More Trollope, Wilkie Collins and Thackeray for me too please, that would keep me going about a decade. 😊Fabulous list Katie, I imagine the more Victorian lit you read and enjoy, the more you find out about, the bigger the TBR pile gets!
I wonder how long your video on all the Trollope novels will be (I would get popcorn and enjoy every moment of it). That's a lot of novels I have never heard of. It's funny, I read this one line in Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot that went like this: "College wasn't like the real world. In the real world people dropped names based on their renown. In college, people dropped names based on their obscurity." I think booktube is a lot like college sometimes, especially after you've already read so much in a particular time period and genre...it is only natural you'll branch out. I loved this video very much Katie. Also...fun fact (probably shouldn't mention this) about 6 years ago I was annoyed at the lack of audio on youtube and I created this channel called ThWellTemperedCritic where I uploaded like 6 videos of me reading "Flatland" by Edwin A. Abbot....obviously much better ones are out there....then I forgot my password for that channel. I think I need to dive into the worlds of H.G. Welles and George Gissing as well. I remember watching this documentary on H.G. Welles and he fascinated me so much in the way he did research and how he lived his life, and his progressive views on women. Also if I may, one video I'd really like to see and you might be the only expert on this topic is "victorian books that were popular during the victorian period, but have slipped into obscurity now." Because sometimes I look back and realize that what made a bestseller at certain times did not necessarily make it to classic status. I wouldn't know where to begin on tackling that topic (obviously no pressure or anything). Great TBR as always!
I'll have to look up your reading Flatland - it's been on my list for so long. I would highly recommend H.G. Wells and George Gissing - I think you'll enjoy them. I find these lists really interesting for comparing the bestsellers of the time and what we know and still read nowadays - there are many (www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva90.html and www.victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/dickens/pva/pva120.html) - there are plenty novels listed there that are pretty forgotten now!
I hated maths at school but Flatlands does sound fascinating so it will be interesting to see how you find it. Jill sounds good, I've never heard of that one before.
Anthony Trollope! ❤️ I found The Way We Live Now at the used bookstore thi week. Hooray! 🎉 I have never heard of George Gissing. I will have to remember to ask you where to start with him for Victober this year.
So many interesting books, Flatlands sounds particularly intriguing! "It was a dark and stormy night" cones from Lytton's novel Paul Clifford I believe which I think was published just before the Victorian period in 1830. The American Senator by Trollope is excellent. In terms of poetry I cannot recommend Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh highly enough. I also loved Henry Mayhew's London, Labour and the London Poor, it makes for truly fascinating reading.
Flatland is supposed to be really interesting, and I am certainly curious. London Labour and the London Poor is definitely on my list - I can't believe I forgot to mention it in this video! I'll add more Elizabeth Barrett Browning to my list as well.
Ohhh so many interesting sounding books that I will most definitely be keeping in mind! A couple of these are on my short list as well so perhaps some buddy reads?
That's so weird, I was going to recommend "The Diary of a Nobody" to you some time ago, but I thought you would dismiss it as trivial lowbrow trash (not real literature). Iy's one of my favourite light reads, it cheers me up when I feel a bit down. I first became aware of it through my gran, years ago when it was televised. A very interesting TBR.
It worries me a little that you thought that - do I really come across as that kind of reader?! Anyway, I loved the extracts of The Diary of a Nobody I read in school and am really looking forward to reading it all.
It's pronounced Er - e - whon, in three syllables, accent on the first. I read it in high school along with 1984 and Brave New World, and it was kind of classed with them. If I was younger, no doubt The Handmaid's Tale and The Children of Men would have been part of that negative utopian grouping. I've read Armadale and No Name, and don't remember much about Armadale; No Name is bizarre but better than many of his other less known books. None of the others live up to The Moonstone and The Woman in White. He seems to be one of those writers whose books did survive according to their worth. There are also one or two I started but couldn't get into. I'd be interested to see what you think of them. I read Clara Vaughn last year, also at Kate Howe's recommendation. I'm less enthusiastic than she is; it seems rather disjointed and less well written than the great books, but not bad. I need to reread some of the books you mention that I read once several decades ago and don't remember much about. Have fun.
Thanks! No Name I've read since this video and didn't especially love. Armadale I'll hopefully get to some time soon, and the other ones on this list I haven't read yet. So many to read . . .
