❖ (2) Background: developed rapidly both politically & economically (capitalism first took shape, agricultural to industrial society
❖ The Early Victorian Period (1832-1848)
Chapter III Victorian Novels
❖ the novel became the dominant genre
❖ Plot is unfolded against a social background
❖ “linear causation”: cause-effect sequence
❖ The worsening living & working conditions, the mass unemployment & the new Poor Law of 1834 finally gave rise to the Chartist Movement (1836-1848).
❖ They offer a most complete & realistic picture of English society of his age & remain the highest achievement in the 19thcentury English novel.
❖ In nearly all his novels, behind the gloomy pictures of oppression & poverty, behind the loud humor & buffoonery 滑稽, is his gentleness, his simple faith in mankind.