The_Victorian_Age_British_Writers

Over the course of Queen Victoria's reign, London's population grew from about 2 million to A) 2.5 million. B) 2 billion. C) 6 million. D) 60 million.

C) 6 million. Between 1837 (when Queen Victoria ascended the throne) and 1901 (when she died) the population of London grew from about 2 million to well over 6 million—an unparalleled population boom.

Which of the following authors was avowedly enthusiastic about England's fast-paced economic and political growth? A) Matthew Arnold B) Walter Pater C) Thomas Babington Macaulay D) Oscar Wilde

C) Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) wrote enthusiastically about England's bright future as a world power. Many other Victorian authors were much more skeptical, however.

In 1867, Queen Victoria was named A) Empress of India. B) Empress of China. C) Queen of Ireland. D) Queen of Canada.

A) Empress of India. In 1867, Victoria was named Empress of India. India was just one of many colonies under British imperial control.

The prose of Henry James tends to present which of the following? A) Victorian affluence and elegance B) Victorian immorality C) Dublin life and culture D) Victorian satire

A) Victorian affluence and elegance For many, the late-Victorian period was merely an extension, at least on the surface, of the affluence of the preceding years. The work of Henry James (unlike so many other writers who became scathingly critical of the age) tends to represent Victorian life as serene, secure, and enjoyable.

Queen Victoria is generally associated with A) domestic propriety. B) women's rights. C) religious tolerance. D) antislavery.

A) domestic propriety. In many ways the Victorian age reflects values that Queen Victoria herself embodied: moral responsibility and domestic propriety.

The Chartists A) fought for working-class rights. B) fought against working-class rights. C) fought for religious reform. D) fought for a constitution under the Magna Charta.

A) fought for working-class rights. A group called the Chartists organized themselves to fight for workers' rights; workers (including women and children) otherwise enjoyed no protection from industrial abuses. The Chartist organization fell apart by 1848 but their efforts set the stage for real and meaningful reform in the future.

Which of the following had a major effect on Victorian narrative fiction? A) serial publication B) illustrated editions C) nonfiction prose D) copyright reform

A) serial publication The practical reality of publishing in serial form had a direct impact on Victorian narrative style, including how plots were paced, organized, and developed. The experience of reading fiction in serial form was probably similar to the modern experience of watching a television program that unfolds in a series of hour or half-hour installments: the plot is paced so that readers/viewers are left "hanging" at precisely the rights points.

Which Victorian playwright was particularly associated with "the problem play"? A) Henrik Ibsen B) George Bernard Shaw C) W.S. Gilbert D) Charles Dickens

B) George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw, writing at the end of the Victorian period, addressed difficult social issues in his work, which came to be known as "problem plays."

What European city was the center of culture immediately prior to the Victorian period? A) London B) Paris C) New York D) Berlin

B) Paris Through the eighteenth century, Paris was the hub of European culture. This role was assumed by London, however, as it became a world power (economically and culturally) during the Victorian period.

Which of the following is true? A) Queen Victoria supported voting rights for women. B) Queen Victoria did not support voting rights for women. C) Women were allowed to vote after the 1867 reform bill. D) Women could not work in factories.

B) Queen Victoria did not support voting rights for women Importantly, debates about gender did not necessarily fall on gendered lines: many men argued adamantly for women's rights, and many women (like Queen Victoria herself) were not convinced that women should enjoy equality with men.

Which author argued that nonfiction prose was "the special and opportune art of the modern world"? A) Matthew Arnold B) Walter Pater C) Aldous Huxley D) John Stuart Mill

B) Walter Pater Walter Pater made this assertion in his 1889 essay, "Style." He argued that nonfiction prose, though not necessarily superior to other genres, did provide Victorian authors with the ideal vehicle for expressing ideas directly about the many issues of the day

Which of the following is true? A) Victorian poetry was more important than Victorian prose fiction. B) Few Victorian women wrote novels. C) Victorian novels often focused on social relations. D) Victorian novels often featured Arthurian legend.

C) Victorian novels often focused on social relations. A common theme among Victorian novelists involves a protagonist who is trying to define him- or herself relative to the class and social relations around them. The novel was perhaps the most prevalent genre of the time period; it was especially well suited to authors who wanted to capture the wide diversity of industrial life and the class conflict and divisions that industrialism created.

The Victorian period is often divided into which of the following? A)an early and late phase B) pre-Reform and post-Reform periods C) early, mid, and late periods D) an early period and a fin-de- siècle phase

C) early, mid, and late periods Because the Victorian period lasted so long and because it was a time of such great change, it is hard to characterize in any overarching way. Thus, scholars often refer to three distinct phases within the Victorian period: early (1830-1848); mid (1848-1870); and late (1870-1901). We often also recognize the final decade of the nineteenth century (the 1890s) as a transitional period between the Victorian era and Modernism.

What does fin de siècle mean? A) end of the ceiling B) five years after C) end of the century D) finish of the age

C) end of the century Fin de siècle translates as "end of the century" and describes an attitude of ennui (boredom) that many writers struck: this pose reflected a kind of world-weary attitude, even a sense of fatigue as a century of relentless "progress" neared its end.

The 1832 Reform Law A) gave women the vote. B) gave all men the vote. C) extended voting rights. D) deregulated elections.

C) extended voting rights. The 1832 Reform Bill extended voting rights and redistributed parliamentary representation. While this was an important first step in democratizing political power, voting rights were still limited to men who owned property. The 1832 Reform Bill marked, for many Victorians, the beginning of a new age of political power unlike any they had ever experienced.

Higher Criticism approached the Bible in terms of A) divine truth. B) evolution. C) history. D) transcendence.

C) history. New discoveries in the sciences during the mid-Victorian period led to a new mode of reading the Bible: Higher Criticism approached the Bible not as a divine and infallible text but rather as a historically produced set of documents that reflected the prejudices and limitations of their human writers.

The Crystal Palace was the centerpiece of what event? A) the World's Fair B) the Columbian Exposition C) the Great Exhibition D) the Diamond Jubilee

C) the Great Exhibition Mid-Victorian England was proud of its progress in science and technology, as is evidenced by the Crystal Palace, centerpiece of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was designed using modern architectural principles and materials, and its role in the Great Exhibition was to showcase the "progress" made possible by science and industry.

What was the subtitle of Benjamin Disraeli's 1845 novel, Sybil? A) Past and Present B) Tale of Two Cities C) Rich and Poor D) The Two Nations

D) The Two Nations The title of Disraeli's novel—Sybil: The Two Nations—points to a common focus for many Victorian authors: the sharp divide between the haves and the have-nots in industrial England.

Victorian poets were often uneasy with the general public expectation that poetry be A) traditional. B) rhymed. C) satirical. D) didactic.

D) didactic. The Victorian reading public generally expected that poetry, more so than other genres, should be didactic: it should provide the reader with a sound moral lesson. Many Victorian poets, however, were not interested in using their art to teach lessons of this kind.

Queen Victoria was the first British monarch A) to raise taxes. B) to lower taxes. C) to be female. D) to be photographed.

D) to be photographed. Victoria, perhaps more so than any previous monarch, became visually synonymous with the country she ruled, in part because she is the first monarch who lived in the age of photography: pictures of the queen could be relatively easily produced, reproduced, and distributed.