As an amateur Savoyard I am obsessed with G&S related literature, so I look forward to your review of Diary of a Nobody. If autobiography interests you, The Autobiography of Jessie Bond is quite interesting. She had quite an amazing life.
Wait, I never knew The Diary of a Nobody had a connection to Gilbert and Sullivan - even more reason to read it! The Autobiography of Jessie Bond is one I'll add to my list too.
George Grossmith was the comic baritone, and the highest paid member of the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Jessie Bond created the mezzo-soprano soubrette roles, and was quite a saucy little thing. I love reading about her. She lived until 1942, dying at the age of 89.
I’m not an expert in Trollope by any means, but I think Dr Wortle’s School is a good book to read after or in between his Pallister series. It’s not as long as the other books you’ve read, and I have a feeling you’ll like the topics it explores. I’m so excited it for your future Trollope project, I will follow you in your journey. I’m eagerly waiting for your thoughts on Pheans Finn. Don’t know many people who have read it.
I've actually just picked up Doctor Wortle's School, as I'm putting Phineas Finn on hold until my buddy-reader catches up with me on Can You Forgive Her.
Erewhon has three syllables, accent on the first. I had some problems with Clara Vaughn, which kept wandering off into strange places, sometimes in unreadable dialect, but generally liked it. With Trollope, some of the best I've read (I've read about half of his novels, or maybe a little more) include Orley Farm and The Vicar of Bullhampton. I like The Belton Estate, the Claverings, and The American Senator, and find Castle Richmond troubling - it's set in Ireland during the famine, and ignores the fact that there was plenty of food in the north of Ireland that was exported to England. It's painful to read some parts of it. While his heroines are often fairly routine, these books contain some fascinating women characters in supporting roles. And it seems to me that the quintessential Victorian non-fiction is On the Origin of Species, which is beautifully written as well as world-changing. I strongly recommend it if you haven't read it yet. Especially for those of us who are fond of Roger Hamley. :) And by the way, I love that sweater.
Thanks for the Trollope suggestions! I'll definitely be adding these to the list. I've read bits and pieces of The Origins of Species, but I have to say I didn't find it that compelling... Maybe biology is just not for me! I've also read a selection of Darwin's letters which I found much more interesting, especially his complex relationship with religion.
While I would never discourage anyone from reading Shaw, I found You Never Can Tell to be a bit confused. I would recommend Arms and the Man (which is very silly) or The Philanderer (which has lots of Ibsen fans) first. Have you heard of Ellen Johnston? I haven't read any of her work, but she was a Scottish factory worker who wrote an autobiography as well as some poetry.
I'll up The Philanderer and Arms and the Man in my priorities then - I do like Ibsen, and I do like silliness. Ellen Johnston sounds interesting too - never heard of her before.
I read King Solomon's Mines by Ryder Haggard recently, which was racist, a bit weird, but quite entertaining. Interesting to compare with Huckleberry Finn, Kipling or Conrad, and for its influence on Tarzan and Indiana Jones films.
Erewhon is pronounced /ɛrɛhwɒn/ or as Butler wrote in the preface to his first edition: "The Author wishes it to be understood that Erewhon is pronounced as a word of three syllables, all short-thus, Ĕ-rĕ-whŏn." - I hope that helps.
Ha, not that much - I have a big problem pronouncing words I don't know, even when somehow explains, and writing something phonetically means very little to me. I just seem to have some block in my brain that makes it hard for me to sound out words I haven't heard before. I never realised how hard I found it until I moved to my current job - I edit Antiques Guides and spend a lot of time every day looking at company names and non-English words, thinking I entirely know how to say them, and then suddenly being correctly after months. Anyway...
Have you though of trying Arnold Bennett? e.g. The Grand Babylon Hotel, The Old Wives' Tale, Clayhanger, Anna of Five Towns. I have heard that these are great and want to start some of these myself. What is your favourite Charles Dickens novel?
Books and Things Thank you! I wish I had more time, as I am a slow reader, to read all of your Victorian recommendations. I agree with you about Bleak House, a lifetime's experience of a book. My next Victorian read will be Our Mutual Friend followed by an Elizabeth Gaskell, whom I have never read.
I'll be down to read a Troulope novel, or two, next year ... I'm reading Le'Fanu's Camilla (then the "Vampyr" screenplay by Dreyer and Jul) and watch the film for mementormori's ##MMBook2Film channel, next week.
