Storytelling is part of what makes us human, and fictional narratives have always been a way for humans to describe and make sense of the world and their experiences.
The advent of printed books forever transformed storytelling: for the first time, stories could be recorded in multiple copies and shared with huge audiences. In the 19th century, long-form stories in the narrative form of the novel – now loosely referred to as ‘Victorian fiction’ – became more accessible, as printing and education brought the experience of reading books to the masses.
For many lovers of the novel, Victorian fiction represents the apogee of English literature and the noble art of storytelling.
Novels were to the 19th century what TV series are to today: they portray the era in all its complexity, including economic and political trends, societal norms, technology, social ambitions, anxieties and concerns — in short, they present the contemporary human condition.
The novel as a window to the era
The Victorian era (1837–1901) saw the transformation of the English novel. By the mid-19th century, the heroic, philosophical, sentimental and romance novels of the 17th and 18th centuries had evolved. Once the preserve of a wealthy, educated minority, suddenly novels were for everyone: the market was flooded with printed stories and popular fiction competed with ‘literature’. Those who could afford to, bought books. Those who couldn’t, read books serialised in weekly installments in newspapers or borrowed them from circulating libraries.
Society was in a process of upheaval, as the Industrial Revolution metamorphosed the social, economic and political landscape. Rural populations flooded into cities to work in factories, construction and the countless industries concentrated in these fast-growing urban centres. The resulting social turmoil dominated social discourse and politics. Along with philosophers, politicians and other critical thinkers, many 19th century authors dealt with significant social matters in their works. While many early Victorian novels continued the trend of writing about the lives and social status of the upper classes (with marriage as a core theme), gradually the focus shifts to a broader spectrum.
Charles Dickens, for example, portrayed the lives of the poor working classes, presenting the realities of slums, workhouses and child labour, alcoholism, crime, and the plight of impoverished men, women and children. Women authors, in particular, such as George Eliot, openly questioned the role, education opportunities, and status and rights of women.
Gradually, the stories around these many socio-political concerns coalesced into a particular style of novel, today known as ‘Victorian’. While early Victorian novels hinted at the more unsavoury aspects of society but rather prudishly shied away from naming them explicitly, a more explicit social realism began to gain ground. Writers such as Elizabeth Gaskell began to present even more transparent, outspoken and realistic novels, with some of her novels highlighting conflicts between workers and factory owners, and the roles of women in the workforce.
The rise of sensation fiction
The acceleration of industrialisation and urban growth, and its associated social inequalities and extreme poverty, resulted in an explosion of crime, particularly in cities. Poverty drove many to join pickpocket gangs, and the crowds in busy city streets provided rich pickings for them. Better communications, including newspapers that reported murders and other serious crimes nationally, and better policing and detection, contributed to a growing awareness of crime and interest in the details of crime.
And just as the spread of information (whether true or false) via social media today can heighten public fears, so the reporting of crime in widely-distributed pamphlets and national newspapers heightened people’s fear of crime in 19th century England.
This heightened sensitivity to crime contributed to the rising popularity of novels dealing with crime (in all its forms) and its detection, peaking in the second half of the 19th century. These popular ‘sensation’ novels focused on hitherto taboo topics; they were written both to shock readers and to reflect contemporary social anxieties.
Writers such as Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Bradford are probably the best known sensation novelists today, but there were others very popular at the time, such as Mrs Henry Wood and Charles Reade.
Characteristics of Victorian and sensation novels
- Social realism — including a wide range of contemporary characters, social groups and settings that together create a strong sense of time and place, highlighting specific social issues of the period.
- Moral lessons — the morality of the characters is a core part of the story, with clear delineations between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters, sometimes connected to social status (the gradual revelation of the character’s true moral standing is often a core theme).
- Formal narrative structure — omniscient narration in a roughly chronological order, with gradual revelation of key events.
- Episodic structure — many Victorian novels were serialised, published in weekly installments, and were therefore divided into chapters of similar length, often (like TV series today) using pacing and ‘cliffhangers’ to keep readers engaged for the duration of publication.
- Complex plots — often intertwining several equally important parallel plot threads.
- Memorable characters — generally one main protagonist is portrayed in great detail: we are told about their background, social circumstances, character, appearance and relationships, creating a vivid and memorable portrait.
Sensation fiction built on these elements, and added considerable drama and even melodrama. They are often based on a secret that drives the action of the main characters. Common themes are robbery, impersonation, adultery, madness, poisoning, murder (including patricide, matricide and infanticide) and indeed all manner of villainy and perversion! A fair number of large properties get dramatically burnt to the ground, too, often with people trapped inside (the burning of Manderley in De Maurier’s Rebecca was just one in a long line of property fires). These novels always come with a moral reckoning, when the villains get their final comeuppance, whether through exposure and capture or violent death.
The greatest stories
In short, Victorian novels display exemplary skill in terms of narrative construction, characterisation, pacing, plotting, emotional depth and skilful handling of themes. They portray the human condition in all its rich complexity, written in a narrative style largely unsurpassed for its writing quality. For all of these reasons, I would argue that 19th century English novels are, taken collectively, the best novels ever written and the greatest stories ever told. Very few novels of the 20th or 21st centuries can match them.
What’s next for storytelling?
The novel as a narrative form is alive and well in the 21st century, although it has arguably – in terms of its influence and weight in the social debate – largely been superseded today by TV series. Various superb TV series of the past 25 years have captured public interest in the way novels did more than 100 years ago. Few novels garner the sheer volume of audiences achieved by popular TV shows.
The reason is obvious: it’s expensive to produce a TV series, so relatively few are produced. It’s cheap to produce a novel, so millions are produced every year. The fate of the novel is, today – just as it was in the 19th century – inextricably tied to the publishing business. With the growth of self-publishing tools and the ease of self-promotion via social media, ‘anyone’ can publish a novel. AI is a clear disrupter, whose impact remains to be seen.
Your guess is as good as mine as to where it’s all heading. Meanwhile, pick up a 19th century novel and dive into a forgotten world.
See also:
Mary Elizabeth Braddon – The Queen of Victorian sensation fiction
J.S. Fletcher – Classic detective fiction influencer
John Galsworthy – The Forsythe Saga (If you liked Downton Abbey, you’ll love The Forsythe Saga!)