ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta name="google-site-verification" content="YR-PlaJ50gl-Q5QbRX1tlzRvyuVisAP4Qgh8IqMx0dU" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <meta name="description" content="What made Victorians Victorian, The Victorian age was not one, not single, simple, or unified; Victoria's reign lasted so long that it comprised several periods. Above all, it was an age of paradox and power. 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The Victorian Era--Victorian Days</title> <!-- onResize="window.location=window.location;" //--> <script src="/js/js_liveclock.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <meta name="author" content="Angel (www.angelpig.com)" /> <style type="text/css"> /*<![CDATA[*/ html {SCROLLBAR-FACE-COLOR: #CBAA7D; SCROLLBAR-HIGHLIGHT-COLOR: #6F5942; SCROLLBAR-3DLIGHT-COLOR: #F8E9D6; SCROLLBAR-ARROW-COLOR: #000000; SCROLLBAR-TRACK-COLOR: #E6D1B4; SCROLLBAR-DARKSHADOW-COLOR: #000000;} .HL {BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%} /*]]>*/ </style> <style type="text/css"> /*<![CDATA[*/ body {SCROLLBAR-FACE-COLOR: #CBAA7D; SCROLLBAR-HIGHLIGHT-COLOR: #6F5942; SCROLLBAR-3DLIGHT-COLOR: #F8E9D6; SCROLLBAR-ARROW-COLOR: #000000; SCROLLBAR-TRACK-COLOR: #E6D1B4; SCROLLBAR-DARKSHADOW-COLOR: #000000;} .HL {BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%} /*]]>*/ </style> <style type="text/css"> /*<![CDATA[*/ div.c2 {margin : 0 auto;font-size:18px; color:#502A15; } div.c1 {margin: 10px 0 5px 44px;} table.c1 {margin : 0 auto; width : 880px; border-left : 3px double #502A15; border-right : 3px double #502A15; background-color : #E6D1B4; font-size:14px; color:#502A15; text-align:justify; padding : 5px 15px 15px 15px;} img.c1 {display: scroll; position: fixed;bottom:15px; left:850px;right: 50px;} /*]]>*/ </style> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/England.ico" type="image/x-icon" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/home.css" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <center> <a href="/sitemap.html"> <img src="/avictorian/intro_reading1.gif" alt="Site Map" title="AVictorian Site Map" width="455" height="215" /></a></center> <div class="wrap"> <div class="clear"></div> <div id="left"> <h2><a href="/victorianindex.html">The Victorian Age</a></h2> <p>The Victorian age was not one, not single, simple, or unified, only in part because Victoria's reign lasted so long that it comprised several periods. Above all, it was an age of paradox and power. More than anything else what makes Victorians Victorian is their sense of social responsibility.</p> <h2><a href="/victoria.html">Queen Victoria</a></h2> <p>The Victorian Era was defined by the rule of Queen Victoria from June 1837 until her death in January 1901; the longest reigning British monarch and the figurehead of a vast empire. She oversaw vast changes in British society and gave her name to an age.</p> <h2><a href="/social-institutions.html">The British monarchy, a social institution</a></h2> <p>The term, "social institution" is somewhat unclear both in ordinary language and in the philosophical literature. Typically, contemporary sociologists use the term to refer to complex social forms that reproduce themselves such as governments, the family, human languages, universities, hospitals, business corporations, and legal systems.</p> <h2>Paradoxical Age</h2> <p>For much of this century the term Victorian, which literally describes things and events (roughly) in the reign of Queen Victoria, conveyed connotations of "prudish," "repressed," and "old fashioned." Although such associations have some basis in fact, they do not adequately indicate the nature of this complex, paradoxical age that saw great expansion of wealth, power, and culture. Victorian, in other words, can be taken to mean parent of the modern.</p> <blockquote> <p><span class="firstbigletter">I</span>n 1897 <span class="firstbigletter">M</span>ark <span class="firstbigletter">T</span>wain was visiting London during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations honoring the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's coming to the throne. "British history is two thousand years old," Twain observed, "and yet in a good many ways the world has moved farther ahead since the Queen was born than it moved in all the rest of the two thousand put together." Twain's comment captures the sense of dizzying change that characterized the Victorian period. Perhaps most important was the shift from a way of life based on ownership of land to a modern urban economy based on trade and manufacturing. By the beginning of the Victorian period, the Industrial Revolution, as this shift was called, had created profound economic and social changes, including a mass migration of workers to industrial towns, where they lived in new urban slums. But the changes arising out of the Industrial Revolution were just one subset of the radical changes taking place in mid- and late-nineteenth-century Britain - among others were the democratization resulting from extension of the franchise; challenges to religious faith, in part based on the advances of scientific knowledge, particularly of evolution; and changes in the role of women.