"...and enough of George Eliot that I don't need to read anymore." B&T Oct. 16/18 I wonder which other VicLitters'll suffer her fate: Enough of ______ that I don't need to read anymore. A Child of the Jago/A. Morrison bestselling novel Decadents : Charles Algernon Swinburne (poet) Ernest Dowson (poet) Walter Horatio Pater (lit. critic, essayist & fiction writer) Fantasy authors W. Morris G. MacDonald Non-fic besides Ruskin, Darwin Hobsbawm Macaulay Carlyle Newman eg. Apologia Kilvert : Diary H. Mayhew : London Labour and the London Poor JS Mill F. Engels : The Condition of the Working Class in England Short Stories. Hmm. Irish writers William Carleton & S. Le Fanu. And of course 'the silly novels by lady novelists' so bashed by Eliot.
Yeah, I do need to read more Carlyle; I studied his History of the French Revolution (and compared in to A Tale of Two Cities) for a history module at university about the interpretation of the French Revolution.
I have a question. Does Henry James count as a Victorian author? He was born in America but relocated to England, so I wasn’t sure of his classification.
I think it's kind of up to you. Sometimes he's counted, sometimes he's not - it seems to vary a lot. Conrad is usually counted as Victorian and he was born in Poland and relocated to England, but he became a British citizen and Henry James I don't think did, but they both did spend a lot of their lives in London.
I just finished Hester by Margaret Oliphant and I really liked it, and plan to read some more of her work. I much prefer her writing (so far) to Gaskill. There is a website, Oliphantfiction.com, where you can read ALL of Oliphant's works free.
I also loved Lorna Doone! So dramatic and lovely. I loved Collin's No Name too! It's full of suspense and tragedy. Happy REading!
I'm excited for No Name :)
More Trollope, Wilkie Collins and Thackeray for me too please, that would keep me going about a decade. 😊Fabulous list Katie, I imagine the more Victorian lit you read and enjoy, the more you find out about, the bigger the TBR pile gets!
I'll definitely be reading more of them in the future :)
so many books, so little time 😅 great video!
There is never enough time!
I wonder how long your video on all the Trollope novels will be (I would get popcorn and enjoy every moment of it). That's a lot of novels I have never heard of. It's funny, I read this one line in Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot that went like this: "College wasn't like the real world. In the real world people dropped names based on their renown. In college, people dropped names based on their obscurity." I think booktube is a lot like college sometimes, especially after you've already read so much in a particular time period and genre...it is only natural you'll branch out. I loved this video very much Katie. Also...fun fact (probably shouldn't mention this) about 6 years ago I was annoyed at the lack of audio on youtube and I created this channel called ThWellTemperedCritic where I uploaded like 6 videos of me reading "Flatland" by Edwin A. Abbot....obviously much better ones are out there....then I forgot my password for that channel. I think I need to dive into the worlds of H.G. Welles and George Gissing as well. I remember watching this documentary on H.G. Welles and he fascinated me so much in the way he did research and how he lived his life, and his progressive views on women. Also if I may, one video I'd really like to see and you might be the only expert on this topic is "victorian books that were popular during the victorian period, but have slipped into obscurity now." Because sometimes I look back and realize that what made a bestseller at certain times did not necessarily make it to classic status. I wouldn't know where to begin on tackling that topic (obviously no pressure or anything). Great TBR as always!
I'll have to look up your reading Flatland - it's been on my list for so long. I would highly recommend H.G. Wells and George Gissing - I think you'll enjoy them. I find these lists really interesting for comparing the bestsellers of the time and what we know and still read nowadays - there are many (www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva90.html and www.victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/dickens/pva/pva120.html) - there are plenty novels listed there that are pretty forgotten now!
thanks this looks great! I'm printing it out. Might use some of these for next Victober!
It's been many years, but I remember really liking Bulwer-Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii.
I'll have to put it on the list :)
I hated maths at school but Flatlands does sound fascinating so it will be interesting to see how you find it. Jill sounds good, I've never heard of that one before.
I'm looking forward to trying both of them :)
Anthony Trollope! ❤️ I found The Way We Live Now at the used bookstore thi week. Hooray! 🎉 I have never heard of George Gissing. I will have to remember to ask you where to start with him for Victober this year.
He is just so amazing! And yes, George Gissing is super underrated, but very amazing.
So many interesting books, Flatlands sounds particularly intriguing! "It was a dark and stormy night" cones from Lytton's novel Paul Clifford I believe which I think was published just before the Victorian period in 1830. The American Senator by Trollope is excellent. In terms of poetry I cannot recommend Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh highly enough. I also loved Henry Mayhew's London, Labour and the London Poor, it makes for truly fascinating reading.
Flatland is supposed to be really interesting, and I am certainly curious. London Labour and the London Poor is definitely on my list - I can't believe I forgot to mention it in this video! I'll add more Elizabeth Barrett Browning to my list as well.
Ohhh so many interesting sounding books that I will most definitely be keeping in mind! A couple of these are on my short list as well so perhaps some buddy reads?
Absolutely :D
That's so weird, I was going to recommend "The Diary of a Nobody" to you some time ago, but I thought you would dismiss it as trivial lowbrow trash (not real literature). Iy's one of my favourite light reads, it cheers me up when I feel a bit down. I first became aware of it through my gran, years ago when it was televised. A very interesting TBR.
It worries me a little that you thought that - do I really come across as that kind of reader?! Anyway, I loved the extracts of The Diary of a Nobody I read in school and am really looking forward to reading it all.
It's pronounced Er - e - whon, in three syllables, accent on the first. I read it in high school along with 1984 and Brave New World, and it was kind of classed with them. If I was younger, no doubt The Handmaid's Tale and The Children of Men would have been part of that negative utopian grouping. I've read Armadale and No Name, and don't remember much about Armadale; No Name is bizarre but better than many of his other less known books. None of the others live up to The Moonstone and The Woman in White. He seems to be one of those writers whose books did survive according to their worth. There are also one or two I started but couldn't get into. I'd be interested to see what you think of them. I read Clara Vaughn last year, also at Kate Howe's recommendation. I'm less enthusiastic than she is; it seems rather disjointed and less well written than the great books, but not bad. I need to reread some of the books you mention that I read once several decades ago and don't remember much about. Have fun.
Thanks! No Name I've read since this video and didn't especially love. Armadale I'll hopefully get to some time soon, and the other ones on this list I haven't read yet. So many to read . . .
“I’ve read enough of George Elliott that I don’t need to read any more.” 😂😂😂
I think 5 out of 7 is enough XD
As an amateur Savoyard I am obsessed with G&S related literature, so I look forward to your review of Diary of a Nobody. If autobiography interests you, The Autobiography of Jessie Bond is quite interesting. She had quite an amazing life.
Wait, I never knew The Diary of a Nobody had a connection to Gilbert and Sullivan - even more reason to read it! The Autobiography of Jessie Bond is one I'll add to my list too.
George Grossmith was the comic baritone, and the highest paid member of the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Jessie Bond created the mezzo-soprano soubrette roles, and was quite a saucy little thing. I love reading about her. She lived until 1942, dying at the age of 89.
I’m not an expert in Trollope by any means, but I think Dr Wortle’s School is a good book to read after or in between his Pallister series. It’s not as long as the other books you’ve read, and I have a feeling you’ll like the topics it explores. I’m so excited it for your future Trollope project, I will follow you in your journey. I’m eagerly waiting for your thoughts on Pheans Finn. Don’t know many people who have read it.
I've actually just picked up Doctor Wortle's School, as I'm putting Phineas Finn on hold until my buddy-reader catches up with me on Can You Forgive Her.
A lot of works I have t o try. I have read wilkie vollins's "no name". Great book. Well worth reading
I've read it now and did enjoy it.
Erewhon has three syllables, accent on the first. I had some problems with Clara Vaughn, which kept wandering off into strange places, sometimes in unreadable dialect, but generally liked it. With Trollope, some of the best I've read (I've read about half of his novels, or maybe a little more) include Orley Farm and The Vicar of Bullhampton. I like The Belton Estate, the Claverings, and The American Senator, and find Castle Richmond troubling - it's set in Ireland during the famine, and ignores the fact that there was plenty of food in the north of Ireland that was exported to England. It's painful to read some parts of it. While his heroines are often fairly routine, these books contain some fascinating women characters in supporting roles.
And it seems to me that the quintessential Victorian non-fiction is On the Origin of Species, which is beautifully written as well as world-changing. I strongly recommend it if you haven't read it yet. Especially for those of us who are fond of Roger Hamley. :) And by the way, I love that sweater.
Thanks for the Trollope suggestions! I'll definitely be adding these to the list. I've read bits and pieces of The Origins of Species, but I have to say I didn't find it that compelling... Maybe biology is just not for me! I've also read a selection of Darwin's letters which I found much more interesting, especially his complex relationship with religion.
