Text 1: Critic Park argues that the rise of the multi-volume Victorian novel reflected the leisure of a growing middle class. Long evenings by gaslight, libraries that lent novels in three thick volumes, serialized publication: all created conditions in which a five- hundred-thousand-word novel could find its readers.
Text 2: Critic Singh accepts the social conditions but argues that the long Victorian novel served formal needs as well. The interlocking plots, social panoramas, and gradual character development that distinguish George Eliot or Trollope require length; the form was not just permitted by leisure but demanded by its ambitions.
Both authors would most likely agree that
- A
Victorian novels lacked plot or character development.
- B
Victorian novels were almost always brief.
- Ccheck_circle
Victorian novels were often very long.
- D
Victorian novels are unread today.
Explanation
Both authors describe long Victorian novels; they differ on what shaped the length. A is shared. B, C, and D contradict both.