Victorian Reading Challenge 2025

The Victorian Reading Challenge returns, dear Reader!  After careful deliberation, duly considering the investment of time and fatigue of the wrists occasioned by these ponderous volumes, I have concluded that the profit to the intellect and imaginative faculties far outweighs any perceived disadvantages. (As the Victorians might put it.)  The 2024 Victorian Reading Challenge  was one of the highlights of my year in reading, and I have decided to repeat the challenge for as many years as I can.

This year I have changed up a few of the categories, while the decade categories remain the same to ensure broad reading across the Victorian era. 

Here are this year's categories, along with my choices:

The Woman Question - The Odd Women by George Gissing

Book with a place as the title - Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau

Book published in serial format - East Lynne by Ellen Wood

Book published 1837-1840s - Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Book published in the 1850s - David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Children's Book - The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley

Book Published in the 1870s - A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy

Book published in the 1860s - The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Wilkie Collins - Armadale

Mystery, Suspense, Sensation - Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Book published 1890s-1901 - Trilby by George du Maurier

Book published in the 1880s - The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy

The Woman Question replaces Female Author, as I will always read several female authors anyway.  In Victorian times, "the woman question" referred to debates surrounding women's roles and rights.  Book with a place as the title replaces Book with a name as the title.  Wilkie Collins is replacing Anthony Trollope in the specific author category.  I've kept Children's Book as a category this year, to prompt myself to read the weirdness that is The Water Babies, though we will probably lose that category next year.  And yes, I am already planning next year's challenge!  I might host it as a more formal challenge next year.  Feel free to join me this year at any time, if you like!

My book choices for this year are heavy on sensation novels and women's issues, with a couple of Thomas Hardys thrown in for good measure.  And, of course, David Copperfield, because it's high time I read it.

Tea and Ink Society 2025 Classics Reading Challenge

I enjoyed last year's Tea and Ink Society reading challenge so much, I've decided to participate again.  I love the unexpected categories Elsie devises - not only are they fun, but they draw me into reading things I might not otherwise have picked up at a particular time.  Like last year, the idea behind this challenge is to read one classic book (pre-1970) for each month in the year.  Here are this year's categories:

January: A classic you discover in a used bookstore

February: A Russian novel or short story collection

March: A classic about immigrants or pioneers

April: A classic set on your own turf

May: A book you were supposed to read in school

June: Nonfiction nature writing

July: A science fiction novel or short story collection

August: A classic by an author you’ve only read once

September: A classic World War I or World War II novel

October: A Jane Austen novel

November: A poetry collection by one of the Romantic poets

December: A Medieval or Renaissance classic

And here is what I have so far:

January:  A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

February:  The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov

March:  O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

April:  The Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright

May:  Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

June:  Summer by Dallas Lore Sharp

July:  The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

August:  Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

September:  The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

October:  Persuasion by Jane Austen

November:  Lyric Poems by John Keats

December:  

A classic you discover in a used bookstore is such a delightful category.  Ideally I would go browse the shelves this month and select something that catches my eye, but I am far away from used bookstores at present.  Instead I've chosen A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, which I picked up on a memorable day in my very favorite used bookstore.  I received an unexpected discount that day for expressing my appreciation of the New Wave music on the radio and generally having a good time.

For February, we're turning to Russian literature, which will have some people quaking in their fur-lined boots, and others rubbing their mittened hands together with glee.  Though I have a few suitable titles already on my Classics Club list, I went rogue and chose The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov.  Chekhov is best known for his plays, but this, his only novel, is... a murder mystery!

I went for the obvious choice for March.  A book about pioneers - let me see, how about O Pioneers! by Willa Cather?  My first Willa Cather novel ever.

A regional classic was a real challenge.  I'm away from home right now, but will be back home by the time April rolls around.  I chose The Shepherd of the Hills, an Ozark classic written in 1907 by Harold Bell Wright, well known here and probably never heard of outside this region.  Basically I didn't want to read True Grit right now.

May brings us A book you were supposed to read in school.  In my fourth grade classroom, there was a shelf of books we were encouraged to read if we had free time.  Among these was a copy of Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling which I started but never finished.  Now's my chance. 

For nonfiction nature writing in June, I've chosen a volume from a seasonal series I'm reading by Dallas Lore Sharp (1870-1929).  I will have completed the Winter and Spring volumes by the time June is here.  The series was written between 1909 - 1913, so it's an interesting example of early American nature writing.

