30 Victorian Heartthrobs Who Made Ladies Sigh

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, looked exactly like a Romantic painting that had decided to become Poet Laureate. Cloak, beard, deep-set eyes, windswept gloom, the whole package. He was Victorian melancholy in human form, and readers adored the music of his verse. Tennyson’s appeal was not flirtatious sparkle. It was storm-cloud grandeur. He looked like he might recite grief on a cliff, then vanish into weather. Naturally, the era approved.