We present a second selection of extracts from Great Victorian Lives – An Era in Obituaries, an anthology of the significant personalities who made their mark on Britain and the wider world during the reign of Queen Victoria. The original obituaries published in The Times and reprinted in full in the book were conceived on a grand scale, sometimes running to tens of thousands of words. We hope that these brief extracts will give some flavour of their appeal. Great Victorian Lives is a companion volume to Great Lives, the bestselling anthology of Times obituaries of 20th-century notables, published in 2005 and now available in paperback.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN

From early childhood Felix Mendelssohn was already the wonder and the pride of the musical schools of Berlin. At eight years old he was already one of the most accomplished pianoforte players of the age; and his musical science kept pace with his astonishing power of execution and of ear. In boyhood he was profoundly versed in the works of Sebastian Bach, and the severer masters; and throughout his life his mind was keenly alive to all that was great in intellect or beautiful in poetry. Goethe had affectionately greeted his early promise, and never was the promise of a marvellous precocity more amply fulfilled. 1847

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

There was to the last in him the sensibility of a child’s generous heart that time had not sheathed against light touches of pleasure and pain. His sympathy was prompt and keen, but the same quick feeling made him also over sensitive to the small annoyances that men usually learn to take for granted as but one form of the friction that belongs to movements of all kinds. He was sensitive to his sensitiveness, and did in his writings what thousands of men do in their lives, shrouded an over tender heart in a transparent veil of cynicism. 1863

DAVID LIVINGSTONE

It is impossible not to mourn the loss of a missionary so liberal in his views, so large-hearted, so enlightened. By his labours it has come to pass that throughout the protected tribes of Southern Africa Queen Victoria is generally acknowledged as “the Queen of the people who love the black man”. Livingstone had his failings; but the self-will and obstinacy he possibly at times displayed were very near akin to the qualities which secured his success, and much allowance must be made for a man for whom his early education had done so little. 1873

THOMAS CARLYLE

The announcement of his death will bring home to every educated Englishman its significance. A chasm opens between the present and past of our literature, a whole world of associations disappears. No recent man of letters has held in England a place comparable to that which for at least a quarter of a century has been his without dispute, and authors of all kinds and schools will feel that they have lost their venerable doyen. A great man of letters, quite as heroic as any of those he depicted, has passed away among universal regret. 1881

FRANZ LISZT

He advocated and practically illustrated the supreme merits of Beethoven’s pianoforte music when other virtuosi scorned it as unpopular; he shares with Schumann and Mendelssohn the merit of having rescued Schubert’s works from undeserved oblivion; he was as enthusiastic in the cause of Bach as he was successively in those of Berlioz, of Schumann, and of Wagner. It was, indeed, by keeping pace with the changes and developments of his art that he preserved his freshness of mind. 1886

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

His disappearance from the stage of life is no sudden event. It is not as if an army had lost its commander in mid-battle, or as if the tongue of the orator had become suddenly mute, or the lyre had dropped from the poet’s hand. It is not a future that has vanished with the past, or a cataract of life that has been arrested in full flow. The truth is the great Cardinal has occupied so exceptional a place in human affairs that, while he has largely influenced them, he has had himself to discover and even to recognise that they could go on without him. 1890

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

The death of Lord Tennyson extinguishes the most brilliant light in English literature – a light which has shone to the last with unwaning lustre. He linked us with the golden age of the famous poets of the beginning of the century, and his loss, following on that of his old friend Browning, leaves a blank we can scarcely hope to fill. Though the late Laureate had kept his powers and much of his natural energy almost to the last, he died in the fulness of years as of fame. 1892

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

He had the charming and exquisitely graceful style which seems to have come naturally to him, and within certain wide though well-defined limits his versatility was as remarkable as his brilliancy. His tact and self-knowledge assured him against attempting anything where he was likely to fail. Yet no one could be less monotonous in the manner of his workmanship or the selection of his subjects. Few would have predicted that the vivacious author of the uneventful “Inland Voyage” and the “Travels with a Donkey,” would have cast irresistible spells on the devourers of sensational fiction as author of “Treasure Island” or “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” 1894

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE

Through his life he was a man of extraordinary activity, equally fond of walking in the country and in town, and with sleep ever at his command; and his favourite relaxation was the energetic pursuit of woodsmanship, which he was able to keep up till a very advanced age. Those who knew him best in private life could testify that the serious and even devout temperament which was most conspicuous to ordinary observers was intersected by a vein of geniality and playfulness all the more fascinating by the contrast. 1898

OTTO VON BISMARCK

The death of Prince Bismarck removes the greatest personality in Europe. Though it would have been better for his fame had he immediately followed his old master to the grave, yet the heavy clouds which have overhung the sunset of his life cannot diminish the splendour of his zenith. He was one of the rare men who leave indelible marks on the world’s history. He would, perhaps, have resented the Pagan idea of being a “man of destiny”, for he was pious in his fashion, and might have grown into a Puritan but for the exuberance of his animal spirits. 1898

OSCAR WILDE

The melancholy end to a career which once promised so well is stated to have come in an obscure hotel of the Latin Quarter. Here the once brilliant man of letters was living, exiled from his country and from the society of his countrymen.

The verdict that a jury passed upon his conduct at the Old Bailey in May, 1895, destroyed for ever his reputation, and condemned him to ignoble obscurity for the remainder of his days. When he had served his sentence of two years’ imprisonment, he was broken in health as well as bankrupt in fame and fortune. 1900

COUNT LEO TOLSTOY

The death of Count Leo Tolstoy removes one who was both an artist and prophet, and who, in both these capacities, must be ranked among the most influential writers of his time. It has taken place in circumstances as characteristic of the man and his genius as any previous episode in his wonderful career. At the very end of his days his spirit rebelled once more against the tyranny of accepted things, and he sallied forth upon the final pilgrimage in search of a calm and solitude. 1910

W. G. GRACE

There was a masterful personality and a large direct simplicity and frankness which, combined with his huge frame, swarthy features, bushy beard, and somewhat lumbering carriage, made an impression which could never be forgotten. In spite of his giant West-of-England build; there was something of the gipsy in his colouring, his vitality, and his quick, dark eyes with their wary expression. The bright yellow and red cap which he loved to wear added to this Zingari effect. 1915

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