This Master's thesis examines selected Victorian novels as expressions of a distinct form of British modernity. Focusing on works by Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, Thomas Hardy, and George Gissing it explores how these texts reflect and critique the social, economic, and ideological transformations of nineteenth-century Britain. Highlighting how industrialization, urbanization, and utilitarian thought are portrayed in these novels, and how they influence literary depictions of class relations, moral responsibility, gender, and individual agency. It is also important to analyze how literature responds to the conflict between economic progress and social inequality.

The selected works are interpreted in their historical and philosophical context, situating them within a longer development of British modernity and showcasing the ways in which literary form both reflects and critiques the conditions of modern life. This is done by first outlining the historical and philosophical foundations and then through literary analysis of individual authors and their works.