Does anyone here have an interest in Victorian England and its cultural, social and political trends? I know that the English were full of ignorance at that time, and did many bad things both internally and externally, yet I cannot help but adore the period and all its quirks. Most of all I like the language that was spoken at that time. It was the age of the novel, and fortunately many great works have been produced that still allow us to experience the beauty of the Victorian prose.
Victorian England
I finished reading Middlemarch by George Eliot a few months ago. The best part about Victorian literature for me is laughing at the ridiculous social customs of the period; in fact, many novels were written specifically to ridicule Victorian society. The language was also wonderful, which makes reading contemporary English novels a colourless experience sometimes. But, watch out, Victorian literature can also be exasperatingly long-winded (ex. Middlemarch!).
Some other authors: Austen, Thackeray, Sir Walter Scott and the Bronte sisters
Some other authors: Austen, Thackeray, Sir Walter Scott and the Bronte sisters
The Victorian era in England, particularly, was one of huge contrasts at a time when the British Empire was approaching its zenith. This can be so clearly demonstrated by the massively prolific literature of the time - the works of Dickens portrayed the terrible poverty and deprivation of much of daily life not only in the grim and horrific slums of parts of London but also in the more rural areas where similar conditions existed even in the small villages in an age where means of transport and inter-communication, sanitation and public services were practically non existence apart from such things as Parish Relief and voluntary charitable organistions offered some kind of support to the poor and needy of the time, a world apart from what we are now used to whether in an inner city area or in the remotest of hamlets in the back of beyond, so to speak. ,
On the other hand the novels of the likes of Jane Austen, for instance, concentrated on the upper echelons of English society with its great wealth and opulence in their palatial grand mansions and estates, therefore illustrating the huge economic gap between the two separate societies that all contributed to life in Victorian England.
It was an age of discovery and industrial development in what was, at the time, the most influential country in the world of the 19th century. So many run of the mill things in daily life which we all now take for granted all over the civilised world of today first saw the light of day in the UK - Scotland as well as England, and of course Wales, just be to fair to them....the Industrial Revolution started in rural Shropshire, England, huge improvements in agriculture was revolutionary, and among other things along came the world's first police force, postal services, railways, time measurement, medical research, modern communication leading to the telehone and television and so on and so on.....
Victorian society with its blatant hypocrisy and double standards, bizzare outward prudishness camouflaging extreme sexual and moral depravity behind closed doors, apologetically guilt ridden charity existing alongside gratuitous cruelty and wanton neglect, all pretty much contributed to the kind of society which made the Victorian era the one most people in Britain today believe to be the least favoured in which to have lived. I think I would much rather have lived in Tudor England, in spite of all the cruelty and cheapness of life that existed back then...at least they weren't hypocritical and "holier than thou" than the false Bible thumping Victorians in their dreary, depressing garb. Not many of us would have liked to have lived at a time when a so called respectable pillar of local society insisted on having the legs of his dining table bedecked in drapery to spare the blushes of the ladies dining at the very same table, while at the same time he was bonking the under parlourmaid in the scullery when his wife was out doing charitable work in the community, and any ensuing bairn resulted in both the unfortunate maid and her sproglet being instantly dismissed to starve on the cold hard streets of a soulless Victorian society, or at best taken in by what they called workhouses to rely on just benevolent charity in those awful days.
On the brighter side, the English Language of the Victorian era flourished and prospered, as indicated in the huge outflow of the novels from the great classic writers of the time, a time when English Literature surely was in its prime.
On the other hand the novels of the likes of Jane Austen, for instance, concentrated on the upper echelons of English society with its great wealth and opulence in their palatial grand mansions and estates, therefore illustrating the huge economic gap between the two separate societies that all contributed to life in Victorian England.
It was an age of discovery and industrial development in what was, at the time, the most influential country in the world of the 19th century. So many run of the mill things in daily life which we all now take for granted all over the civilised world of today first saw the light of day in the UK - Scotland as well as England, and of course Wales, just be to fair to them....the Industrial Revolution started in rural Shropshire, England, huge improvements in agriculture was revolutionary, and among other things along came the world's first police force, postal services, railways, time measurement, medical research, modern communication leading to the telehone and television and so on and so on.....
Victorian society with its blatant hypocrisy and double standards, bizzare outward prudishness camouflaging extreme sexual and moral depravity behind closed doors, apologetically guilt ridden charity existing alongside gratuitous cruelty and wanton neglect, all pretty much contributed to the kind of society which made the Victorian era the one most people in Britain today believe to be the least favoured in which to have lived. I think I would much rather have lived in Tudor England, in spite of all the cruelty and cheapness of life that existed back then...at least they weren't hypocritical and "holier than thou" than the false Bible thumping Victorians in their dreary, depressing garb. Not many of us would have liked to have lived at a time when a so called respectable pillar of local society insisted on having the legs of his dining table bedecked in drapery to spare the blushes of the ladies dining at the very same table, while at the same time he was bonking the under parlourmaid in the scullery when his wife was out doing charitable work in the community, and any ensuing bairn resulted in both the unfortunate maid and her sproglet being instantly dismissed to starve on the cold hard streets of a soulless Victorian society, or at best taken in by what they called workhouses to rely on just benevolent charity in those awful days.
