On this day...

King William IV died in 1837, leading to the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne of England and beginning arguably one of the most productive literary eras. Described by Matthew Arnold as 'a deeply unpoetical age', the Victorian era was dominated by the novel. Yet these works were not the managable romances of Austen, but heavy tomes of social injustice - their tortuous syntax leading Henry James, guilty himself of several, to name them 'loose baggy monsters'. The main culprits include Charles Dickens, author of almost a dozen major novels, George Eliot of 'Middlemarch' fame and the man of tragic persuasion, Thomas Hardy.

In conjunction with the growing suffrage movement, the Victorian era also saw the rise of the female novelist, most notably highlighted by the Bronte sisters, but supplemented also by names such as Elizabeth Gaskell. English drama is perhaps harder to find, but the one man could make up for it all, as the brilliance and wit of Oscar Wilde takes the stage by storm, preceeding the later George Bernard Shaw, and overshadowing the foreign imports of Chekhov and Ibsen. Despite Arnold's claim, Victorian literature was by no means devoid of poetry, producing Robert Browning, master of the dramatic monologue, blank verse devotee Alfred Lord Tennyson and romantic poet Christina Rossetti.

On this day...

Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, died in 1882 at the age of 67. A Post Office worker for thirty three years, Trollope's life ambition was to become a member of the House of Commons. Unfortunately, this aspiration was left unrealised, and his biggest social improvement was the invention of the red, street-corner letter box. Following a strict schedule of starting at 5:30, and writing 250 words every quarter of an hour, Trollope was one of the most prolific writers of the era, publishing 47 novels; more than double the output of Charles Dickens. Although criticised, Trollope had many admirers; Nathaniel Hawthorne saying of his novels, ' They precisely suit my taste; solid, substantial, written on strength of beef and through inspiration of ale'. George Eliot was also noted as saying she would not have written 'Middlemarch', were it not for Trollope. His best known work, is 'The Chronicles of Barsetshire'.

On this day...

Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species', was published in 1859. Considered the foundation of evolutionary biology, Darwin introduced the theory that a population evolves through the process of natural selection. The book included evidence that Darwin had gathered from his Beagle expedition across the Atlantic in the 1830s. Although at first the work incurred a hostile reception, it immediately sold out its initial print run and a further five editions were released before 1872. Perhaps one reason for the book's astonishing popularity, was its representation of a Victorian era seeing a growing divide between religion and science; many people were struggling with the faith that had previous been taken as incontrovertible and Darwin was giving this doubt a voice. Numerous Victorian literary figures encountered similar reservations, the most famous being Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and George Eliot. The two hundredth anniversary of Darwin's birth was celebrated earlier this year.

On this day...

Victorian author Mary Anne Evans, later to be known as George Eliot, was born in 1819. Upon the death of her father in 1849, to whom she was devoted, Evans moved to London, where she stayed at the house of John Chapman; the recently installed editor of left-wing journal 'The Westminster Review'. Evans became assisstant editor a year later, contributing numerous essays and reviews until her departure in 1856. Evans' wider literary career was about to launch, yet it was her private life which gathered more public interest; she lived with, and considered herself to be wedded to, married journalist George Lewes. Socially unacceptable in the pious Victorian era, it was these circumstances that forced Evans to adopt pen name George Eliot to hide her marital status; an alias also used to distance herself from the romantic female novelists of the day. During her lifetime she produced many well known works of both prose and poetry; her most famous novels being, 'Middlemarch', 'Silas Marner', and 'The Mill on the Floss'. Evans died in 1880, aged 61.