Victorian era, in British history, the period between approximately 1820 and 1914,

corresponding to the period of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837–1901) and characterized by a class-
based society, a growing number of people able to vote, a growing state and economy, and
Britain’s status as the most powerful empire in the world.
Victorian literature refers to English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901).
The 19th century is widely considered to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for
British novels. It was in the Victorian era that the novel became the leading literary genre in
English.
Jan Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte
Bleack House by Charles Dicken
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Pace yourself: it takes hard work and discipline, but the rewards and sense of satisfaction can
be tremendous. Even if you never do it again, you can be proud you did, and you might just
become addicted. This lesson will address some of the intellectual and practical challenges of
teaching a survey of Victorian literature.
WHY TEACH A SURVEY?

 Surveys may be criticized as superficial, but they provide scope and perspective.
 The current trend in scholarship and criticism isto consider broad social questions and to
read literature in the context of other fields such as science, political economy or art
history. Yet in a survey, we cannot always do justice to the interdisciplinarity of our own
research. It may be impossible to introduce students to Victorian ‘high’ culture, popular
culture, and material culture, as well as political and social history. If you are to consider
today’s pressing topics of race, class and gender, you may not have time to look at
issues that were central to the Victorians, like Tractarianism, Chartism or electoral
reform. In an introductory survey, the traditional approach of teaching literary texts in
historical sequence is still useful, as are the basic categories -industrialization, reform,
Darwinian science, religious doubt, and imperial expansion.
 In contrast to students in the UK, American students will come to an introductory course
with limited knowledge about British literature, British history, and even contemporary
Britain. It is helpful to talk about what ‘Britain’ and ‘Britishness’ mean. Project a good,
clear map on screen and put one in their hands. Point out the geographic boundaries of
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. It will be helpful to return to this map over the
course of the semester to point out the places referred to in the works you are reading.
In any class, you face challenges in helping students to develop the skills of
reading, writing and conducting research. A survey adds the additional challenge
 of providing historical perspective.
 Students may, for example, show a tendency to confuse Queen Elizabeth and Queen
Victoria. There will always be clueless students, but I realized that I had failed to
emphasize frequently enough the difference between the nineteenth century and the
1900s.
 To eliminate the vagueness evident in phrases like ‘in her time period’ or ‘in the time
when she wrote,’ I ask them to be specific about periodization and to use dates: ‘in the
early Victorian period,’ or ‘at the end of the nineteenth century,’ or even ‘at the time
the novel was published in 1860.’

SETTING THE TEXT

 When it comes to historical periods about which they know so little, they are unlikely to
have strong views about being indoctrinated into the canon. You may even discover a
desire for cultural literacy. Students taking an eighteenth-century survey told me that,
while they did not particularly like Robinson Crusoe, they were glad to have read it, to
know what it was because they had always heard of it. At the same time, most students
welcome the experience of reading works of which they have never heard.
 This is certainly a reasonable option and may solve your problem with respect to
selections of poetry, short stories, essays and even complete plays. In a survey of
Victorian literature, you will want to supplement the anthology with one or two novels
at least.
 If your department receives sample copies, it will have them on hand, and your library
too should help you to do this basic research. You may, and should, request review
copies from the publishers. Get to know your local sales representatives and keep up
with what publishers are offering.
 Ideally, you set texts that suit your goals for the course and then find the books, but
your choices will be determined by availability, and some great ideas for an original,
non-canonical syllabus may be thwarted by the unavailability of the books in question.
I advise against using the cheapest editions – the ones with no introductions or
historical annotation – because, while they save the students money, in the long run
they encourage the sense that historical explanations for obscure words and references
are unimportant. Students are better able to understand what they are reading when
they have this context available as part of the textual apparatus. Internet databases
provide some full texts, but I have found
it impractical to assign long works that are available only in this form: it poses problems
for reading and discussion.
 Even before you grapple with the question of availability, you must factor in the length
of the novel and the time needed to teach it when planning your syllabus.
  reading at least one long novel is an important experience for students being introduced
to Victorian literature. I can only suggest pacing (not overloading them with reading)
and variety: find different ways to illuminate the text: cultural context, aesthetic
considerations, basic close reading, and plenty of short writing assignments to check the
students’ progress.
 While we may regret that our students do not come to us with more background
knowledge about the texts we are teaching, we can try to make the most of what they
do know. You can count on their facility in using the Internet and you may want to set
up a chatroom or a listserv on which students can ask questions and exchange ideas
about their readings. Many professors post the syllabus, assignments and study
questions on a website. One problem faced by teachers today is that of acquiring
permission to reproduce copyrighted material for educational use.
ASSIGNMENT

 You will want to design writing assignments that develop the skills you are emphasizing
in your course. Unfortunately, plagiarism has become a problem for all teachers. The
best strategy is to stop plagiarism before it starts by giving some thought to the matter
as you plan your assignments.
 Some approaches that have worked for me include daily response paragraphs. There are
many advantages to this method. Students develop good habits by learning to think
about what they are reading every day. In reading their paragraphs, you will come to
know their writing styles and their strengths and weaknesses.
 One variation on the open topic response paragraph is to ask students to identify a word that is
unfamiliar to them in their day’s reading. I ask them to look up the word in a dictionary (either
traditional or online), to provide a definition, to quote the passage in which the word occurs and
to provide a brief explanation of how the word is used in context. This encourages them to
develop the habit of looking up words they do not know and challenges them to think about the
author’s use of language.
 balanced daily assignments with longer papers and exams. Many students like assigned topics,
but others may feel constrained. provide a series of paper topics from which they may choose,
and allow for some flexibility for those who want to pursue an individual topic and are willing to
 meet and discuss their interests. Unusual combinations of texts and topics that directly reflect
class discussions are effective ways to discourage plagiarism and promote creative thought.

IN THE CLASSROOM

 If you want to be sure that students have read and understood, you will need to test them. No
one likes tests. Students may be accustomed to a ‘no wrong answers’ approach to literature. Yet
tests are not punitive; they are useful for the student as well as the teacher. Confusions that
may be concealed in discussions, in-class writings and even term papers, are revealed in a
simple, short answer quiz. Such exercises test memory, note-taking skills and basic
comprehension. They also eliminate concerns about plagiarism.
 Presenting substantial, representative quotations from works that have been assigned, I ask the
students to identify the author, and text, and briefly to explain the context. Some students
dislike this kind of question, but when they have been adequately prepared, they should be able
to recall what they have read, and if they cannot, it may be a problem to address. Tests should
not be the only basis for grading, but a series of straightforward examinations combined with
daily assignments and longer papers insures that you are evaluating a variety of skills in your
students.
 The challenges of teaching a Victorian survey are similar to those of teaching the literature of
any historical period. The basic strategies for composing a syllabus, devising assignments and
evaluating students’ progress are the same as those for teaching any course. The key is to know
the material and to convey your knowledge to the students while remaining aware of the
difficulties they may encounter in digesting works that are long, complex and unfamiliar. You
can coach them through the marathon of reading as the Victorians read, helping them to find
the personal pleasure and satisfaction of entering another world and another time.