Here is a brief description of the times - to get into the mind of a Victorian character, its quite important to know something about the times.

Follow links at the bottom of the page for a more detailed look at particular subjects.

Overview

It is Midsummer, 1845.

The young queen, Victoria, has been on the throne for eight years. She is just twenty-six, small, beautiful yet already with a will of iron, although not educated to take the reins of government.

Five years ago the country joyously celebrated the Royal Wedding to Prince Albert Saxe-Gotha of Hanover. (He did not speak English at the time.) In that time she has already born four children, and distracted by her new family, Albert has a great say in policy making. He is privately called the "king, to all intents and purposes".

Jane Austen has been dead for almost thirty years, yet her novels , evoking a pre-War England nearly a hundred years ago, are still popular. The Bronte sisters are currently at the height of their success, and works such as Jane Eyre evoke the darker side of the age and its attitudes to children.

Europe is at peace. It has been forty years since Trafalgar and the final defeat of Napoleon. The horrors of the French Revolution began almost twenty years before that, throwing Europe into terrifying conflict. The Bourbon's have now been returned to the throne, but the policies of Napoleon III are causing increasing tensions in French society. Not for much longer will the public stand for strict censorship of the press, and the king's strangle-hold over trade.

The Industrial Revolution is transforming Britain with incredible speed. Railways are spreading like fire across the country, and more people and goods than ever before are on the move. Factories have sprung up everywhere, particularly in the North and Midlands fuelled by the expanding coal-mines.

Karl Marx has just established his first "subversive" newspaper, circulating underground in the German states, and beyond - and the words "Socialism" are heard for the first time. Unions are on the rise, and there have been angry strikes over poor conditions in the north of the country: they were few, and put down violently. Middle-class men were only given the vote thirteen years ago, and the Chartist Movement is growing, demanding voting rights for all. It will be a long time until they succeed.

In less than three years, Europe will burn once more. The fires of revolution will blaze across Europe from Prussia to Spain, France and Italy. The modern German and Italian states will be forged, and France will tear itself into a Second Republic.

The Age of Steam progresses at an incredible rate. The age of the canal and the sail is coming to a close. Rail travel is still expensive, but wealthy rail magnates are buying up canals all over the country, closing them and leaving them to ruin. Steam has revolutionised goods transportation, and industrial products are available all over the country. The first department store opened in Paris fifteen years ago, and they are all the rage in London.

Crinoline is in. Wide-hooped ball gowns, plunging neck-lines, are the height of fashion. Day-wear is more sobre, with beading and fine needle-work. There is a revival of the dandy, for men - "originality" of dress is the height of fashion. Flat-brimmed top-hats, colourful waist-coats and cravats are in. Long frock-coats are being replaced by the more fashionable 'patelot', or short informal coat. Hair is almost shoulder-length, curled and flowing.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel is 39 years old. He has built railways, bridges and docks all over the Midlands and South Wales. Two years ago he launched the "Great Britain" from the newly-constructed Bristol Docks. It is the first ever Ironclad, and the largest steamship in the world. It is owned by the Great Western Shipping company, and there is a race between Great Western and the newly-established Cunard Line to snap up passengers for the lucrative Atlantic crossing, to the New World.

The United States of America has existed for only seventy years, and already, the states are becoming less and less united. James K Polk is the newly-elected President, and political fighting between the states is increasingly bitter. Britain banned slavery twelve years ago, and the issue is still hotly disputed. It will be sixteen years until the issue is finally forced in the New World. The Southern Confederacy will declare independence from the Union, and the Civil War will begin.

Nine years ago, Charles Darwin returned from his voyage around the world, as ship's surgeon to the HMS Beagle. He is thirty-six, and a comfortably married local physician. Right now, he is distilling his notes into a paper, which he will present to the Royal Society in fourteen years time. His subject will be "The Origin of Species" - the beginning of revolution in scientific thought, which will fire the Victorian age.

Bram Stoker is a mere glint in his Irish father's eye - he will be born in two year's time, in Dublin.

The Romantic Age is coming to a close. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein nearly thirty years ago. She is 48, and Lord Byron is dead. There is still Romanticism in the world, but it will be swept away by the Revolutions in three year's time. Science, power, industry and Empire will replace it, and the world will never be the same again.

A Closer look at the Early Victorians