</p> </blockquote> </div> <div class="box" id="right"> <h3><img src="/avictorian/crown_link.gif" alt="#" width="30" height="25" /> <a href="/sitemap.html">Site Map</a> <img src="/avictorian/crown_link.gif" alt="#" width="30" height="25" /> </h3> <br /> <h4><a href="/sitemap.html">Enter The Victorian Age</a> </h4> <br /> <p>The ostentatious nature of the Victorian's age was reflected in their elaborate dress, architecture and etiquette. Members of Victorian society kept busy with parties, dances, visits, dressmakers, and tailors. Keeping track of what other people in your social class were doing was also a full-time occupation. Victorian society could be quite pleasant, but only depending on your financial status. Class still plays a subversive role in British society: then it was all-powerful.</p> </div></div> <br /> <div class="imgbox"> <img src="/victorian/vri_robes03.gif" alt="qv" width="300" height="425" /> </div> <table class="c1"><tr><td> <img src="/avictorian/Iletter.gif" alt="#" width="34" height="56" class="alignleft" /><p class="text">T is a singular fact that the two periods in British history which are specially distinguished as "eras," periods of such leading importance as to be thus marked off from the ordinary course of events, should be the reigns of two women. No such distinction is given to the reigns of any of the men who have occupied the English throne. We read of the Elizabethan era and the Victorian era, but not of the eras of any William, Charles, George, Henry, or other English sovereign. What are we to understand from this? Shall we conclude that these two women shed a lustre upon their respective reigns which no man could equal? Scarcely this; but they had the happy fortune to be born into the most remarkable periods of the history of the British realm. Around the throne of Elizabeth gathered the noblest cluster of authors of modern times, at their head the prince of the authors of all time, Shakespeare the sublime. Around the throne of Victoria there gathered not alone a splendid galaxy of men and women of letters, but also a brilliant host of inventors, of discoverers, of scientists, of men distinguished in every field of effort and intellect, giving her reign a radiant eminence whose lustre was reflected upon the throne itself. Intellectually there was nothing beyond the ordinary in Queen Victoria, but she was born into an extraordinary age and shared the honor of her environment.</p> <img src="/avictorian/Lletter.gif" alt="#" width="50" height="57" class="alignleft" /><p class="text">ET us quote here an estimate from the London Times: "Her reign coincides very accurately with a sort of second renaissance and intellectual movement, accomplishing in a brief term more than had been done in preceding centuries. Since the days of Elizabeth there has been no such awakening of the mind of the nation and no such remarkable stride in the path of progress, no such spreading abroad of the British race and British rule over the world at large, as in the period covered by the reign whose end we have now to deplore. In art, in letters, in music, in science, in religion, and, above all, in the moral and material advancement of the mass of the nation, the Victorian age has been a time of remarkable activity."</p> <img src="/avictorian/Vletter.gif" alt="#" width="58" height="60" class="alignleft" /><p class="text">ARIOUS other journals speak to the same effect, and it may be of interest to offer some further journalistic summaries. We quote as follows: "The life of Queen Victoria spanned the most wonderful years of the most wonderful century that the world has ever seen. Other sovereigns have lived almost as long, but, if measured by achievements rather than by periods of time, England itself, and all the world with it, moved farther along during the eighty-two years of Victoria's life than during the reigns of all the men and women who had preceded her on the English throne.</p> <div class="textbox"> <img src="/victorian/crown_scepter.gif" alt="qv" width="95" height="150" style="float:right" /> <span class="c1">Text from book in possession of Webmaster</span><br /> <span class="c1">The Life of Queen Victoria and the Story of Her Reign. A Beautiful Tribute to England's Greatest Queen in Her Domestic and Official Life by Charles Morris, LL.D.</span>. &mdash; <span class="c2">And Also The Life of the New King, Edward VII. &mdash;Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1901, by W. E. SCULL in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Note Publishing date of 1901. Queen Victoria's Legacy continued into the reign of Edward VII., known as The Edwardian Age.