Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death, on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities and political concerns to the passage of the Reform Act 1832.

Within the fields of social history and literature, Victorianism refers to the study of late-Victorian attitudes and culture with a focus on the highly moralistic, straitlaced language and behaviour of Victorian morality. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first portion of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe.

Culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. In international relations the era was a long period of peace, known as the Pax Britannica, and economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation, temporarily disrupted by the Crimean War in 1854. The end of the period saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of gradual political reform, industrial reform and the widening of the voting franchise.

Horrible Histories

It is now 20 years since the first Horrible Histories books – Awesome Egyptians and Terrible Tudors – were published, so the first generation of children exposed to the grisly sensibility of Terry Deary and the cartoonist Martin Brown may now have children of their own. The output in those two decades has been extraordinary: there are now more than 100 titles, which have sold 20 million copies (eight million of those in translation), to 31 countries. There are sticker books, annuals, Horrible Histories Top Trumps, mugs, video games, roadshows and a magazine that was launched last autumn. The CBBC series was a relative latecomer to the party in 2009; before that, in 2001-2, there were two series of an animated version that never really took off, then in 2006 the Birmingham Stage Company secured the stage rights and has been touring with Horrible Histories stage productions ever since.

Horrible Histories is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more.

The Victorians

The Victorians - Their Story In Pictures is a 2009 British documentary series which focuses on Victorian art and culture. The four part series is written and presented by Jeremy Paxman and debuted on BBC One at 9:00pm on Sunday 15 February 2009.

Episodes

Media

A book written by Paxman was published to accompany the series titled The Victorians: Britain Through the Paintings of the Age. In his introduction, Paxman acknowledged that the Irish writer Neil Hegarty had played a significant role in editing the book and bringing it to completion. Paxman was praised by academics and figures in the publishing industry for acknowledging Hegarty's substantial contribution. In the book, Paxman wrote that all television is a collaborative exercise, "so it is rather silly for this book - which accompanies a television series - to appear with only one name on the cover."

A region 2 DVD two disc set The Victorians was released 15 June 2009.

References

External links

Victorian

Victorian or Victorians may refer to:

19th century

Other

See also

Queen Victoria

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she had the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.