On the brighter side, the English Language of the Victorian era flourished and prospered, as indicated in the huge outflow of the novels from the great classic writers of the time, a time when English Literature surely was in its prime.
This should read:
<....at least they weren't hypocritical and "holier than thou" LIKE the false Bible thumping Victorians.....>
<....at least they weren't hypocritical and "holier than thou" LIKE the false Bible thumping Victorians.....>
Jane Austen is not a Victorian novelist; her novels deal with middle class life, not the aristocracy.
Your picture of Victorian life, while vivid, presents costume-drama cliches, rather than historical fact.
Your picture of Victorian life, while vivid, presents costume-drama cliches, rather than historical fact.
Oops...Jane Austen was more than just a wee bit non-contemporary in this context....having died two years before Victoria herself was even born, it's just that her name came to mind whe strictly speaking it shouldn't when the focus is on the period 1837 to 1901. True enough she was of the middle class as it existed in that rigidly class riven society of her day, which did extend into the entire Victorian era.
However she did do her best to thrust her heroines into the more elevated strata of Georgian English society, an age in which young single women really had to marry "above their station" or be left behind on a shelf, hapless and penniless and at the mercy of charity or paternal benevolence and a burden all round unless of course, like Jane Austen herself, they were lucky enough to earn their own crust. "A man in possession of a fortune must surely be in want of a wife"......how true for the time, and most probably is still the case today for many with such designs.
My description of the Victorian era in England (and the rest of the UK for that matter) may well have been vivid, but I'm pretty sure it was pretty close to reality...unless you were reasonably affluent and self sufficient to a degree life in this country in those days was really, really tough - nasty, vile and damnable in many ways. Surely Charles Dickens gave us a really good insight into the rigours and cruelty of daily life for the poorest and least privileged in the UK of those days - abject poverty not only in the dire, mean streets of a very crowded, very insanitary London....and in every other urban area surrounded by all those dark satanic mills and dismal factories in which they sent urchins (young children) up the chimneys to dislodge all the soot. All kinds of diseases were rife - typhoid, tuberculosis and even cholera owing to untreated drinking water in many inner city areas, and all at a period not much less than a century before any kind of National Health Service or adequate Government social welfare programs were introduced into the UK.
Apart from the aristocracy all the industrialists, manufacturers and the burgeoning traders and middle classes fared quite well for the most part, but life for those at the lower levels of Victorian society was dreadful. So many sought refuge in cheap gin and ale, all of which gave rise to the Temperance Movement in this country, organisations like the Band of Hope and the Salvation Army and various religious groups.
Sadly in the present day UK too many fit and able people regard an on-going social security welfare payments program to be a way of life, some kind of automatic right, when in fact it's founder Beveridge had absolutely no intention of his new Welfare State Act of 1948 becoming any such thing, simply a sort of safety net for those in genuine need, not wastrels and scroungers mis-using it, whether native to the UK or from outside this country which really is happening.
However she did do her best to thrust her heroines into the more elevated strata of Georgian English society, an age in which young single women really had to marry "above their station" or be left behind on a shelf, hapless and penniless and at the mercy of charity or paternal benevolence and a burden all round unless of course, like Jane Austen herself, they were lucky enough to earn their own crust. "A man in possession of a fortune must surely be in want of a wife"......how true for the time, and most probably is still the case today for many with such designs.
My description of the Victorian era in England (and the rest of the UK for that matter) may well have been vivid, but I'm pretty sure it was pretty close to reality...unless you were reasonably affluent and self sufficient to a degree life in this country in those days was really, really tough - nasty, vile and damnable in many ways. Surely Charles Dickens gave us a really good insight into the rigours and cruelty of daily life for the poorest and least privileged in the UK of those days - abject poverty not only in the dire, mean streets of a very crowded, very insanitary London....and in every other urban area surrounded by all those dark satanic mills and dismal factories in which they sent urchins (young children) up the chimneys to dislodge all the soot. All kinds of diseases were rife - typhoid, tuberculosis and even cholera owing to untreated drinking water in many inner city areas, and all at a period not much less than a century before any kind of National Health Service or adequate Government social welfare programs were introduced into the UK.
Apart from the aristocracy all the industrialists, manufacturers and the burgeoning traders and middle classes fared quite well for the most part, but life for those at the lower levels of Victorian society was dreadful. So many sought refuge in cheap gin and ale, all of which gave rise to the Temperance Movement in this country, organisations like the Band of Hope and the Salvation Army and various religious groups.
Sadly in the present day UK too many fit and able people regard an on-going social security welfare payments program to be a way of life, some kind of automatic right, when in fact it's founder Beveridge had absolutely no intention of his new Welfare State Act of 1948 becoming any such thing, simply a sort of safety net for those in genuine need, not wastrels and scroungers mis-using it, whether native to the UK or from outside this country which really is happening.