Naughty Nineties & Important Facts

A Brief Introduction

The Aesthetic movement the Pre-Raphaelite movement and the Oxford movement reflect some of the multifarious aspects of victortanism. The oxford movement aimed at the revival of Roman Catholicism, the Pre-Raphaelite movement look the form of glorification of art and artistic values, chiefly in poetry, the Aesthetic movement did the same in prose and criticism. Walter Horatio Pater was the mentor of the Aesohetic movement. He got the inspiration from Ruskin, who gave to his generation the impulse to appreciate the beauty of natural phenomena. Oscar Wilde became the chief exponent of the Aesthetic movement. Arthur Symnos is another representatives the same school of thought; but is inferior to Pater both as a critic and as a stylist. In the field of poetry, D.G. Rosssetti had been its greatest exponent Morris and Surnburne were the other two great poets of this group. They were called the Pre Raphaelites as well as naughty Nineties.

Important Facts to Remember

1. The Nineties were a period of hectic literary activity Poetry and the novel flourished well as they did in the previous gears the victorian age. But the period also witnessed a revival of the drama.

2. There was also a movement for the revival of Irish literature in which Moore and Yeats played major roles.

3. The same was the case with the department of fiction. In the literature of the Nineties, considered as a whole, two distinct tendencies may be especially noted (i) The Pessimistic tendency found in the work of Hardy, Housman, Gissing and others. (ii) The continental tendency. The men of letters in the age looked more and more towards France. The most vigorous drama of the age was concerned with social and domestic problems and was considerably influenced by Ibsen. Henry Arthur Jones and Sir Arthur Wong Pinero were its most outstanding practioners. G.B. Shaw is doubtlessly the greatest of all the dramatists of this period.

4. Generally the Aesthetes are associated with the decadents and the Aesthetic movement is linked with decadent movement. The Decadents were not clearly outlined group. Thus, the Aesthetic movement may be called first a small segment of the Decadence, that may be termed as a sort of revolt against victorianism a sort.

5. Actually it was period of transition, and like every transitional period, this last part of the nineteenth century witnessed and tremendous change in every walk of life, Art and literature included.