Victorian prose
Nineteenth-century British literature
Victorian prose refers to nonfiction and fiction written during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901).
The term evokes the era's characteristic style: elaborate sentences, formal diction, and moral earnestness.
Victorian novelists like Dickens and Eliot produced sprawling social narratives, while essayists like Carlyle and Ruskin wrote discursive, often sermonic criticism.
The dense paragraphs felt very Victorian prose.
- ornate languageElaborately styled expression
- industrial revolutionRapid economic mechanization period
- George EliotPseudonymous Victorian novelist
- essayShort argumentative prose work
- novelNew and unusual
Charles Dickens · social reform · social commentary · short story · penny dreadful · realism · biography · religious doubt · Oscar Wilde · travelogue · allegory · satire · rhetorical flourish · moral philosophy · drawing room · Charlotte Brontë · sentimentality · descriptive detail
Victorian prosestream of consciousness
Narrative mimicking uninterrupted thought
Victorian, prose, Victor, victory, victorious, victoriously, victories, prosaic, prosaically