The Victorian Period

This period of British history bears the name of Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 to 1901. Since regnal years rarely coincide perfectly with literary periods, sometimes people refer to the Victorian period from roughly 1832 (when the Reform Bill was passed) until around 1900. Many of us have vivid mental pictures of Victorian England: a Charles Dickens Christmas, Sherlock Holmes in London by gaslight, headlines announcing Jack the Ripper's latest victim. large country estates where ladies make social calls and attend lavish parties. While there is some truth in these images, this enormously long era was primarily notable for (1) a highly productive period of achievement in art and literature; (2) a stupendous rate of technological change: the Industrial Revolution gathers pace; (3) a huge growth in urbanization and (4) revolutionary changes in the ways we think about ourselves as human beings (Darwin, Marx, Freud etc).