While I would never discourage anyone from reading Shaw, I found You Never Can Tell to be a bit confused. I would recommend Arms and the Man (which is very silly) or The Philanderer (which has lots of Ibsen fans) first.
Have you heard of Ellen Johnston? I haven't read any of her work, but she was a Scottish factory worker who wrote an autobiography as well as some poetry.
I'll up The Philanderer and Arms and the Man in my priorities then - I do like Ibsen, and I do like silliness. Ellen Johnston sounds interesting too - never heard of her before.
I read King Solomon's Mines by Ryder Haggard recently, which was racist, a bit weird, but quite entertaining. Interesting to compare with Huckleberry Finn, Kipling or Conrad, and for its influence on Tarzan and Indiana Jones films.
I'll add that to the list - I think it would be an intellectually interesting one if nothing else.
Have you tried "The Three Clerks" by Anthony Trollope?
Erewhon is pronounced /ɛrɛhwɒn/ or as Butler wrote in the preface to his first edition: "The Author wishes it to be understood that Erewhon is pronounced as a word of three syllables, all short-thus, Ĕ-rĕ-whŏn." - I hope that helps.
Ha, not that much - I have a big problem pronouncing words I don't know, even when somehow explains, and writing something phonetically means very little to me. I just seem to have some block in my brain that makes it hard for me to sound out words I haven't heard before. I never realised how hard I found it until I moved to my current job - I edit Antiques Guides and spend a lot of time every day looking at company names and non-English words, thinking I entirely know how to say them, and then suddenly being correctly after months. Anyway...
Have you though of trying Arnold Bennett? e.g. The Grand Babylon Hotel, The Old Wives' Tale, Clayhanger, Anna of Five Towns. I have heard that these are great and want to start some of these myself.
What is your favourite Charles Dickens novel?
My favourite Dickens is Our Mutual Friend :) And I'll add Arnold Bennett to my list.
Books and Things Thank you! I wish I had more time, as I am a slow reader, to read all of your Victorian recommendations. I agree with you about Bleak House, a lifetime's experience of a book. My next Victorian read will be Our Mutual Friend followed by an Elizabeth Gaskell, whom I have never read.
I'll be down to read a Troulope novel, or two, next year ... I'm reading Le'Fanu's Camilla (then the "Vampyr" screenplay by Dreyer and Jul) and watch the film for mementormori's ##MMBook2Film channel, next week.
I hope you've been enjoying Carmilla :)
"...and enough of George Eliot that I don't need to read anymore."
B&T Oct. 16/18
I wonder which other VicLitters'll suffer her fate: Enough of ______ that I don't need to read anymore.
A Child of the Jago/A. Morrison bestselling novel
Decadents :
Charles Algernon Swinburne (poet)
Ernest Dowson (poet)
Walter Horatio Pater (lit. critic, essayist & fiction writer)
Fantasy authors
W. Morris
G. MacDonald
Non-fic besides Ruskin, Darwin
Hobsbawm
Macaulay
Carlyle
Newman eg. Apologia
Kilvert : Diary
H. Mayhew : London Labour and the London Poor
JS Mill
F. Engels : The Condition of the Working Class in England
Short Stories. Hmm. Irish writers William Carleton & S. Le Fanu.
And of course 'the silly novels by lady novelists' so bashed by Eliot.
Yeah, I do need to read more Carlyle; I studied his History of the French Revolution (and compared in to A Tale of Two Cities) for a history module at university about the interpretation of the French Revolution.
I have a question. Does Henry James count as a Victorian author? He was born in America but relocated to England, so I wasn’t sure of his classification.
I think it's kind of up to you. Sometimes he's counted, sometimes he's not - it seems to vary a lot. Conrad is usually counted as Victorian and he was born in Poland and relocated to England, but he became a British citizen and Henry James I don't think did, but they both did spend a lot of their lives in London.
I just finished Hester by Margaret Oliphant and I really liked it, and plan to read some more of her work. I much prefer her writing (so far) to Gaskill. There is a website, Oliphantfiction.com, where you can read ALL of Oliphant's works free.
I'm glad to hear you liked Hester. And thanks for the link, that'll come in handy!
wilkie collins
Wilkie Collins was my way into victorian fiction. I think I've read everything. Do check out his short fiction
There are three Wilkie Collins on this list. I have a feeling he's one of those authors I may try and read everything by in time.