Childhood

Childhood provided another source of interest. In terms reminiscent of Rousseau, some writers showed a keen interest in an uncorrupted or childlike view of the world: in not yet having been forced to conform to the norms and workings of a rational 'civilized' society, the child and the savage were thought to possess an instinctive kind of knowledge. In its untainted innocence, this knowledge gave rise to a freshness and clarity of vision which the poet himself might aspire to.

The Exotic

Some poets felt themselves attracted to the exotic. Distant times and places became a sort of refuge from the more unpleasant aspects of contemporary society. The Middle Ages in particular served as a source of inspiration in terms of both form (ballads, for example, became a popular verse form once again) and subject matter, continuing a tradition which had begun earlier in the century and which was to last well into Victorian times.

Nature

The significance attached to nature in Romantic poetry varied from poet to poet. Nature no longer represented something to be tamed and brought within the precise confines of early-Georgian man's love of symmetry and landscaped gardens. It was instead variously interpreted as representing the real home of man, a beneficial source of comfort and morality and, in a more pantheistic vein, the quasi-religious embodiment of the life force - permeated by God and at the same time an expression of His presence in the universe. Nature was sometimes seen as possessing an organic life of its own, and in this more accentuated relationship between man and nature, the aspect and moods of the one were seen to reflect those of the other. The stock phrases and standard conventions of neo­classical poetry were abandoned by writers whose accurate and sensitive descriptions of natural phenomena are a keen testimony to their individual visions and powers of observation. It would not, however, be accurate to suggest that such descriptions were in any way gratuitous, or that Romantic poetry can simply be termed 'nature poetry'. Nature, it is true, had become an important subject for poets of the period, yet far from being described merely for its own sake it was seen a providing a stimulus for thought and meditation or as reflecting the inner moods and sentiments of man.

7. The Victorian Age

(1837-1901)

The Victorian Age was an acutely self-conscious one. For perhaps the first time there was a considerable community of interests and opinions between writers and their readers, as well as a sense of a common existence, and shared direction. The literature of no other period speaks so directly to its audience or has such a solid ground of shared assumptions.

Even though literacy had not yet penetrated all classes, the reading public was highly heterogeneous. Within the 'respectable' reading public there was a wide gap between the intellectual end of the spectrum and the escapist and frivolous reading matter available for the lower middle classes. One little-known feature of the Victorian literary scene is the sheer bulk of devotional literature. In the first half of the century religious books outnumbered fiction by a ratio of three to one, not counting the vast number of tracts and Periodicals in circulation. The middle-class reading Public had a lot of time to spare, especially the women, although educational standards were generally not very high in the first half of the century. (One critic even Wed the English upper classes into "Barbarians and Philistines").

Circulating libraries continued to play an important role in the spread of literature, not all of which has stood I* test of time. Sentimentality and crude moralizing •ere popular, and some of the most revered authors of *e Victorian Age have now been completely forgotten. Most of the best Victorian literature was certainly "tended for a tiny intellectual minority.

The age abounded in serious periodicals dealing Wreasrngly with political and social issues, such as «already established 'Edinburgh Review' and the 'Quarterly Review', as well as The Pall Mall Gazette', The Athenaeum', and many others, written for 'thoughtful' readers. One writer remarked in 1829, "Our current periodical literature teems with thought and feeling... The whole surface of society is thus irrigated by a thousand streams." A great deal of Victorian literature was first published in this form; essays, verse and even novels often made their first appearance in the pages of periodicals. Reviewers also had a strong influence on the reception given to literary works and contributed greatly to the formation of public opinion. Victorian novelists and their readers met on a common terrain. The reader almost feels he is a personal presence in the book. This close relationship is also demonstrated by the admiration, love and awe which writers of the age commanded in their readers.

One reason for this was the enormous growth in the middle classes. These sections of society, although consisting of many different strata and heavily criticized on many sides for their complacency and vulgarity, were avid consumers of literature. Many writers were preoccupied with the apparent Philistinism of the middle classes and the seeming lack of spiritual values which industrialization and the decline of religion had caused.

The relationship between religion and society was a particularly complex one during this period. Despite the force of Evangelism and Methodism and the drive for social reform, to some observers the English seemed almost indifferent to religion. The interplay between the established Church of England and the various dissenting factions provoked intense debate, but the middle classes seemed to drift towards a strange mixture of indifference and insularity, typified by Dickens' comic figure Mr Podsnap. Here is an extract from Our Mutual Friend showing how Mr Podsnap views the rest of the world from the perspective of a member of the English middle classes:

"Mr Podsnap's world was not a very large world, morally; no, nor even geographically: seeing that although his business was sustained upon commerce with other countries, he considered other countries, with that important reservation, a mistake, and of their manners and customs would conclusively observe, 'Not English!' when PRESTO! with a flourish of the arm, and a flush of the face, they were swept away. Elsewise, the world got up at eight, shaved close at a quarter past, breakfasted at nine, went to the City at ten, came home at half-past five, and dined at seven. Mr Podsnap's notion of the Arts in their integrity might have been stated thus. Literature; large print, respectively descriptive of getting up at eight, shaving close at a quarter-past, breakfasting at nine, going to the City at ten, coming home at half-past five, and dining at seven. Painting and Sculpture; models and portraits representing Professors of getting up late, shaving close at a quarter-past, breakfasting at nine, going to the City at ten, coming home at half-past five, and dining at seven. Music: a respectable performance (without variations) on stringed and wind instruments, sedately expressive of getting up at eight, shaving close at a quarter-past, breakfasting at nine, going to the City at ten, coming home at half-past five, and dining at seven. Nothing else to be permitted to those same vagrants the Arts, on pain of excommunication. Nothing else To Be - anywhere!" Writers such as John Ruskin (1819-1900) explored the moral basis of art and the dignity of the working classes, but there was intense pessimism in writers such as Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and Matthew Arnold (1822-88), who wrestled with the central question of the age: Is society spiritual or material and mechanical?

The Victorian view of art and its function was essentially handed down from the Romantics, in particular Coleridge and Shelley. Some critics even consider Victorian poetry as essentially the continuation of Romantic poetry into further generations, although Arnold considered poetry to be 'the criticism of life'.

It was, however, the prose writers who took on the high ambitions of the Romantics. Victorian poetry had a lower level of intensity perhaps because the 'all-pervading naturalism' of the age was in fact the negation of high poetic ambition.

Prose

The writings of the Utilitarians and political economists, Mill, Bentham and others, were very influential, and in some cases led to absurd travesties of common sense, (as satirized by Dickens in Hard Times, see below) but there was a deep pessimism in the air as exemplified in the work of Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and Charles Kingsley (1819-1875). Many writers became preoccupied with the lack of spiritual direction of the burgeoning middle classes. John Ruskin (1819-1900) in such works as The Stones of Venice and Modern Painters emphasized the virtues of art and literature in order to offset the blind materialistic drive of the age. The major critic of the age was Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), who, in his classic works Culture and Anarchy and Literature and Dogma, voiced his dismay about the ignorance of the masses and developed ideas for the illumination of the middle classes. Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), Virginia Woolf's father, was also an influential cultural and literary critic.

The biography was a genre in which the Victorians excelled, although clearly to modern eyes the bio­graphies of the time seem to place too heavy an emphasis on those qualities considered 'noble' during the period, and are certainly extremely reticent about the details of private life which seem to obsess modem biographers. Travel books were also a popular and widely read genre.