Characteristic of the time of Victoria's 64-year reign as queen of England from 1837-1901 as evidenced in literature, art and architecture, polictics,philantrophy, social engineering, industrialization and especially in moral and sexual attitudes.
Victoria's reign was remarkably peaceful, stable and prosperous, symbolizedbest perhaps by the domestic bliss enjoyed by her and her beloved consort PrinceAlbert.
It was a time of the rising middle calss, when Englishmen took great pride in the virtues of "Industriousness, self-reliance, temperancce, piety, charity and moral earnestness. (Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia) . But at the same time, people tended to be stodgy, smug and prudish. The sub-culture, as Steven Marcus has described it in The Other Victorians, was another matter.
In modern usage, to have one's behavior or attitude called Victorian is to be accused of being old-fashioned, inhibited and narrow-minded.
~Facts in File Dictionary of Historical and Cultural Allusions.
