Most of the work of the great New England group of writers was done during the Victorian age--a time prolific of famous English authors. The greatest of the English writers were THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881), whose _Sartor Resartus_ and _Heroes and Hero Worship_ proved a stimulus to Emerson and to many other Americans; LORD MACAULAY (1800-1859), whose _Essays_ and _History of England_, remarkable for their clearness and interest, affected either directly or indirectly the prose style of numberless writers in the second half of the nineteenth century; JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900), the apostle of the beautiful and of more ideal social relations; MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888), the great analytical critic; CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870), whose novels of the lower class of English life are remarkable for vigor, optimism, humor, the power to caricature, and to charm the masses; WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863), whose novels, like _Vanity Fair_, remain unsurpassed for keen satiric analysis of the upper classes; and GEORGE ELIOT (1819-1880), whose realistic stories of middle class life show a new art in tracing the growth and development of character instead of merely presenting it with the fixity of a portrait. To this list should be added CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882), whose _Origin of Species_ (1859) affected so much of the thought of the second half of the nineteenth century. The two greatest poets of this time were ALFRED TENNYSON (1809-1892) and ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889). Browning's greatest poetry aims to show the complex development of human souls, to make us understand that:-- "He fixed thee 'mid this dance Of plastic circumstance." [Footnote: _Rabbi Ben Ezra_.] His influence on the American poets of this group was very slight. Whittier's comment on Browning's _Men and Women_ is amusing:-- "I have only dipped into it, here and there, but it is not exactly comfortable reading. It seemed to me like a galvanic battery in full play--its spasmodic utterances and intense passion make me feel as if I had been taking a bath among electric eels." Tennyson through his artistic workmanship and poetry of nature exerted more influence. His Arthurian legends, especially _Sir Galahad_ (1842), seem to have suggested Lowell's _Vision of Sir Launfal_ (1848). The New England poets in general looked back to Burns, Wordsworth, Keats, and other members of the romantic school of poets. Lowell was a great admirer of Keats, and in early life, like Whittier, was an imitator of Burns. LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS