The Victorian era reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Victorian era

The Victorian Era of Britain is considered the height of the industrial revolution in Britain and the apex of the British Empire. It is often defined as the years from 1837 to 1901 when Victoria of the United Kingdom reigned.

Notable elements of the Victorian era include:

• The novels of Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë and Emily Brontë
• The wit and drama of Oscar Wilde
• The operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan
• The constructions of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
• The Gothic revival movement in architecture
• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
• A long period of peace, punctuated by the Crimean War and the Boer War
• The policies of New Imperialism
• The Irish Question
• Jack the Ripper
• The mechanic calculating machines of Charles Babbage, theoretical precursors to modern computers.

The Victorian period is now often regarded as one of many contradictions. It is easy for many to see a clash between the widespread cultivation of an outward appearance of dignity and restraint and the widespread presence of many arguably deplorable phenomena, including prostitution, child labour, and having an economy based to a large extent on what many would now see as the exploitation of colonies through imperialism and of the working classes. The expression Victorian values thus may be two-edged.

The term Victorian has acquired a range of connotations, including that of a particularly strict set of moral standards, often applied hypocritically. (See Victorian morality.)

Comparing the Victorian age to our own, it has been observed that whilst the Victorians pretended to be much better than they were, we pretend to be a lot worse than we are.

Related topics

• Victorian architecture
• Victorian fashion

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