Victorian literature Victorian literature Victorian literature is literature, mainly written in English, during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) (the Victorian era). It was preceded by Romanticism and followed by the Edwardian era (1901–1910). While in the preceding Romantic period, poetry had been the dominant genre, it was the novel that was most important in the Victorian period. Charles Dickens (1812–1870) dominated the first part of Victoria's reign: his first novel, "The Pickwick Papers", was published in 1836, and his last "Our Mutual Friend" between 1864–5. William Thackeray's (1811–1863) most famous work "Vanity Fair" appeared in 1848, and the three Brontë sisters,
New Theatre Royal literary success and long after its publication. He is known to have performed in Portsmouth later but at St Peter's Hall. Sadly, he did not perform at the current theatre and there is no evidence of his visiting it though it is possible. In the same year the old theatre was demolished, Mr Henry Rutley opened a new venue on the present site. Rutley (born Newcastle 1816) was an impresario and circus proprietor who had arrived in Portsmouth in 1854 and purchased the Swan Tavern in Commercial Road and the adjoining Landport Hall, a raquet court. He converted the hall