About the Victorian Era
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Victorian: TopicPeriod of mid- and late- 19th century in England, covering the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901.
Genres
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Detective Fiction: Topic
Genre of novel or short story in which a mystery is solved mainly by the action of a professional or amateur detective.
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Historical Novel: TopicGenre of fictional prose narrative set in the past.
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Mystery: TopicOr mystery story, literary genre in which the cause (or causes) of a mysterious happening, often a crime, is gradually revealed by the hero or heroine.
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Poetry: TopicImaginative literary form, particularly suitable for describing emotions and thoughts.
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Romance: TopicIn literature, tales of love and chivalric adventure, in verse or prose, that became popular in France about 1200 and spread throughout Europe.
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Science Fiction: TopicLiterary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story.
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Short Story: TopicShort work of prose fiction, usually consisting of between 500 and 10,000 words, which typically either sets up and resolves a single narrative point or depicts a mood or an atmosphere.
Novelists
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Brontë: TopicFamily of English novelists, including Charlotte Brontë, 1816–55, English novelist, Emily Jane Brontë, 1818–48, English novelist and poet, and Anne Brontë, 1820–49, English novelist.
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Anne Brontë (1820 - 1849): TopicAnne Brontë was the youngest of the famous trio of literary sisters. Anne's literary endeavours, like those of Emily Brontë, went unacknowledged in her brief lifetime.
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Charlotte Brontë (1816 - 1855): TopicEnglish novelist and member of the Brontë family. Her most famous novels are Jane Eyre (1847) and Villette (1853).
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Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902): TopicBritish writer best known for The Way of All Flesh (1903), a semiautobiographical novel satirizing family life in mid-Victorian England.
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Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898): TopicEnglish writer; an Oxford mathematics don who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872) and the nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark (1876).
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Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Say “Wilkie Collins” to a late Victorian reader of fiction and he or she (Collins appealed to both) would have fired back two words: “sensation” and “bohemian.” -
Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924): TopicPen-name of Teodor Józef Konrad Nałȩcz Korzeniowski, a British novelist, born in Ukraine.
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Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870): TopicEnglish author, born in Portsmouth, one of the world's most popular, prolific, and skilled novelists.
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Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881): TopicBritish Conservative politician and novelist. Authored the novel trilogy Coningsby, Sybil, and Tancred (1847).
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930): TopicWriter, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, born in Edinburgh, EC Scotland, UK.
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Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 - 1865): TopicBritish writer noted for her Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) and her novels depicting the oppression of workers in 19th-century England.
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Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928): Topic
English novelist and poet, born near Dorchester, one of the great English writers of the 19th century.
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Charles Kingsley (1819 - 1875): TopicEnglish writer. He was one of the first clerics to support Charles Darwin, whose ideas he partly incorporated into The Water Babies (1863). His popular historical novels include Hereward the Wake (1866).
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George Meredith (1828 - 1909): TopicEnglish novelist and poet. His works, notable for their social satire and analysis of character, include the novels Beauchamp's Career (1876) and The Egoist (1879) and the long tragic poem Modern Love (1862).
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Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894): TopicBritish writer of essays, poetry, and novels, including Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and Kidnapped (1886).
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William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863): TopicEnglish novelist, born in India; satirised social pretensions in such novels as Vanity Fair (1848).
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Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882): TopicEnglish novelist; major novels include Barchester Towers (1857) and The Way We Live Now (1875).
Essayists, Critics & Reformers
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Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881): TopicBritish historian and essayist whose works, such as The French Revolution (1837), are characterized by his trenchant social and political criticism and his complex literary style.
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Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882): Topic
British naturalist who revolutionized the study of biology with his theory of evolution based on natural selection. His most famous works include Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).
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Richard Jefferies (1848 - 1887): TopicEnglish naturalist and writer. His books on the countryside include Gamekeeper at Home (1878), The Life of the Fields (1884), and his best-known collection of essays, The Open Air (1885).
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Henry Edward Manning (1808 - 1892): TopicEnglish churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
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John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873): TopicBritish philosopher and economist known especially for his interpretations of empiricism and utilitarianism. His many works include A System of Logic (1843), Principles of Political Economy (1848), and The Subjection of Women (1869).
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William Morris (1834 - 1896): TopicEnglish poet, designer, craftsman, and socialist writer. He founded the Kelmscott Press (1890).
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John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890): TopicBritish prelate and theologian. A founder of the Oxford movement, he converted to Roman Catholicism (1845) and was made a cardinal (1879).
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John Ruskin (1819 - 1900): Topic
English art critic and social reformer. He was a champion of the Gothic Revival and the Pre-Raphaelites and saw a close connection between art and morality.
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Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904): TopicEnglish philosopher, critic, & biographer.
Poets
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Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888): TopicEnglish poet and critic, son of the educator Dr. Thomas Arnold.
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861): TopicAn experimental writer, she wrote ballads, political odes, allegories, sonnets, poetic dramas and an epic.
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Robert Browning (1812 - 1889): TopicBritish poet best known for dramatic monologues such as “My Last Duchess,” “Fra Lippo Lippi,” and “The Bishop Orders His Tomb.”
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George Eliot (1819 - 1880): TopicPseudonym of Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans English novelist.
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Sir W. S. Gilbert (1836 - 1911): TopicBritish playwright and lyricist known for a series of comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1879), written with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.
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Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889): TopicBritish poet known for a number of works published posthumously, including “The Wreck of the Deutschland” and “The Windhover.”
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882): TopicEnglish poet and painter; son of Gabriele Rossetti and brother of Christina Rossetti.
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Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837 - 1909): TopicBritish poet and critic who wrote musical, often erotic verse in which he attacked the conventions of Victorian morality.
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Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892): TopicEnglish poet; poet laureate (1850-92). His poems include The Lady of Shalott (1832), Morte d'Arthur (1842), the collection In Memoriam (1850), Maud (1855), and Idylls of the King (1859).