Romantic Periodin English literature

1790 - 1850

At the beginning of the 19th century people started to crave more romantic literature and not only realistic literature. It was a reaction against all

realistic and political literature.

Gothic Novel

• It became popular with elements of both horror and romance. Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses, castles, darkness, death, decay, secrets and madness. Frankenstein(1818) by Mary Shelley is an example of a Gothic novel

Frankenstein

• Published in 1881• Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H3dFh6GA-A

Poetry

• Romantic poets included John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelleyand Lord Byron. They wrote passionate love poems which are full of descriptive images, similes and metaphors.

VICTORIAN PERIOD 1837–1901

It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain

It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain

There had been a decline in novel writing at the beginning of the century, partly because fiction had turned to horror and crude emotionalism and partly because of religious and moral objections to the reading of novels.

However, with the rise of the popular magazine, authors began to experiment with serialized fiction. Soon they were writing novels.

Charles Dickens (1812-70)

• One author who became famous by writing in magazines was Charles Dickens.

• Dickens became the most famous author of the Victorian Age.

• Few of his novels have convincing plots, but in characterization and in the creation of moods he was outstanding. By 1850 Dickens had become England's best-loved novelist. Some of Dickens’ most famous works are: A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.

• “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.”

• (Extract from the beginning of David Copperfield)

As a prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays and novels, Dickens became worldwide famous during his lifetime. His remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in the telling of their lives and his depictions of the social classes, morals and values made him widely famous.

Some considered him the spokesman for the poor, for he definitely brought much awareness to their plight, the downtrodden and the have-nots. On Dickens’ tombstone you can find this line: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world”.

As a contrast, the novels of the Bronte sisters (Charlotte, 1816-55; Emily, 1818-48; Anne, 1820-49) have very little to do with the condition of society or the world in general.

Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights (both 1847), especially, are powerful and intensely personal stories of the private lives of characters isolated from the rest of the world.

Bronte sisters (Charlotte, 1816-55; Emily, 1818-48; Anne, 1820-49)

Chapter 3, Wuthering Heights

I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed,

´Let me in—let me in!’

''Who are you?' I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. 'Catherine Linton,' it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of Linton? I had read Earnshaw twenty times for Linton) 'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor! As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window. Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, 'Let me in!' and maintained its tenacious gripe, almost maddening me with fear'

Wuthering Heights- Emily Brontë

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë