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| A Pleasant Corner by John Callcott Horsley, 1865 |
Another reading challenge I have in progress is a Victorian Reading Challenge I set for myself. I have a lifelong fascination with the Victorian era and its literature, and I was delighted to discover some Victorian challenges from years past at Becky's Book Reviews. I would like to credit Becky and thank her for the inspiration, as I modified and adapted her old challenges to create my list.
What is it that I love so much about Victorian literature?
The Victorian era stretches one hand out to tentatively brush fingers with our modern world, while the other reaches backward, clinging fondly to the traditions of a fading rural past. Fed by the twin streams of aesthetic Romanticism and Enlightenment rationalism and innovation, the landscape of Victorian art and literature is one of contrast, contradiction, and permutation in which anything may happen. The luminous beauty of a pre-Raphaelite painting graces a stylish and well-polished drawing room, while mere blocks away, buildings smeared with coal dust crumble to ruin, cholera lurks in the water - and Mr. Hyde may be just around the corner. Gaslit streets, typewriters, and phonographs are wonders of modern invention - yet your neighbor may still turn out to be a vampire. Detectives begin to practice scientific deduction and forensic investigation, but ghosts, cursed diamonds, and madwomen in the attic are not entirely off the table. The age of industrialization brings us novels of social concern over poverty and pollution in the northern mill towns, while other writers trade union meetings for harvest festivals and seek to capture the seasonal rhythms of a vanishing agrarian life. Writers begin exploring social questions about marriage, class, education, and the role of women. Characters begin to be developed more fully, and we see the stirrings of psychological interest. Add to this the vivid and descriptive prose of some of the greatest masters of the English language.
I have chosen 24 books for 2024! I may never read this many Victorian novels in one year again, but I really wanted to immerse myself in Victorian literature this year. This challenge is truly a labor of love for me. The categories are helpful in ensuring that I read broadly across the era. Without further ado, here is my list:
Book published in the 1840s - Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Male Author - Esther Waters by George Moore 1/15/24
Female Author - Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Book with a name as the title - Trilby by George du Maurier
Book published in serial format - Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Book published 1837-1840 - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 2/26/24
Book published in the 1850s - Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Children's Book - Black Beauty by Anna Sewell 1/13/24
Book of YOUR choice - The Beetle by Richard Marsh 1/12/24
Charles Dickens - David Copperfield
Book set in England - Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy 3/15/24
Victorian Nonfiction - The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater
Book published in the 1860s - The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Reread of your choice - Silas Marner by George Eliot 2/9/24
Anthony Trollope - The Warden 1/9/24
Mystery, Suspense, Sensation - Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Book over 400 pages - Middlemarch by George Eliot
Book published in the 1870s - The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone 3/11/24
Book published in the 1890s - The Odd Women by George Gissing
Book that has been adapted into a movie - The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
Book published 1900-1901 - Kim by Rudyard Kipling 3/17/24
Collection (poetry, stories, etc.) - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Book published in the 1880s - Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
I have already completed 9 titles. Many of these books are going towards my Classics Club Challenge, and I have also counted Silas Marner as my re-read classic for the Tea and Ink Society Challenge. Currently reading Three Men in a Boat and reveling in the humor!
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