?Trends in the Victorian Novels we speak Of the Victorian novel do not mean that there a Conscious school Of the English novel, Hit a consciously common style and subject-matter, a school Which began creating With the reign Of Queen Victoria and which came to an end With the end Of that reign. The English are too individualistic for such conformity. However, there can be no denying the fact that the English novel during second half of the umpteenth century, with the exception of one or two novelists, shows cert.;uncommon characteristics. E have now to study those common characteristics.
The conventional Plots For one thing, the Victorian novel continues to be largely In the Fielding tradition. The plot Is generally loose and Ill-constructed. The main outline of the Victorian novel is the same. The story consists at a large variety to characters and Incidents clustering round the Tuttle to the hero. These characters and Incidents are connected together rather loosely by an intrigue, and the ending Is with ringing of wedding bells. Secondly. The Victorian novel makes an extraordinary mixture of sentiment, flashy elodea and lifeless characters There Is much that Is improbable and artificial in character and incident.
Speaking generally, the Victorians fail to construct an organic plot in which every incident and character forms an integral part of the whole. Entertainment Value Still, the Victorian novel makes interesting reading. The novelists may not construct a compact plot, but they tell the story so well. They are so entertaining that children still love to read and enjoy a novel of Dickens or Thacker. The plot may be improbable. But there is enough suspense. And the readers’ attention is not allowed to slang even for a single moment. They do not like to give it up unfinished. Inorganic Nature The Victorian novelists may miss the heights and depths Of human passion. There may be no probing Of the human heart and no psycho-analysis-?we do get such probing in George Eliot-?as in the modern novel, but they cast their nets very wide. Novels alkalinity Fair, David Copperfield, etc. , are not, like most modern novels, concentrated wholly on the life and fortunes of a few principal characters: they also provide panoramas of whole societies. In the Victorian novel, “A hundred deferent types and classes, persons and nationalities, jostle each other across the had. . Screen of our Imagination. ” -?(David Cecil) Immense Variety The Victorian newel;SST Is a man of varied moods. His range to mood is as wide as his range to subject. Just as he deals with all aspects to society, so also he renders human moods in all their manifold variety. He is not a specialist In any one mood or temper. The novelists of the age cannot be categorized. As David Cecil puts It. “They write equally for the tram journey and for all time: they crowd realism and fantasy.
