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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 12 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:
Female Author - Middlemarch by George Eliot
Book with a name as the title - Esther Waters by George Moore 1/15/24
Book published in serial format - Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Book published 1837-1840s - 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 Published in the 1870s - Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy 3/15/24
Book published in the 1860s - The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 3/11/24
Anthony Trollope - The Warden 1/9/24
Mystery, Suspense, Sensation - The Beetle by Richard Marsh
Book published 1890s-1901 - Kim by Rudyard Kipling 3/17/24
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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