The sensation novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, following on from earlier melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies. A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands Events and trends Technology The First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA was completed in 1869 Events and Trends Technology The invention of the prototype telephone by Alexander G Melodrama refers to theatre in which music is used to increase the spectator's emotional response or to suggest character types The Newgate novels (or Old Bailey novels) were Novels published in England from the late 1820s until the 1840s that were thought to glamorise the lives of Ellen Wood's East Lynne (1861) was the first novel to be critically dubbed "sensational" and began a trend whose main exponents were Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White, 1859; The Moonstone, 1868), Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Lady Audley's Secret, 1862) and most of Ellen Wood's later fiction. Mrs Ellen Wood (née Price) ( January 17, 1814 – February 10, 1887) was an English Novelist, better known East Lynne is an English Sensation novel of 1861 by Mrs Henry Wood. William Wilkie Collins ( 8 January 1824 &ndash 23 September 1889) was an English Novelist, Playwright, and The Woman in White is an Epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859-1860 and first published in book The Moonstone (1868 by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century, British, Epistolary novel, generally considered the first Mary Elizabeth Braddon ( October 4, 1835 &ndash February 4, 1915) was a British Victorian era popular novelist Lady Audley's Secret is a Sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, written in 1862 Mrs Ellen Wood (née Price) ( January 17, 1814 – February 10, 1887) was an English Novelist, better known
Typically the sensation novel focused on shocking subject matter including adultery, theft, kidnapping, insanity, bigamy, forgery, seduction and murder. [1] It distinguished itself from other contemporary genres, including the Gothic novel, by setting these themes in familiar and often domestic settings, thereby undermining the common Victorian-era assumption that sensational events were something foreign and divorced from comfortable middle-class life. Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities W. S. Gilbert satirised these works in his 1871 comic opera, A Sensation Novel. Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 &ndash 29 May 1911 was an English Dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen Comic opera, or light opera, denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature usually with a happy ending A Sensation Novel is a comic Musical play in three acts (or volumes written by Librettist W