]]".<ref>''Bloomsbury Guide'', p. 101.</ref> This was in many ways a reaction to rapid [[industrialization]], and the social, political, and economic issues associated with it, and was a means of commenting on abuses of government and industry and the suffering of the poor, who were not profiting from England's economic prosperity.<ref>"James, Louis (2006)"</ref> Significant early examples of this genre include ''[[Sybil, or The Two Nations]]'' (1845) by [[Benjamin Disraeli]], and [[Charles Kingsley]]'s ''[[Alton Locke]]'' (1849).

[[Charles Dickens]] (1812–1870) emerged on the literary scene in the late 1830s and soon became probably the most famous novelist in the history of English literature. Dickens fiercely satirised various aspects of society, including the [[workhouse]] in ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', and the failures of the legal system in ''[[Bleak House]]''.<ref>''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', (7th edition) vol. 2, p. 1335.</ref> An early rival to Dickens was [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] (1811–1863), who during the Victorian period ranked second only to him, but he is now known almost exclusively for ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'' (1847). The [[Brontë]] sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, were other significant novelists in the 1840s and 1850s.<ref>Lucasta Miller, ''The Bronte Myth''. (New York: Anchor, 2005), pp. 12–13</ref> ''[[Jane Eyre]]'' (1847), [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s most famous work, was the first of the sisters' novels to achieve success. [[Emily Brontë]]'s (1818–1848) novel was ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' and, according to [[Juliet Gardiner]], "the vivid sexual passion and power of its language and imagery impressed, bewildered and appalled reviewers,"<ref>Juliet Gardiner, ''The History today who's who in British history'' (2000), p. 109</ref> and led the Victorian public and many early reviewers to think that it had been written by a man.<ref>Carter, McRae, ''The Routledge History of Literature in English: Britain and Ireland'' (2001), p. 240</ref> ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'' (1848) by [[Anne Brontë]] is now considered to be one of the first [[Feminism|feminist]] novels.<ref name="intro">{{cite book|last=Davies|first=Stevie|title=The Tenant of Wildfell Hall|chapter=Introduction and Notes|year=1996|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-043474-3|url=https://archive.org/details/tenantofwildfell00bron}}</ref>

[[Elizabeth Gaskell]] (1810–1865) was also a successful writer and her ''[[North and South (1855 novel)|North and South]]'' contrasts the lifestyle in the industrial north of England with the wealthier south.<ref>Abrams, M.H., et al. (Eds.) "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810–1865". ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century'', 7th ed., Vol. B. New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.</ref> [[Anthony Trollope]]'s (1815–1882) was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Trollope's novels portray the lives of the landowning and professional classes of early Victorian England.<ref>''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (1996), p. 1013.</ref> [[George Eliot]], pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880), was a major novelist of the mid-Victorian period. Her works, especially ''[[Middlemarch]]'' (1871–72), are important examples of [[literary realism]], and are admired for their combination of high [[Victorian literature|Victorian literary]] detail, with an intellectual breadth that removes them from the narrow geographic confines they often depict.<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'' (1990), p. 490.</ref>
[[File:H. G. Wells, c.1890.jpg|200px|thumb|[[H.G. Wells]] studying in London, taken c. 1890]]

[[George Meredith]] (1828–1909) is best remembered for his novels ''[[The Ordeal of Richard Feverel]]''  (1859), and ''The Egoist'' (1879). "His reputation stood very high well into" the 20th-century but then seriously declined.<ref name="English Literature 1996 pp.650-1">''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (1996), pp. 650–51.</ref> An interest in rural matters and the changing social and economic situation of the countryside is seen in the novels of [[Thomas Hardy]] (1840–1928), including ''[[The Mayor of Casterbridge]]'' (1886), and ''[[Tess of the d'Urbervilles]]'' (1891). Hardy is a Victorian realist, in the tradition of [[George Eliot]],<ref>Dennis Taylor, "Hardy and Wordsworth". Victorian Poetry, vol.24, no.4, Winter, 1986.</ref> and like Charles Dickens he was also highly critical of much in Victorian society. Another significant late-19th-century novelist is [[George Gissing]] (1857–1903), who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best known novel is ''[[New Grub Street]]'' (1891).