</span> <br /><span class="c2"> The year 2002 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Elizabeth II. rise to the throne. On February 6 in that year, she delivered her Golden Jubilee message to the United Kingdom. Elizabeth II. is only the fifth monarch to celebrate a Golden Jubilee. She became the oldest monarch to sit on the English throne in 2007; surpassing George III., the longest-lived English King, the longest-serving king in British history. Should she still be reigning on September 9, 2015 at the age of 89, her reign will surpass that of Queen Victoria and she will become the longest reigning monarch in British history. If she lives that long, and the Prince of Wales does also, he would be the oldest to succeed to the throne, passing William IV, who was 64.<br /> Elizabeth II's "Windsor Age" will never surpass Victoria in the annals of history. To wit: The twenty-year marriage of Princess Anne ended in divorce. Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981. They were divorced in 1996. Prince Andrew (made Duke of York) married Sarah Ferguson on July 23, 1986, and divorced 1996. ...clearly not the standards exhibited by Victoria's progeny.</span></div></td></tr></table> <div id="push"></div> <div id="footer"> <ul> <li><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <a title="A Victorian" href="http://www.avictorian.com/sitemap.html">A Victorian Site Map</a></li> <li><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <a title="AngelPig's LaPorcherie" href="http://www.angelpig.net">AngelPig's LaPorcherie</a></li> <li><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <a title="Bourbon's Big Easy" href="http://www.angelpig.com">Bourbon's Big Easy</a></li> <li><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <a title="Magnolias and Live Oaks" href="http://www.angelpig.org">Magnolias &amp; Live Oaks</a></li> <li><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <a title="Contact" href="/contact3.html">Contact/Feedback</a></li> </ul> <div id="col"> <div id="resolution">Website Designed To Be Viewed In Internet Explorer 8<br /> Screen Resolution 1024x768<br /> Some elements look different in other Browsers</div> <br /> <span class="c1"><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.avictorian.com" title="Website">avictorian.com</a></span> <span class="c1"><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" />by <a title="AngelWeb" href="http://www.angelpig.com/design.html">AngelWeb</a></span> <span class="c1"><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <a href="http://validator.w3.org/">xhtml</a></span> <span class="c1"><img src="/images/bullet01.gif" alt="#" width="3" height="6" /> <!-- Start of StatCounter Code --> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ var sc_project=6376004; var sc_invisible=0; var sc_security="5b2c3ea2"; //]]> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter_xhtml.js"> </script></span> <div class="statcounter"><noscript><a title="statistics in vBulletin" class="statcounter" href="http://statcounter.com/vbulletin/"><img class="statcounter" src="http://c.statcounter.com/6376004/0/5b2c3ea2/0/" alt="statistics in vBulletin" /></a></noscript></div> <!-- End of StatCounter Code --></div> <span class="c1"><a href="http://www.avictorian.com"><img src="/avictorian/top.gif" width="52" height="35" alt="Top Of Page" title="Top Of Page" class="c1" /></a></span></div> <div class="clear"></div> <!-- NO COPY--> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ //Disable select-text script (IE4+, NS6+)- By Andy Scott //Exclusive permission granted to Dynamic Drive to feature script //Visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com for this script function disableselect(e){ return false } function reEnable(){ return true } //if IE4+ document.onselectstart=new Function ("return false") //if NS6 if (window.sidebar){ document.onmousedown=disableselect document.onclick=reEnable } //]]> </script> <!--NO COPY--> <!--NO CLICK--> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ <!-- //Disable right mouse click Script //By Maximus (maximus@nsimail.com) //For full source code, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com var message=""; /////////////////////////////////// function clickIE() {if (document.all) {alert(message);return false;}} function clickNS(e) {if (document.layers||(document.getElementById&&!document.all)) { if (e.which==2||e.which==3) {alert(message);return false;}}} if (document.layers) {document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);document.onmousedown=clickNS;} else{document.onmouseup=clickNS;document.oncontextmenu=clickIE;} document.oncontextmenu=new Function("return false") // --> //]]> </script><!--NO CLICK--> </body> </html>