routledge+history+of+literature+in+english

Late Victorian novels
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character of Flashman is the archetypal bully, and the mid-century ethos
which the novel affirms is very much the ‘muscular Christianity’, stiffupper-lip
way: strength of character and physical strength being seen as
on a par; emotions and sensitivity being signs of weakness. For many
readers this was the best of the British Empire; for others it was the worst!
Some so-called ‘children’s’ writing, like Carroll’s Alice books, or the
adventure stories of Ballantyne and Stevenson, achieved success with
adult readers too. Conversely, such adult novels as The Pilgrim’s
Progress, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver’s Travels were widely read as
suitable for children. Books written specially for children are one
result of the Romantic age’s view of childhood. Meeting the needs of
children, who are a special group of people with unique perceptions,
was thought to be vital, though several Victorian books for children
were, as we have seen, didactic and heavily moralistic.
Robert Louis Stevenson rises above any attribution of his work to
the field of ‘children’s literature’, although Treasure Island (1883),
with its infamous pirate Long John Silver, has been consistently popular
with young readers. Stevenson, like Wilde, was a writer in many genres,
from drama to travel writing, from fiction to verse. He was one of the
first writers to become a world traveller; writing anywhere, but referring
constantly to his Calvinist background and upbringing in Scotland.
Most of his best novels have a Scottish setting, but Stevenson’s Scotland
is markedly different from the historical romanticism of Walter Scott.
Stevenson probes the identity of his characters, finding constant
contrasts: between the violent, unscrupulous devil-figure of the Master of
Ballantrae (in the novel of the same name, 1889), and his more decorous,
righteous younger brother; between the tyrannical ‘hanging judge’, Lord
Hermiston, and his son Archie in the unfinished Weir of Hermiston
(published posthumously in 1896). This is one of the few unfinished
novels in English literature which is generally considered to be a
masterpiece, taking Robert Louis Stevenson’s reputation on from his most
famous tale, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886).
He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed;
he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring
with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked