INDEX

Victorian Literature.....................................................................................................................4

Division of the Victorian Age...................................................................................................6

Characteristics of the Victorian Age.....................................................................................8

Charles Dickens..........................................................................................................................16

    Main Works............................................................................................................................18

        A Christmas Carol..............................................................................................................18

        David Copperfield.............................................................................................................19

        A Tale of Two Cities........................................................................................................20

    Curiosities.................................................................................................................................21

    Phrases.....................................................................................................................................22

Emily Brontë...............................................................................................................................23

Oscar Wilde...............................................................................................................................27

    Main Works.............................................................................................................................31

        Poems.....................................................................................................................................31

        Short Stories.....................................................................................................................32

        Novel.....................................................................................................................................32

        Theatre.................................................................................................................................33

    Curiosities...............................................................................................................................34

    Phrases.....................................................................................................................................36

How does the Victorian Age ends?......................................................................................3

VICTORIAN LITERATURE.

    Victorian literature is characterized by a revolution from romanticism, towards a realism typical of a society that is industrializing and begins to glimpse the potential of science and reason.

    The birth of the Victorian era is between 1832 and 1837, the year of Queen Victoria's birth.

Other characteristics of Victorian literature are:

    - Evolution of the romantic to the reason.

    - Careful styling.

    - Religious skepticism.
    - They show the urbanization of the time.

    - They present capitalist societies advancing towards liberalism.

    - Great morality

DIVISION OF THE VICTORIAN AGE

The Victorian age was divided into three stages;

    - Early Victorianism: From 1837 to 1851. The accession to the throne of the Victorian Queen completes the phase of establishment of the society born after the Industrial Revolution.

    - Middle Victorian: 1851 to 1873. Long period of internal instability fueled by the benefits of the Industrial Revolution and international importance.

    - Late Victorianism: 1873 to 1901. A period of social unrest, revolts in the colonies (especially in Ireland), culminating in the death of the queen.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VICTORIAN AGE

    - It was a period of change in the British economy and politics, and the Victorian era manifested itself in customs, literature, fashion, architecture, family relationships and the arts.

    - The contradictions of the time were reflected in what is known as the 'Victorian double standard'. While social norms responded to a strict moral code based on the repression of sexuality, austerity and Puritan principles, people's everyday practices departed from these values.

    - Based on industrial development, the British economy grew enormously from the export of products manufactured in its industries, as well as financial services, transport and infrastructure.

    - In politics, the bases of participation were broadened by extending the right to vote to new sectors. However, women continued to be left behind, although it was during this period that they began the struggle for the recognition of this right.

Victorian society was characterised by great differences between its social classes. It was made up of: 

 -Aristocracy: owning most of the land, it had wide representation in government bodies and the greatest privileges.

    - The bourgeoisie: divided into the upper bourgeoisie, made up of large investors and industrialists who had become rich through accelerated industrialisation, and the lower bourgeoisie.

    -The lower classes: made up of industrial workers, impoverished peasants, domestic servants, and so on. This group suffered from very poor living conditions with long working hours, unhealthy conditions and little access to housing.

    - For Victorian society, the family was the centrepiece of life. From the upper to the middle classes, the family structure of father, mother and several children, such as Queen Victoria's own family, was the model to be followed. Women were expected to be reserved and remain within the domestic space, taking care of housework and childcare, while men increased the family's wealth.

    - Although women were relegated to the domestic sphere, some managed to stand out as leaders of workers' struggles, writers, visual artists and so on.

Edith Nesbit

Jane Austen

Mary Beale

CHARLES DICKENS.

Charles Dickens is considered one of the most important British writers of all time. Dickens had a hard childhood and some personal misfortunes that marked his works. 

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, in Portsmouth, into a humble family. 

He started school at the age of 9, but his education was interrupted when his father was imprisoned for not paying his debts. As a result, he began working at Warren's boot-blacking factory in London, an experience that later inspired him to write his novel David Copperfield, which gave him a sense of humiliation and abandonment that stayed with him for the rest of his life. Between 1824 and 1826 he attended school again, although most of his education was self-taught.

MAIN WORKS

    - A Christmas Carol

    - David Copperfield

    - Oliver Twist

    - A Tale of Two Cities

    - Great Expectations

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

A Christmas Carol is a short novella that tells the story of a miserly and selfish man named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by a series of ghosts on Christmas Eve. This story was very well received by readers and critics alike.

DAVID COPPERFIELD

It was Dickens' favourite work. The story is told almost entirely from the point of view of a first-person narrator, David Copperfield himself, and was Dickens' first novel. The novel is Copperfield's account of his life, from birth, through all the adventures and misadventures he experienced.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

This historical novel tells the story of life in the 18th century, at the time of the French Revolution. The story takes place in two countries: England and France, and in the cities of London and Paris at the dawn of the French Revolution. The former city would in a way symbolise peace and tranquillity, the simple and orderly life, while the latter would represent turmoil, defiance and chaos, the conflict between two worlds at a time when drastic social changes are being heralded.

CURIOSITIES

    - He always felt close to the poor and oppressed.

    - Before becoming a writer, in 1827, he got a job as a law clerk and, after studying the trade for a short time, became a journalist in Parliament. Later, he worked as a reporter for his uncle's publication.

    - After a terrible train accident from which he was miraculously saved, Dickens wrote a short horror story called The Railwayman.

PHRASES

    - "The paths of loyalty are all straight".

    - "Charity begins at my house, and justice at the door of the next".

    - "True greatness consists in making everyone feel great".

EMILY BRONTË

Emily Brontë was an English writer born on 30 July 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire, and died on 19 December 1848 in Haworth, Yorkshire.

In 1824 she moved with Charlotte to Clergy Daughters School in Lancashire, where they both fell ill with tuberculosis. Due to the appalling condition of the school, their mother wanted them to return home.