‘The history of the Victorian age will never be written’, wrote Lytton Strachey in 1918; ‘we know too much about it.’ A century on, we can have a better sense of perspective on this fascinating period of dynamism, creativity and imagination and of poverty, cruelty and prejudice. The Victorians revelled in topsy-turveydom and no wonder: theirs was a time of enormous advances in technology to improve human life, yet it also led to the mass poverty and heartless utilitarianism which drove Dickens to reach for his pen to cry out for a bit of humanity.
This course will give you an introduction to some of the most important aspects that characterised this fascinating age. Starting with a look at the Queen herself - in many ways the least 'Victorian' of the leading figures of her age - we then look at Parliament, the ultimate Victorian institution, the pride and sense of public service that went into the Victorian city, and at the deeply-held moral and religious beliefs that drove the Victorians in so much that they did. Central to their outlook was the Victorians' belief in the importance of hard work, the enemy of idleness and moral degeneration - which is why we must also look at Victorian crime and punishment. That in turn leads us to Victorian children (were they angels or devils?) and that takes us inevitably to relations between Victorian men and women and to the 'separate spheres' they inhabited both in public and within the Victorian home. Running through all of this are the works of art and literature that made the Victorian age so culturally rich and which illustrated their dreams, their beliefs, their fears and their outrage.
We end the course with a look at the twilight years of the age and of the 19th century, the decade of the Boer War and the Oscar Wilde trials, a troubled fin de siècle that foreshadowed the approaching age of the First World War. That conflict was in many ways a twisted product of the huge self-confidence and expansionism of the Victorian age; it is no coincidence that Lytton Strachey's attack on Victorian hypocrisy was written in the war's shadow. But we can look at the Victorians with greater detachment than he could - and perhaps with greater understanding.
What our students say
"Dr Lang was a great instructor. You could tell that he was passionate about the material and kept the class engaged and excited for the next day."