Although pre-dated by [[John Ruskin]]'s ''[[The King of the Golden River]]'' in 1841, the history of the modern [[fantasy literature|fantasy]] genre is generally said to begin with [[George MacDonald]], the influential author of ''[[The Princess and the Goblin]]'' and ''[[Phantastes]]'' (1858). [[Wilkie Collins]]' [[epistolary novel]] ''[[The Moonstone]]'' (1868), is generally considered the first [[Detective fiction|detective novel]] in the English language.

[[Robert Louis Stevenson]] (1850–1894) was an important Scottish writer at the end of the nineteenth century, author of ''[[Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'' (1886), and the [[historical novel]] ''[[Kidnapped (novel)|Kidnapped]]'' (1886). [[H.G. Wells]]'s (1866–1946) writing career began in the 1890s with [[science fiction]] novels like ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (1895), and ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898) which describes an invasion of late Victorian England by [[Martian]]s, and Wells is seen, along with Frenchman [[Jules Verne]] (1828–1905), as a major figure in the development of the science fiction genre. He also wrote realistic fiction about the lower middle class in novels like ''[[Kipps]]'' (1905).

====American novel (From Romanticism to realism)====
{{main|American literature}}
(See also the discussion of American literature under Romanticism above).

By the mid-19th century, the pre-eminence of literature from the British Isles began to be challenged by writers from the former American colonies. A major influence on American writers at this time was [[Romanticism]], which gave rise to [[New England]] [[Transcendentalism]], and the publication of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]'s 1836 essay ''[[Nature (essay)|Nature]]'' is usually considered the watershed moment at which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement.<ref name=" George L 1997 p 613"/><ref>"Romanticism, American," in ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists'' ed by Ann Lee Morgan (Oxford University Press, 2007) [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t238.e1140 online]</ref>
[[File:Nathaniel Hawthorne old.jpg|150px|thumb|left|[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]].]]

The romantic American novel developed fully with [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s (1804–1864) ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' (1850), a stark drama of a woman cast out of her community for committing adultery. Hawthorne's fiction had a profound impact on his friend [[Herman Melville]] (1819–1891). In ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' (1851), an adventurous whaling voyage becomes the vehicle for examining such themes as obsession, the nature of evil, and human struggle against the elements. By the 1880s, however, psychological and [[social realism]] were competing with Romanticism in the novel.

American realist fiction has its beginnings in the 1870s with the works of Mark Twain, [[William Dean Howells]], and [[Henry James]].

Mark Twain (the pen name used by [[Mark Twain|Samuel Langhorne Clemens]], 1835–1910) was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast—in the border state of [[Missouri]]. His regional masterpieces were the novels ''[[Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' (1876) and ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' (1884). Twain's style changed the way Americans write their language. His characters speak like real people and sound distinctively American, using local dialects, newly invented words, and regional accents.

[[Henry James]] (1843–1916) was a major American novelist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although born in New York City, he spent most of his adult years in England. Many of his novels center on Americans who live in or travel to Europe. James confronted the Old World-New World dilemma by writing directly about it. His works include ''[[The Portrait of a Lady]]'',  ''[[The Bostonians]]'' (1886), ''[[The Princess Casamassima]]'' (1886).<ref>"Henry James." ''Encyclopedia of World Biography'', Gale, 1998. ''Biography in Context'', Accessed 4 October 2017.</ref>

====Genre fiction====
[[File:PortraitOfACD.JPG|150px|thumb|Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] wrote 56 short stories and four novels featuring [[Sherlock Holmes]]]]

The premier [[ghost story]] writer of the 19th century was [[Sheridan Le Fanu]]. His works include the macabre mystery novel ''[[Uncle Silas]]'' (1865), and his Gothic novella ''[[Carmilla]]'' (1872) tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire. [[Bram Stoker]]'s horror story ''[[Dracula]]'' (1897) belongs to a number of [[literary genre]]s, including [[vampire literature]], [[horror fiction]], [[gothic novel]] and [[invasion literature]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VomtVOkkPDwC&q=Dracula+bram+stoker+vlad+the+impaler&pg=PA182|title=Bram Stoker and Russophobia: Evidence of the British Fear of Russia in Dracula and The Lady of the Shroud|first=Jimmie E. Cain|last=Jr|date=4 April 2006|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2407-8}}</ref>

[[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] is a brilliant London-based "consulting detective", famous for his intellectual prowess. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 [[short stories]] featuring Holmes, which were published between 1887 and 1927. All but four Holmes stories are narrated by Holmes' friend, assistant, and biographer, [[Dr. Watson]]. The [[Lost World (genre)|Lost World]] literary genre was inspired by real stories of archaeological discoveries by imperial adventurers. [[H. Rider Haggard]] wrote one of the earliest examples, ''[[King Solomon's Mines]]'', in 1885. Contemporary European politics and diplomatic maneuverings informed [[Anthony Hope]]'s [[Ruritanian romance|Ruritanian adventure novel]] ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]'' (1894).

