The Victorian Novel

Authors and Titles

Novel Overview

• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronté - 1847• Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronté - 1847• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - 1859• Treasure Island, Robert L. Stevenson - 1883• Dracula, Bram Stoker - 1897

Jane Eyre – Charlotte BronteOverview

• Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations and oppression; her time as the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family during which her earnest but cold clergyman-cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and the finale with her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester.

• Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters and most editions are at least 400 pages long (although the preface and introduction on certain copies are liable to take up another 100 or so). The original publication was in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 26, and 27 to 38; this was a common publishing format during the 19th century.

Wuthering Heights – Emily BronteOverview

• The only published novel by Emily Brontë, written between December 1845 and July 1846 and published in July of the following year. It was not printed until December 1847, after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. It was finally printed under the pseudonym Ellis Bell; a posthumous second edition was edited by Charlotte.

• The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors of the story. The narrative centers on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them.

• Today considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights was met with mixed reviews when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty. Although Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was generally considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works during most of the nineteenth century, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights argued that it was a superior achievement.

A Tale of Two Cities – Charles DickensOverview

• Set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.

• With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature.

• The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife.

• The 45-chapter novel was published in 31 weekly installments in Dickens' new literary periodical titled All the Year Round.

Treasure Island – Robert Louis StevensonOverview

• Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola with Stevenson adopting the pseudonym Captain George North.

• Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, Treasure Island is an adventure tale known for its atmosphere, characters and action, and also as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality — as seen in Long John Silver — unusual for children's literature then and now. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perceptions of pirates is enormous, including treasure maps marked with an "X", schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen carrying parrots on their shoulders.

Dracula – Bram StokerOverview

Dracula has appealed to readers for almost a century,at least in part because it deals with one of the greathuman conflicts: the struggle between good and evil.Stoker acknowledges the complexity of this conflict byshowing good characters attracted to evil. For example,Jonathan Harker, the lawyer who journeys toTransylvania, is almost attacked at Dracula's castle bythree young female vampires. In fact, he seems to beactually welcoming the attack before it is interruptedby the count. In this scene, as well as others, Stokersuggests that evil, represented by the vampires, is analmost irresistible force which requires great spiritualstrength to overcome. It eventually takes the combinedforces of a band of men, representing differentcountries, to defeat the vampiric count. Stoker's novelis a symbolic exploration of a conflict which has longtroubled humankind.

Pride and Prejudice – Jane AustenOverview

• Although written during the Romantic period, many find the techniques and subject matter to be more closely aligned with the Victorian Era

• The story of the Bennet daughters who’s mother just wants them to marry someone wealthy and of high status

• Eldest daughter Jane loves Charles Bingley – a very wealthy Gentleman

• Bingley’s sisters do not approve of the marriage – think the Bennet family is beneath them

• Bingley’s best friend – Fitzwilliam Darcy – takes a liking to Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest daughter, but Elizabeth is turned off by his cocky and arrogant behavior

• Elizabeth spends the entirety of the novel trying to get Charles Bingley to marry her sister Jane, as well as playing matchmaker to other characters who she believes should marry

• Darcy continues to court Elizabeth for the remainder of the novel

Frankenstein – Mary ShelleyOverview

• Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one.

• The storyline emerged from a dream. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for weeks about what her possible storyline could be, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made. She then wrote Frankenstein.

• Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. The story is partially based on Giovanni Aldini's electrical experiments on dead and (sometimes) living animals. It has had a considerable influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films.

• The name "Frankenstein" is often incorrectly used to refer to the monster itself. In the novel, the monster is identified via words such as "creature," "monster", "fiend", "wretch", "vile insect", "daemon", and "it"; The monster refers to himself speaking to Dr. Frankenstein as "the Adam of your labors", and elsewhere as someone who "would have" been "your Adam", but is instead your "fallen angel."