Victorian and Fin de Siecle Literature

Events

Population quadrupled

1801 - 1911

Popular: Newgate Novels

1820 - 1829

Sensation
Thought to glamorise the lives of the criminals they portrayed, based on Newgate Prison

Publishing revolution

1820 - 1880

Technological and economic:
- cheaper raw materials, repeal of paper tax = books cheaper
- 4x increase in number of books published, average price of books halved - mass literary publishing
- circulating libraries - new institutions
- rise of the bestseller
- rise of prose fiction and popular sub-genres eg. melodrama, sensation fiction, detective fiction, designed to entertain middle classes
- new opportunities for women writers

Catholic Emancipation Act

1829 - 1829

Social change - religious freedom

Establishment of the New Metropolitan Police Force

1829 - 1829

Social changes - penal reform

Age of Empire

1830 - 1880

Victorian Literature
Social changes - religious freedom, penal reform, sexual freedom
Wealth and inequality - naval and technological supremacy internationally, rise of middle classes
Changes in:
- publishing culture
- readership
- literary values

Popular Poetry - long narrative poems and dramatic monologues

1830 - 1859

eg. Tennyson, Browning, Barrett-Browning

Factory Acts

1833 - 1833

Abolition of Slavery

1834 - 1834

Queen Victoria's Reign

1837 - 1901

Opium Wars

1839 - 1842

Hungry 40s

1840 - 1849

Popular: 'Social Problem' Novels

1840 - 1849

Realism
eg. Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell

Irish Famine

1845 - 1847

Popular: Classic Realism

1850 - 1869

Realism
eg. George Eliot

Popular: Sensation Fiction

1850 - 1859

Sensation
eg. Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Victoria categorised as 'Wife' rather than 'Queen in census - Albert categorised as Head of household

1851 - 1851

Divorce Act

1857 - 1857

Social changes - sexual freedom

Indian Mutiny

1857 - 1858

Shaky days for the Empire

Popular: Detective Fiction

1860 - 1869

Sensation
eg. Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle

Popular Poetry - faith and doubt

1860 - 1889

eg. Rossetti, Hopkins, Arnold

Popular: Religious Novels

1860 - 1889

Realism
eg. Mary Ward, Walter Pater

Prince Albert's Death

1861 - 1861

Married Women's Property Acts

1870 - 1879

Social changes - sexual freedom

First Zulu War

1879 - 1879

Irish 'Land Wars'

1879 - 1882

Age of Transition

1880 - 1910

Fin de Siecle Literature
Crisis of Imperialism, new imperialism and 'scramble for Africa'
Domestic crises, economic threat from USA, Germany, Russia and France, 25-30% in persistent poverty (according to Booth and Rowntree), growth of Trade Unionism, Women's Suffrage, Uranianism (homosexuality, particularly gay men with feminine characteristics, "3rd sex"

Commodification of literature

1880 - 1900

Division between mass and elite taste:
- rise of the professional writer
- breakdown in relations between writers and publishers - rise of literary agents and Society of Authors
- increased use of advertising - literary tourism, writer as 'media personality', rise of literary biography
- concerns about readership eg. Henry James
- relative decline in poetry and critical writing

Popular: Colonial Fiction

1880 - 1900

Sensation
eg. Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad

Popular: Naturalism

1880 - 1889

Realism
eg. Thomas Hardy, George Gissing

Rise of Socialism