And the early years of the 20

Contents:
Abstract: Characteristics of the most important periods in the development of British literature. Science, philosophy and supernatural literature at the beginning of the XIX century. Modernist poetry in England started in the late 19^th and the early years of the 20^th centuries.
Introduction
Main part

1. 
   The literature in 19^th and 20^th centuries
   
2. 
   Thomas Hardy
   
3. 
   The life in Hardy`s novels
   

Conclusion
References

Introduction

Literature plays an integral part in culture of any country. It reflects people's feelings, some historical events and most of the problems of the society. Sometimes literature can even provide ways how to solve those problems. Britain had a lot of talented writers in the 19th and the 20th centuries, who are now well-known all around the world. They had a great influence on the development of the British literature and on the British culture itself. Many of their works became classic not only for Britain, but for the whole world.
At that time life became much more different than it used to be. Scientific and technological progress and economical and political changes were the reason for new realities to appear. And those were reflected and analysed in literature. It was the period when some new trends turned up. They were very different from the classic era, which had been the most common for many years before. The objective of this work is to characterize the most important periods and figures in the development of British literature of that period. The research subject is cultural development of Britain in the 19th and the 20th centuries and the object of study is British literature of that period itself.
In order to reach the objective there are such tasks as:
to consider the development of British literature in the 19th and the 20th centuries;
to examine literary trends, which appeared at that period;
to review the most important works and authors of that period.

The second half of the 19th century witnessed a rapid growth of social contradictions which were caused by a deep economic crisis. This period was characterized by a crisis in bourgeois culture, too. Artists, poets novelists, musicians and all the intellectuals hated this heartless world, which disturbed the development of the human personality. The literature written during Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) has been given the name Victorian. The basic characteristics of the period, however, would have been the same with or without Queen Victoria. Many great changes took place in the first half of the 19th century. Intellectual rebellions, such as those of Byron and Shelley, gave place to balance and adjustment. Individualism began to be replaced by social and governmental restraints. More and more people were gaining comfort and prosperity. Great Britain changed from a provincial nation to a worldwide empire. This progress brought its problems. Often men had to choose between ideals and material gain.

Science made rapid strides in the 19th century. The theory of evolution gave new insight into the biological sciences. Technical progress transformed Britain into a land of mechanical and industrial activity, but science also created doubts. Old ideas of faith and religion were put to serious tests by the new attitudes brought about by scientific progress. There was a reemphasis--oftentimes stuffy and pompous--of moral and religious beliefs. Literature, said some, should show people how to be good.
Nevertheless, many people in England were still poor--badly housed, undernourished, and sick. Progress, obviously, would not come by itself--it had to be earned. Freedom had to be guarded zealously. Would the spirit of man be destroyed by the machine? Would people become slaves to industry and the pursuit of wealth? Would art be replaced by skills and crafts? These were the questions that troubled Englishmen in the age of Queen Victoria. The era of political and social revolution was the era also of a revolution in literature, or at least in poetical literature. The spirit which gave birth to the French Revolution was one of revolt against conventions which society had come to regard as conditions of orderly existence. The same spirit revolted against the conventions which had made poetry as artificial as society.
Poetry in England had been intellectualised, cut off from its emotional basis, severed from passion and from nature, cribbed, cabined, and confined by canons which restricted the subjects with which it was permitted to deal and the language in which it was permitted to express itself.
The 19th century was characterized by sharp contradictions. In many ways it was an age of progress: railways and ships were built, great scientific discoveries were made, education became more widespread; but al the same time it was an age of profound social unrest, because there was too much poverty, too much injustice. The growth of scientific inventions mechanized industry and increased wealth, but this progress only enriched the few at the expense of the many. Dirty factories, long hours of work, child labour, exploitation, low wages, slums and frequent unemployment -these were the conditions of life for the workers in the growing industries of England, which became the richest country in the world towards the middle of the 19th century.
By the thirties of the 19th century English capitalism had entered a new stage of development. England had become a classical capitalist country, a country of industrial capitalism. The Industrial Revolution gathered force as the 19th century progressed, and profound changes in hand-looms gave way, within a hundred years, to factory towns, railroads, and steamships. The population of Manchester, Birmingham and other industrial centres was growing rapidly as the number of factory workers increased, while the number of poor farmers decreased and many rural districts were depopulated. The basic social classes in England were no longer the peasants and the landlords but the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
Having won the victory over aristocracy, the bourgeoisie betrayed the interests of the working class. The workers fought for their rights. Their political demands were expressed in the People's Charier in 1833. The Chartis Movement was a revolutionary movement of the English workers, which lasted till 1848.
The Chartists introduced their own literature, which was the first attempt to create a literature of the working class. The Chartist writers tried their hand at different genres. They wrote articles, short stories, songs, epigrams, poems. Their leading genre was poetry.
The ideas of the Chartism attracted the attention of many progressive-minded people of that time. A lot of prominent writers became aware of the social injustices around them and tried to depict them in their works. Thus this period was mirrored in literature by the appearance of a new trend, the Critical Realism. The greatest novelists of the age are Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell.
These writers used the novel as a means to protest against the evils in contemporary social and economic life and to picture the world in a realistic way. Their greatness also lies in their profound humanism. Their sympathy lies with the ordinary people. They believed in the good qualities of the human heart.