In July the Triffids menace the world!  Here is a post-apocalyptic tale of giant plants with poisonous stingers who turn on their human masters.  Are they alien?  Were they bioengineered by the Russians?  We shall see.  I've been wanting more John Wyndham ever since I read The Midwich Cuckoos, which I will always rave about.

It's Trollope for August as I continue to make my way through his Chronicles of Barsetshire.  I've only read The Warden so far, and Barchester Towers is next in the series.

A classic WWI or WWII novel was the most daunting category.  I decided on The End of the Affair, my first Graham Greene.  Though I was tempted by Elsie's suggestion of Green for Danger, a murder mystery by Christianna Brand.  Maybe I'll do both?

2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen.  Many celebrations and read-alongs are taking place, so it is only fitting that she gets a category this year.  I'll be re-reading Persuasion, for the first time in a long time.  I adore Jane Austen, so this is a treat.

Romantic poets for November was a surprise, and another treat.  I shall walk amongst the withered sedge along the lake where no birds sing with Keats.

I love the idea of a medieval or Renaissance classic for December.  Perfect for the contemplative mood of Advent or the festive mood of Christmas.  Candlelight, evergreens, and medieval literature - what could be better?  I'm leaving this category open, though I do have Piers Ploughman on my Classics Club list.

Tea and Ink Society 2025 Classics Reading Challenge - official page

Victorian Reading Challenge 2024

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!

Tea and Ink Society 2024 Classics Reading Challenge

I really love all of the wonderful offerings from the Tea and Ink Society, and I am excited to be participating in their 2024 Classics Reading Challenge.  I'm taking a break from Saturday spring cleaning this afternoon to plan out some of my reads for the challenge. (Today's tea: Bengal Spice with milk and honey.)  Here are the categories:

January: A classic you’ve read before
February: A Nordic or Scandinavian classic
March: A novel with a place or house name in the title
April: An epistolary novel
May: An L. M. Montgomery novel or short story collection
June: A novel or short story collection from the American South
July: A utopian or dystopian novel
August: A children’s classic
September: A pastoral novel
October: A spooky classic or short story collection
November: A classic recommended by a friend
December: A Shakespeare play

And here's what I have so far:

January: Silas Marner by George Eliot

February: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

March: Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

April: Evelina by Frances Burney

May: Anne of Windy Willows by L.M. Montgomery

June: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

July: News from Nowhere - William Morris

August:

September:

October: The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre - John Polidori

November: 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

December:

Two of these I finished before I started this blog, and I will try to blog about them in due time.  Silas Marner was my re-read, and I chose The Summer Book by Tove Jansson for my Scandinavian classic.  I'm currently in the middle of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and I can't wait to talk about that one.

I was a bit daunted when I saw "epistolary novel" for April, because this is not a format I typically enjoy, with the exception of Dracula.  I have settled on Evelina by Frances Burney, because it was a favorite of Jane Austen.  If Jane loved it, it must be good, right?   I might have chosen Austen's own Lady Susan, were it not for the fact that I read it in 2022.

There is a lot of love for L.M. Montgomery over at Tea and Ink Society, which I find very sweet as she was my favorite author when I was a girl.  For the L.M. Montgomery selection in May, I'm going to read Anne of Windy Willows, the UK unabridged version of Anne of Windy Poplars, which is the version I'm familiar with.

June's category will stretch me a bit, because I don't often read Southern fiction.  I'm going to take this opportunity to read The Awakening by Kate Chopin, which has been on my reading list for a long time.

Utopian or Dystopian novel in July is quite a fun category.  I felt that I had read several of literature's great dystopias, so I went for something different and chose William Morris' utopian tale News from Nowhere.

August is the month for a children's classic. I am still undecided on this one, but I know I want it to be something by E. Nesbit that I haven't read yet.

A pastoral novel is a lovely choice for September.  I'm still mulling that one over, but I'm picturing myself with a mug of cider leaning against a hay rick reading Adam Bede by George Eliot in between weaving corn dollies.

One of the best things about this challenge is that we are quite rightly told to read a spooky classic or short story collection in October.  There is nothing better for October than eerie ghost stories or Gothic tales of terror.  I've chosen The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre by John Polidori and others.  I've read "The Vampyre" a couple of times, but the other tales of the macabre will be new to me.

