English Literature in the 19th century

The period of Romanticism covers approximately 30 years, beginning from the last decade of the 18th century and continuing up to the 1830s. Romanticism as a literary current can be regarded as a result of two great historical events: 1) the Industrial Revolution in England and 2) the French Bourgeois Revolution of 1789.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was the greatest representative of the Lake School Poets. He was born in a lawyer's family and grew up in the Lake District, where he came to know and love the world of nature. Cambridge University.

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), the great romantic poet, has often been called a poet of "world sorrow". In almost all his poetry there is a current of gloom and pessimism. The reason for this gloom and sorrow may be found in the social and political events of his day which influenced him so deeply.

Byron's literary career began while he was at Cambridge. His first volume of verse entitled Hours of Idleness contained a number of lyrics dealing with love, regret and parting. There were also some fragments of translation from Latin and Greek poetry.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was the most progressive revolutionary romanticist in English literature. Like Byron, he came of an aristocratic family and like Byron he broke with his class at an early age.

He was born at Field Place, Sussex. His father was a baronet. Shelley was educated at Eton public school and Oxford University. There he wrote a pamphlet "The Necessity of Atheism" for which he was expelled from the University. His father forbade him to come home. Shelley had an independent spirit and he broke with his family and his class for ever. He travelled from one town to another, took an active part in the Irish liberation movement and at last left England for Italy in 1818. There he wrote his best poetry. Shelley's life was mainly spent in Italy and Switzerland, but he kept ties with England.

Walter Scott (1771-1832), the father of the English historical novel, was born in the family of a lawyer. Walter Scott's literary career began in 1796 when he published translations of German ballads. In 1804 he gave up the law entirely for literature.

His literary work began with the publication of "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (1805), a poem which made him the most popular poet of the day. A series of poems followed which included "Marmion" (1808) and "The Lady of the Lake" (1810). These poems brought fame to the author. They tell us about the brave Scottish people, their past and the beauty of their homeland.

Soon, however, Scott realized that he was not a poetic genius, and he turned to writing in prose.