The sixty years commonly included under the name of the Victorian age present many dissimilar features. Yet in several respects we can safely generalize.

1. Its morality : Nearly all observers of the Victorian age are struck by its extreme deference to the conventions. To a later age these seem ludicrous. It was thought indecorous for a man to smoke in public and for a lady to ride a bicycle. To a great extent the new morality was a natural revolt against the grossness of the earlier regency, and the influence of the Victorian court was all in its favor. In literature it is amply reflected. Tennyson is the most conspicuous co placement sir Galahad and King Arthur, dickens, perhaps the most representative of the Victorian novelists took for his model the old picaresque novel. But it is almost laughable to observe his anxiety to be ‘moral’. This type of writing is quite blameless but it produced the king of public that denounced the innocuous jane eyre as wicked because it dealt with the harmless affection of a girl for a married man.

2. The Revolt : Many writers protest against the deadening effect of the conventions. Carlyle and Matthew Arnold in their different accents were loud in their denunciations thackerary never tired of satirizing the snobbishness of the age and bowing’s cobbly mannerisms were an indirect challenge to the velvety diction and the smooth self  satisfaction of the Tennysonian School. As the age proceeded the reaction
strengthened. In poetry the Pre-Raphaelites, by Swinburne and William Morris proclaimed no morality but that of the crtist’s regard for his art. By the vigour of his method Swinburne horrified the timorous and made himself rather ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people. It remained for Thomas hardy to pull a side. The Victorian veils and shutters and with the large tolerances of the master to regards men’s actions
with open gaze.

2. Intellectual developments : The literary product was inevitably affected by the new ideas in science, religion and politics. On the origin of species (1859) of Darwin shook to its foundation scientific thought. We can perceive the influence of such a work in Tennyson’s. in memoriam in Matthew Arnold’s meditative poetry and in the works of Carlyle. In religious and ethical thought the Oxford movement as it was called was the most note warthy advance. This movement had its source among the young and eager thinkers of the old university and was headed by the great Newman who ultimately (1854) joined the church of Rome, as a religious portent it marked the widespread discontent with the existing belief of the church of England as a literary influence it affected many writers of note, including Newman himself, roude, Maurice kingsley and glad stone.

3. The new education : The new education acts, making a cetian measure of education compulsory, rapidly produced and enormous reading public. The cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books so that the production was multiplied. The most popular form of literature was the novel and the novelists responded with a will. Much of their work was of a high standard so much so that it has been asserted by competent critics that the middle years of the nineteenth century were the richest in the whole history of the novel.

4. International influences : During the nineteenth century the interaction among American and European writers was remarkably fresh and strong. In Britain the influences of the great german writers was continuous and it was championed by Carlyle and Mathew Arnold. Subject nations in particular the Italians, were a sympathetic theme for prose and verse. The browning Swinburne, morris and Meredith were deeply absorbed in the long struggle of the followers of garibaldi and Cavour and when Italian freedom was gained the rejoicings were genuine.

5. The achievement of the age : With all its immense production, the age produced no supreme writer. It revealed no Shakespeare no Shelley nor a Byron or a Scott. The general literary level was however very high and it was an age moreover of spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavor and bright aspirations.