The Victorian Age

THE VICTORIAN AGE (1832-1901)
1. A curiosity of the period – The Jelly Babies
When I was searching a curiosity of the period, I found many interesting things which they discovered during the Victorian Age. I decided to choose a mostly unknown curiosity, as well as interesting, funny and historical: The jelly babies.
In the Victorian Age the jelly babies were originally known as PeaceBabies. The world´s first peace babies were made in 1864 by an Austrian called Herr Steinbeck in Lancashire.
But what are peace babies? They are sort of soft confectionery that is molded as babies in a variety of colors. Like other gummy sweets, they are made of gelatin.
In 1918 Bassett called them “Peace Babies” to mark the end of World War I. They were popular between the wars, but productionstopped in the Second World War because of a shortage of raw materials. They came back in 1953, renamed Jelly Babies.
It is said that adults don´t like them much, perhaps they awake memories of their childhood. Nevertheless, three million Jelly Babies are eaten each week and they are in the sweets Top 20 nowadays. In other countries there are known as “gummy bears”.

2. The most relevantauthor – Charles Dickens
In my opinion, the most relevant and important author in the Victorian Age was Charles Dickens because he was named the most popular novelist (novels were the dominating literature of this time) of his day, and was the model of a Victorian writer whose books combined realistic social criticism with comedy and romantic sentiment. He wrote about life, poverty and fortunes. Hisown experiences helped him to form the basis for his novels which brought reforms in prisons and schools. Some of his novels are: David Cooperfield, Oliver Twist and Little Dorrit. They describe the life and conditions of the working class in the Victorian Age, when people lived by strict rules. During his lifetime Dicken´s books enjoyed fame, but it was in the twentieth century when his literaryworks were fully recognized. Nowadays his novels are still very popular.
But why did Dickens write and what did inspire him? His mother taught him to read and his father made him sit on a tall chair to warble ballads, to tell stories and anecdotes for the benefit of fellow-clerks in the office. He was inspired of his own life and of some books of his father’s book collection. These writers werehis true literary teachers: Henry Fielding, Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphry Clinker, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, and Robinson Crusoe. A major importance in the growth of the novelist was the hard time of his childhood. He had to write to earn money because of the financial problems of his family.
3. Short biography
Charles John Dickens, son of John and ElizabethDickens, was born on February 7, 1812, at Portsmouth (England). Because of economic problems, his family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. At the age of twelve Charles worked with working-class men and boys in a factory that handled shoe polish. While his father was in debtor's prison, the rest of the family moved to live near the prison, and Charles had to live alone, whichresulted a significant part of his life, because there he got a wider view of the world. Later he wrote his novels based on his own situation.
In 1827, at the age of fifteen, Charles was forced to leave school and worked first as an office boy, then he became a freelance reporter and stenographer at the law courts of London. Charles married Catherine Hogarth. Together they had ten children.
Hisfirst work in 1836, that became one of his most famous once, was the serial publication of the Pickwick Papers. Then he began publishing his novel Oliver Twist which expressed his interest in the life of the slums. Later he was editor of Bentley´s Miscellany, a monthly magazine.
Dickens was famous not only in England, as well in America where he was speaking against slavery. He wrote a book that...