The Agony of the Victorian Age
The Victorian Age was marked by a sense of disillusionment and moral crisis, where the old values and certainties were being challenged by rapid industrialization, urbanization, and scientific discoveries. The era's rigid social hierarchy and repressive morality led to feelings of suffocation and desperation among individuals, particularly women and the working class.
By Edmund Gosse · First published 1925 · Genre: Historical Non-fiction, Biography, Social Criticism · 8,976 words
First lines
For a considerable time past everybody must have noticed, especially in private conversation, a growing tendency to disparagement and even ridicule of all men and things, and aspects of things, which can be defined as "Victorian. " Faded habits of mind are lightly dismissed as typical of the Victorian Age, and old favourite poets, painters, and musicians are treated with the same scorn as the glued chairs and glass bowls of wax flowers of sixty years ago. The new generation are hardly willing to distinguish what was good from what was bad in the time of their grandmothers. With increasing audacity they repudiate the Victorian Age as a _saeclum insipiens et infacetum_, and we meet everywhere with the exact opposite of Montaigne's "Je les approuve tous Tun apres l'autre, quoi qu'ils disent. " Our younger contemporaries are slipping into the habit of approving of nothing from the moment that they are told it is Victorian.
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The Agony of the Victorian Age is listed on Textopian as an essay by Edmund Gosse, dated 1925 CE.
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- Work type: Essay
- Author: Edmund Gosse
- Date: 1925 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Historical Non-fiction, Biography, Social Criticism, Cultural Studies
- Length: 8,976 words
- Structure: 1 section, 70 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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Genres
- Historical Non-fiction — The work provides a detailed account of the Victorian era, its societal norms, and cultural practices.
- Biography — The author uses personal experiences and observations to depict the Victorian era.
- Social Criticism — The work critiques the societal norms and values of the Victorian era.
- Cultural Studies — The work explores the cultural aspects of the Victorian era, including art, literature, and social customs.
Tags
Victorian Era · Literary Criticism · Autobiography · Memoir · Biographical · Historical Context · Cultural Analysis · Social Commentary · Personal Narrative · Family History · Childhood Experience · Parental Relationships