Victorian period

1. The period of British history when Queen Victoria ruled; it includes the entire second half of the nineteenth century, a time when Britain was the most powerful nation in the world. The Victorian period was known for a rather stern morality. It was also marked by a general earnestness about life and by a confidence that Britain's domestic prosperity ( see Industrial Revolution ) and vast holdings overseas ( see British Empire ) were signs of the country's overall righteousness ( see white man's burden ). As the Victorian period continued, however, such easy beliefs were increasingly challenged.

Notes

The Victorian period produced a great number of diverse writers and thinkers. ( See Robert Browning ; Charles Darwin ; Charles Dickens ; Rudyard Kipling ; John Stuart Mill ; Robert Louis Stevenson ; and Alfred, Lord Tennyson .)