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==Victorian novel== It was in the [[Victorian era]] (1837β1901) that the novel became the leading [[literary genre]] in English. A number of women novelists were successful in the 19th century, although they often had to use a masculine pseudonym. At the beginning of the 19th century most novels were published in three volumes. However, monthly serialization was revived with the publication of Charles Dickens' ''[[Pickwick Papers]]'' in twenty parts between April 1836 and November 1837. Demand was high for each episode to introduce some new element, whether it was a plot twist or a new character, so as to maintain the readers' interest. Both Dickens and Thackeray frequently published this way.<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'', ed. Marion Wynne-Davies. (New York: Prentice Hall, 1990), pp. 97β8.</ref> {{Quote box | quote = After [[Thomas Carlyle|Carlyle]], the poetic, prophetic, and visionary possibilities of the novel are fully awakened.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillotson |first=Kathleen |title=Novels of the Eighteen-Forties |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1956 |location=London |pages=154}}</ref> | author = β [[Kathleen Tillotson]], British scholar | align = left | width = 25% }} In the 1830s and '40s, novelists began to show the influence of social critics on their work, especially [[Thomas Carlyle]], who raised the "[[Condition-of-England question|Condition-of-England Question]]" to describe "the social and political upheavals which followed the [[Reform Act 1832|Reform Act of 1832]]".<ref>''Bloomsbury Guide'', p. 101.</ref> In response, novelists wrote "[[Condition of England novel|Condition of England novels]]", which were in many ways a reaction to rapid [[industrialization]], and the social, political and economic issues associated with it, and were a means of commenting on abuses of government and industry and the suffering of the poor, who were not profiting from England's economic prosperity.<ref>"James, Louis(2006)"</ref> Stories of the working-class poor were directed toward the middle class to help create sympathy and promote change. An early example is [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' (1837β38). [[File:Charles Dickens 3.jpg|right|thumb|180px|[[Charles Dickens]]]] [[Charles Dickens]] emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s with the two novels already mentioned. Dickens wrote vividly about London life and struggles of the poor, but in a good-humoured fashion, accessible to readers of all classes. One of his most popular works to this day is ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' (1843). In more recent years Dickens has been most admired for his later novels, such as ''[[Dombey and Son]]'' (1846β48), ''[[Great Expectations]]'' (1860β61), ''[[Bleak House]]'' (1852β53), ''[[Little Dorrit]]'' (1855β57), and ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'' (1864β65). An early rival to Dickens was [[William Makepeace Thackeray]], who during the Victorian period ranked second only to him, but he is now much less read and is known almost exclusively for ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'' (1847). In that novel he satirizes whole swaths of humanity while retaining a light touch. It features his most memorable character, the engagingly roguish Becky Sharp. The [[BrontΓ«]] sisters were other significant novelists in the 1840s and 1850s. Their novels caused a sensation when they were first published and were subsequently accepted as classics. They had written compulsively from early childhood and were first published, at their own expense, in 1846 as poets under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. The sisters returned to prose, producing a novel each the following year: Charlotte's ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', Emily's ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' and Anne's ''[[Agnes Grey]]''. Later, Anne's ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'' (1848) and Charlotte's ''[[Villette (novel)|Villette]]'' (1853) were published. [[Elizabeth Gaskell]] was also a successful writer and her first novel, ''[[Mary Barton]]'', was published anonymously in 1848. Gaskell's ''[[North and South (1855 novel)|North and South]]'' contrasts the lifestyle in the industrial north of England with the wealthier south. Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, Gaskell usually frames her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes: her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She always emphasised the role of women, with complex narratives and dynamic female characters.<ref>Abrams, M.H., et al. (eds), "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810β1865". ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century'', 7th ed., Vol. B. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. {{ISBN|0-393-97304-2}}. DDC 820.8βdc21. LC PR1109.N6.</ref> [[Anthony Trollope]] (1815β82) was one of the most successful, prolific, and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works are set in the imaginary county of [[Barsetshire]], including ''[[The Warden]]'' (1855) and ''[[Barchester Towers]]'' (1857). He also wrote perceptive novels on political, social, and gender issues, and on other topical matters, including ''The Way with Live Now'' (1875). Trollope's novels portrayed the lives of the landowning and professional classes of early Victorian England. [[George Eliot]]'s (Mary Ann Evans) (1819β80) first novel ''[[Adam Bede]]'' was published in 1859. Her works, especially ''[[Middlemarch]]'' 1871β72), are important examples of [[literary realism]], and are admired for their combination of high [[Victorian literature|Victorian literary]] detail combined with an intellectual breadth that removes them from the narrow geographic confines they often depict. [[File:H. G. Wells, c.1890.jpg|thumb|H. G. Wells studying in London, taken c. 1890]] An interest in rural matters and the changing social and economic situation of the countryside is seen in the novels of [[Thomas Hardy]] (1840β1928). A Victorian realist, in the tradition of [[George Eliot]], he was also influenced both in his novels and poetry by [[Romanticism]], especially by [[William Wordsworth]].<ref>Dennis Taylor, "Hardy and Wordsworth". Victorian Poetry, vol.24, no.4, Winter, 1986.</ref> [[Charles Darwin]] is another important influence on Thomas Hardy.<ref>Gillian Beer, ''Darwin's Plots''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.</ref> Like Charles Dickens he was also highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898, so that initially he gained fame as the author of such novels as, ''[[Far from the Madding Crowd]]'' (1874), ''[[The Mayor of Casterbridge]]'' (1886), ''[[Tess of the d'Urbervilles]]'' (1891), and ''[[Jude the Obscure]]'' (1895). He ceased writing novels following adverse criticism of this last novel. In novels such as ''[[The Mayor of Casterbridge]]'' and ''[[Tess of the d'Urbervilles]]'' Hardy attempts to create modern works in the genre of [[tragedy]], that are modelled on the Greek drama, especially [[Aeschylus]] and [[Sophocles]], though in prose, not poetry, a novel not drama, and with characters of low social standing, not nobility.<ref>[http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hardy/pva187.html "Aristotelian Tragedy and the Novels of Thomas Hardy"]</ref> Another significant late 19th-century novelist is [[George Gissing]] (1857β1903) who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best known novel is ''[[New Grub Street]]'' (1891).{{citation needed|date=October 2013}} Important developments occurred in genre fiction in this era. Although pre-dated by [[John Ruskin]]'s ''[[The King of the Golden River]]'' in 1841, the history of the modern [[fantasy literature|fantasy]] genre is generally said to begin with [[George MacDonald]], the influential author of ''[[The Princess and the Goblin]]'' and ''[[Phantastes]]'' (1858). [[William Morris]] was a popular English poet who also wrote several fantasy novels during the latter part of the nineteenth century. [[Wilkie Collins]]' [[epistolary novel]] ''[[The Moonstone]]'' (1868), is generally considered the first [[Detective fiction|detective novel]] in the English language, while ''[[The Woman in White (novel)|The Woman in White]]'' is regarded as one of the finest [[sensation novels]]. [[H. G. Wells]]'s (1866β1946) writing career began in the 1890s with [[science fiction]] novels like ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (1895), and ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898) which describes an invasion of late Victorian England by [[Martian]]s. Wells is seen, along with Frenchman [[Jules Verne]] (1828β1905), as inventing the [[scientific romance]]. He also wrote realistic fiction about the lower middle class in novels such as ''[[Kipps]]'' (1905) and ''[[The History of Mr Polly]]'' (1910).
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