When reading victorian era classics, do you find that they are ....?

Question

more drawn out than the needed to be, as if you can tell that the authour was paid per word rather than for content?

Answer 1

You have to remember that most nineteenth century novels (Dickens, Collins etc) were actually originally serialised in magazines, hence the length of some chapters and the element of suspense/surprise which is often present at the end of certain chapters.

Answer 2

Yes they generally are long and drawn out. This is especially true of Dickens but you must remember many of his books were first publish as serials in magazines and he was paid by the word, literally. So he, like other authors employed this way, would have to spin his ideas out to fill up his alloted space.
I find Trollop to be an exception and though not British, Mark Twain was of the Victorian era. His writing is "unpadded".

Answer 3

Victorian novels were written to be read aloud. In those days entertainment was either reading, or playing the piano, and singing along, or card/board games.

The novels you are thinking of sound much better read aloud, and the author was painting a picture for the reader/listener.
They weren't paid by word, in fact many of the classic novels appeared as a "serial" in a magazine in the first instance. They were equivalent to today's soaps, painting a life for the reader/listener.

Answer 4

That is the Victorian style. What is important in Victorian literature is what is going on below the surface. Victorian women were prim and proper on the surface and anything but beneath the surface. As you are reading, try to get into the subtext. You will find a very different type of literature. Pax- C

Answer 5

I think it's just the way the writing style was back then. Their pace of life was just more leisurely than it is now; they didn't have TV and movies with all this action and adventure like we do today. These days we want everything to move at a really rapid pace, so victorian novels seem to move too slowly.

Answer 6

Definitely. It was a style of writing called Realism. Don't go anywhere near George Eliot if you don't like it... 4 pages describing a chair! Argh! Nightmarish!

Answer 7

They never actually SAY what they're trying to say. They take a paragraph to make a statement that could be summed up in a sentence.

Answer 8

Yes. But that is how they were written at the time.

Answer 9

Yes, but not they're not a patch on Stephen King!