====Children's literature====
[[children's literature|Literature for children]] developed as a separate genre. Some works become internationally known, such as those of [[Lewis Carroll]], ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' (1865) and its sequel ''[[Through the Looking-Glass]]''. [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s (1850–1894) ''[[Treasure Island]]'' (1883), is the classic [[Piracy|pirate]] adventure. At the end of the Victorian era and leading into the Edwardian era, [[Beatrix Potter]] was an author and illustrator, best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters. In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book ''[[The Tale of Peter Rabbit]]'' in 1902. Potter eventually went on to publish 23 children's books and became a wealthy woman.

===Victorian poetry===
{{see also|English poetry#Victorian poetry}}

[[File:Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson by George Frederic Watts.jpg|150px|left|thumb|[[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]], ca 1863]]
The leading poets during the Victorian period were [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] (1809–1892), [[Robert Browning]] (1812–1889), [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]] (1806–61), and [[Matthew Arnold]] (1822–1888). The poetry of this period was heavily influenced by the [[Romantics]], but also went off in its own directions.<ref>''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', 7th ed, vol. 2. (New York: Norton, 2000), p. 1060.</ref> Particularly notable was the development of the [[dramatic monologue]], a form used by many poets in this period, but perfected by Robert Browning. Literary criticism in the 20th century gradually drew attention to the links between Victorian poetry and modernism.<ref>Carol T. Christ, ''Victorian and Modern Poetics''. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986); "Robert Browning", ''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature''. (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1990), p. 373.</ref>

Tennyson was [[Poet Laureate]] of the United Kingdom during much of [[Queen Victoria]]'s reign. He was described by T.S. Eliot, as "the greatest master of metrics as well as melancholia", and as having "the finest ear of any English poet since Milton".<ref>'' The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', p. 981.</ref> [[Matthew Arnold]]'s reputation as a poet has "within the past few decades [...] plunged drastically."<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/ | title = The Literary Canon | first = George P | last = Landow | publisher = Victorian Web}}.</ref>

[[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] (1828–1882) was a poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]] in 1848 with [[William Holman Hunt]] and [[John Everett Millais]].<ref>{{Citation | title = History of English and American literature | editor1-first = AW | editor1-last = Ward | editor2-first = AR | editor2-last = Waller | editor3-first = WP | editor3-last = Trent | editor4-first = J | editor4-last = Erskine | editor5-first = SP | editor5-last = Sherman | editor6-first = C | editor6-last = Van Doren | place = New York | publisher = GP Putnam’s Sons University Press | date = 1907–21}}.</ref> Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism.<ref>''A handbook to Literature'', ed William Harmon & C. Hugh Holman (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996), 407.</ref> [[Arthur Clough]] (1819–1861) and [[George Meredith]] (1828–1909) are two other important minor poets of this era.<ref name="English Literature 1996 pp.650-1"/><ref name="victorianweb.org">{{Citation | url = http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/clough/bio.html | title = Arthur Hugh Clough – A Brief Biography | first = Glenn | last = Everett | publisher = Victorian Web}}.</ref>

Towards the end of the 19th century, English poets began to take an interest in French [[Symbolist poetry|Symbolism]] and Victorian poetry entered a decadent ''[[Fin de siècle|fin-de-siècle]]'' phase.<ref>''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', 7th edition, vol.2, ed. M.H. Abrams, p. 1741.</ref> Two groups of poets emerged in the 1890s, the ''[[The Yellow Book|Yellow Book]]'' poets who adhered to the tenets of [[Aestheticism]], including [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], [[Oscar Wilde]] and [[Arthur Symons]] and the [[Rhymers' Club]] group, that included [[Ernest Dowson]], [[Lionel Johnson]] and Irishman [[William Butler Yeats]]. Yeats went on to become an important modernist in the 20th century.<ref>''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', 7th edition, vol. 2, p. 1740.</ref> Also in 1896 [[A.E. Housman]] published at his own expense ''[[A Shropshire Lad]]''.<ref>''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', 7th edition, vol. 2, p. 2041.</ref>

