Literary Movements: Romanticism to Victorian Era
Romanticism: An Overview
Romanticism developed between the 1760s and 1780s as an anti-Enlightenment movement. Jane Austen marks one of the first points of solidification of the realist tradition. It mainly affected drama and poetry. Protagonists were driven to action, pursuing noble ideals. Authors started praising the sublime aspects of nature, showing interest in the representation of nature. Before, nature was seen as a tool, but now intellectuals saw nature as something to be praised. Nature becomes the main element, inspiring landscape poetry. There was an exaltation of emotion, and poetry was seen as the best genre. Romantics were attracted to the idea of the exceptional, yet cursed, individual.
Sturm und Drang: The Roots of German Romanticism
Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress): Romanticism is a cultural, political, and social movement that developed between 1760 and 1780 in certain German states. Germany was a country where the Enlightenment had a strong presence; Immanuel Kant was one of the most influential thinkers for the poets. The movement was born as an anti-Enlightenment movement, with a keen interest in the past. The Middle Ages were a particularly attractive time. There was a recovery of poetic formats used in the Middle Ages (narrative poems; romantic poets writing ballads). Nationalist interest in previous historical moments led to a revisitation of the folkloric.
Jane Austen: Bridging Romanticism and Realism
Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Hampshire and is considered a transition or bridge between Romanticism and Victorian Realism. The term ‘novel of manners’ is applied to her production. Her novels are not based on external events; no chronological events are mentioned, except for the Napoleonic Wars. More importantly, they offer a picture showing ways of living, personal relations, and feelings. She spent most of her adult life in Bath, and many passages of her novels are located there. In the early 19th century, Bath became the social center for the medium to higher classes, exploring parts of society such as the bourgeoisie. She was a reader of gothic novels and, affected by them, incorporated gothic novel characteristics into her novels. She announces some of the stylistic ways of writing proper of the Victorian era; the earliest Charles Dickens’ literary creations will follow the trend initiated by her fiction. After the romantic peak in England, she was not very influenced by the postulates of romanticism, and romantic characters are absent. She died in 1817.
Notable Works by Austen
- Mansfield Park (1814): The plot is one of the less interesting ones among Austen’s novels. It is the most symbolic novel of the author, with constant references to the Bible. It offers an interesting account of the inner life of the protagonist. She conceived this novel as a satire of the theatrical representation for the high classes produced in Bath.
- Northanger Abbey (1818): A satirical novel influenced by Ann Radcliffe and Quixotic literature. It is clearly associated with the Bildungsroman and explores the importance of reading.
The Brontë Sisters: From Romanticism to Realism
The Brontë sisters represent a bridge from Romanticism to Realism. Emily and Anne were devoted to Romantic aesthetics and received great influence from authors from previous periods, such as Jane Austen, the Romantic poets, and Walter Scott. His novels were constantly printed and included within the histories of literature. He will have a narrow connection to the Brontës, especially with Emily (epistolary relation).
Charlotte Brontë: Breaking Romantic Models
Charlotte, thanks to novels such as ‘The Professor’ and especially ‘Jane Eyre’, surpassed the Romantic models and created a heroine who lives and acts in her time. Jane is still influenced by Romanticism, but Charlotte is not a realist author.
Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
Emily was influenced by the Romantics. Before publishing ‘Wuthering Heights’, Emily produced a series of poems, written in her young years and in some collaboration with her siblings, especially her brother Branwell. Along with Anne, she created the realms of Geraldine and Gondal, where most of her poetry took place. Many of these poems were written many years before their publication, not created with a literary purpose but for children and teenagers, and before the acquisition of literary figures.
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
Charlotte’s childhood occurred along with her sisters, participating in collaborative works. She received a strong formal education and was the most widely acclaimed of the sisters, living longer and receiving more honors. Her literary production has to do with education, being this the main theme of her novels. She wrote ‘The Professor’, published after her death in 1857, considered the masculine reverse of ‘Jane Eyre’, and as in ‘Jane Eyre’, the role of education is crucial (being the main character involved in teaching). The novel also has a strong presence of religion, criticizing Catholicism as superstitious.
Detective Fiction: A Victorian Innovation
Detective fiction appeared as a derivation from Gothic literature, substituting supernatural mysteries to be solved with crimes (real and fictional). In Britain, serial publications like ‘The Newgate Calendar’ contributed to increasing the interest of the general public in the new genre. The first author to cultivate the genre was the American Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) with the Dupin trilogy, establishing the characteristics subsequent writers would continue: the necessity of solving a mystery with natural themes. The existence of the New Gate Calendars, since the 18th century, were periodical announcements of the executions that were going to take place in the prison.
Key Figures in Detective Fiction
- William Wilkie Collins: His novels do not follow a specific style or format. Collins mixed elements belonging to different traditions, like crime fiction and the Gothic (The Woman in White). Inversion is often present.
- Arthur Conan Doyle: He followed a more classical model, creating very effective characters and an attractive story. He created a universe, a succession of 4 novels of 4 narrations. He continued the model established by Poe (even acknowledging his influence). Doyle created a character (Sherlock Holmes) that traverses his entire detective production. Reason and the plausible are usually found at the end of his stories and novels.
- There are minor realist authors like Anthony Trollope and George Meredith: They were popular in their times, at a similar level to other authors but not as much as Dickens. Their works are about England during the Edwardian period.
Fantasy and Adventure Literature in the Victorian Era
During the Victorian Era, discoveries in many fields (geography, science, technology) populated the pages of periodical publications. For the first time in the 19th century in Britain, we find literary works and formats dedicated to children or young readers. As the century went on, new forms were demanded to entertain a wider audience. As schooling became more generalized and infant labor was periodically abolished, children ended up being the target of many writers of the period. There were kids that had things that previous kids didn’t have: free time and the ability to read.
Notable Authors of Fantasy and Adventure
- Charles Kingsley: Kingsley began his career writing historical novels set in the early Christian period. Hypatia (1853) is his best example, although it is considered too melodramatic due to the love story unnecessarily included in the plot. Soon after, Kingsley turned to produce narrations targeting young and infant readers, influenced by his friend Lewis Carroll. In his youth novels, Kingsley tried to show scientific theories that were avant-garde at the moment, like Darwin’s Evolution. His most notable examples are ‘Westward Ho!’ (1855, adventure novel teaching about geography and culture) and ‘The Water-Babies’ (1862-63).
- Anthony Hope: The opposite of Charles Kingsley, but more popular. Anthony Hope has become one of the most influential authors in contemporary children’s literature. His novels were much more conservative than those of Charles Kingsley. One of the main achievements of his production is the creation of magical realms where his stories took place. ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ (1894) is his most famous work, with multiple adaptations to different formats (film, TV, theatre, comic…).
- H. Rider Haggard: One of the most famous adventure writers during the last decades of the Victorian Era. He focused on the motif of the “lost world” and collision with Western Civilization. His most famous works are ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ (1885) and ‘She’ (1886), both inspired by his experiences in South Africa.
Victorian Essayists
During the Victorian era, essays lost importance; however, we can highlight some Victorian Essayists: Charles Darwin with his “Origin of Species” and Walter Pater. Walter Pater is crucial to understanding Oscar Wilde; he was his professor in Oxford. Pater went to Italy with Wilde, where his main works were written and from where its singular aesthetic is born.