November's classic is a book recommended by a friend.  My daughter Fiona has told me I should read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne for years now, so in November I take my chances with Captain Nemo.  Something about that Nemo fellow makes me nervous.

And we round off the year with Shakespeare for midwinter!  I love Shakespeare and have read all of his plays at least once, some multiple times.  I'm honestly just going to see which one I'm in the mood for when the time comes.  Perhaps a re-read of Cymbeline or Pericles?

100 Classics in 5 Years

I have joined the Classics Club Challenge.  My goal is to complete 100 classics in 5 years, by March 14, 2029.  I will blog about each book as I finish it, updating the list as I go.  Here's my list:

Books Completed: 43/100

1. Lark Rise to Candleford - Flora Thompson

2. Armadale - Wilkie Collins 11/27/25

3. The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot 7/5/25

4. Middlemarch - George Eliot 8/31/24

5. Adam Bede - George Eliot 12/2/24

6. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot

7. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 5/25/25

8. Confessions of an English Opium Eater - Thomas De Quincey

9. The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens

10. Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens

11. Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell 10/21/25

12. Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell

13. Ruth - Elizabeth Gaskell 4/18/24

14. Kim - Rudyard Kipling 3/17/24

15. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 10/16/24

16. The Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy

17. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

18. A Pair of Blue Eyes - Thomas Hardy 4/14/26

19. Under the Greenwood Tree - Thomas Hardy 3/15/24

20. The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy 8/19/25

21. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome 3/21/24

22. Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope 7/28/25

23. Lady Audley's Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon 7/10/25

24. Aurora Floyd - Mary Elizabeth Braddon

25. Shirley - Charlotte Bronte 6/26/26

26. East Lynne - Mrs. Henry Wood

27. The Odd Women - George Gissing 3/14/25

28. New Grub Street - George Gissing 7/6/26

29. Red Pottage - Mary Cholmondeley

30. Deerbrook - Harriet Martineau

31. Olive - Dinah Mulock Craik

32. Hester - Mrs. Oliphant

33. Miss Marjoribanks - Mrs. Oliphant

34. The Faerie Queene - Edmund Spenser

35. The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy

36. Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe

37. Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock

38. The Golden Ass - Apuleius 11/9/24

39. An Ecclesiastical History of the English People - Bede

40. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym

41. Vera - Elizabeth von Arnim 7/22/24

42. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier 8/17/25

43. The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole 10/4/24

44. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer 12/20/24

45. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

46. The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan 10/6/24

47. The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith

48. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott

49. A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe 11/1/25

50. Evelina - Frances Burney 4/25/24

51. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler

52. The Awakening - Kate Chopin 6/19/24

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 12/13/25

54. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy

55. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys 4/26/24

56. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

57. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 4/7/25

58. Kipps - H.G. Wells

59. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne 12/12/24

60. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

61. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky 1/23/25

62. The Trial - Franz Kafka 11/6/25

63. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

64. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

65. The Beautiful and the Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald

66. The Brothers Karamozov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

67. Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh

68. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft

69. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay 3/30/24

70. The Book of Margery Kempe - Margery Kempe

71. Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens

72. A Philosophical Enquiry - Edmund Burke

73. Cindie - Jean DeVanny

74. The Lottery and Other Stories - Shirley Jackson

75. Uncle Silas - Sheridan Le Fanu

76. Trilby - George du Maurier

77. Faust - Goethe

78. A Sentimental Journey - Laurence Sterne

79. The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham 3/31/26

80. The Edwardians - Vita Sackville-West

81. The Bride of Lammermoor - Sir Walter Scott

82. Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets - Thomas De Quincey

83. The Monarch of the Glen - Compton Mackenzie

84. In the Mountains - Elizabeth von Arnim

85. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson 10/16/24

86. Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Maturin

87. Piers Ploughman - William Langland

88. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville 7/20/24

89. The Song of Roland 12/28/25

90. The History of Rasselas - Samuel Johnson 10/11/24

91. Rob Roy - Sir Walter Scott

92. He Knew He Was Right - Anthony Trollope 7/17/26

93. The Mysteries of Udolpho - Ann Radcliffe

94. Parzival - Wolfram von Eschenbach

95. From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne

96. The White People and Other Weird Stories - Arthur Machen

97. The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals - Dorothy Wordsworth 5/4/25

98. Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees 8/24/25

99. The Lark - E. Nesbit

100. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg 9/11/24