Writers of comic verse included the dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator [[W.S. Gilbert]] (1836–1911), who is best known for his fourteen [[comic opera]]s, produced in [[Gilbert and Sullivan|collaboration]] with the composer Sir [[Arthur Sullivan]], of which the most famous include ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'', and ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]''.<ref>Kenrick, John. [http://www.musicals101.com/gilbert3.htm ''G&S Story: Part III''], accessed 13 October 2006; and Powell, Jim. [http://www.libertystory.net/LSARTSGILBERT.htm ''William S. Gilbert's Wicked Wit for Liberty''] accessed 13 October 2006.</ref>

Novelist [[Thomas Hardy]] (1840–1928) wrote poetry throughout his career, but he did not publish his first collection until 1898, so that he tends to be treated as a 20th-century poet. Now regarded as a major poet, [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]]'s (1844–1889) ''Poems'' were published posthumously by Robert Bridges in 1918.<ref>{{Citation|publisher=U Toronto |url=http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1051.html |title=Online text and basic information |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212222859/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1051.html |archive-date=12 February 2012}}.</ref>

====American poetry====
{{main|American poetry}}

America also produced major poets in the 19th century, such as [[Emily Dickinson]] (1830–1886) and [[Walt Whitman]] (1819–1892). America's two greatest 19th-century poets could hardly have been more different in temperament and style. [[Walt Whitman]] (1819–92) was a working man, a traveler, a self-appointed nurse during the [[American Civil War]] (1861–65), and a poetic innovator. His major work was ''[[Leaves of Grass]]'', in which he uses a free-flowing verse and lines of irregular length to depict the all-inclusiveness of American democracy. [[Emily Dickinson]] (1830–1886), on the other hand, lived the sheltered life of a genteel, unmarried woman in small-town [[Amherst, Massachusetts]].  Within its formal structure, her poetry is ingenious, witty, exquisitely wrought, and psychologically penetrating.  Her work was unconventional for its day, and little of it was published during her lifetime.

===Victorian drama===
[[File:Circa-1879-DOyly-Carte-HMS-Pinafore-from-Library-of-Congress2.jpg|150px|thumb|[[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s  ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' ]]
A change came in the [[Victorian era]] with a profusion on the London stage of [[farce]]s, [[Victorian burlesque|musical burlesques]], [[extravaganza]]s and [[comic opera]]s that competed with productions of [[Shakespeare]]'s plays and serious drama by dramatists like [[James Planché]] and [[Thomas William Robertson]]. In 1855, the [[German Reed Entertainments]] began a process of elevating the level of (formerly risqué) musical theatre in Britain that culminated in the famous series of comic operas by [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] and was followed by the 1890s with the first [[Edwardian musical comedies]]. The length of runs in the theatre changed rapidly during the Victorian period. As transport improved, poverty in London diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. The first play to achieve 500 consecutive performances was the London comedy ''[[Our Boys]]'', opening in 1875. Its record of 1,362 performances was bested in 1892 by ''[[Charley's Aunt]]''.<ref>[http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/th-longr.html Article on long-runs in the theatre before 1920]</ref>

Several of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s [[comic opera]]s broke the 500-performance barrier, beginning with ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' in 1878, and [[Alfred Cellier]] and [[B.C. Stephenson]]'s 1886 hit, ''[[Dorothy (opera)|Dorothy]]'', ran for 931 performances. After [[W.S. Gilbert]], [[Oscar Wilde]] became the leading poet and dramatist of the late Victorian period. Wilde's plays, in particular, stand apart from the many now forgotten plays of Victorian times and have a much closer relationship to those of the [[Edwardian]] dramatists such as Irish playwright [[George Bernard Shaw]] (1856–1950), whose career began in the last decade of the 19th century, Wilde's 1895 comic masterpiece, ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'', holds an ironic mirror to the aristocracy and displays a mastery of wit and paradoxical wisdom.

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