Books and Things I agree, I love watching your videos very much, your passion is genuinely inspiring, and you kinda remind me of myself talking about classical Russian literature :D Anyway, thank you for your wonderful videos!
So much enthusiasm in this video. I love these videos so much. I think my favorite Victorian novel and my favorite novel of all time is little Dorrit. And my top 20 are all novels you mentioned. Victorian literature is just the best. Keep up with these amazing videos.
You are amazing. Just when I think I have read a novel, I listen to you and I am inspired to read it again! Is there a charity that distributes free books to the homeless and the poor. I can only think that literature is as necessary to one's well being as food and shelter.
I just love your pasion for Victorian novels. Wonderful, wonderfull video!! Most of the authors you mentioned are among my favorite novelists list. Hardy, Dickens, Gaskell, and the Brontë sisters, ahh.. I just can't get enough of their writings! Your pasion and enthusiasm has encouraged me to read the other titles you have introduced in your lovely video!
Your enthusiasm for Victorian literature is infectious! I do not read a lot of Victorian literature; I have read two Hardy's, two Gaskell's, four Bronte's, all of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and am slowly working my way through Dickens. I first read A tale of two cities (my favourite Dickens thus far) and then started at the beginning with Pickwick Papers to read them in publication order. I am currently reading Martin Chuzzlewit. (I have also read all Jane Austen's novels, but she is of course not Victorian). Love your videos!
I loved it you are amazing 😉 with your passion for Victorian literature Thankyou for sharing it. I've read Jane eyre and withering heights I have an Elizabeth Gaskell collection and also Anthony Trollope collection
Love your video! And thanks for featuring five novels by Charles Dickens! So many from which to select but Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and David Copperfield are first rate!!! I am reading and listening to Our Mutual Friend and there are some great sections there (The Rising Fall of the Rooshan Empire!) so, yes, a very, very good novel. I tried reading Dombey and Son twice but it was just too rough for me. Mr. Dombey was such a drag but your enthusiasm has me wondering if I should give it another try. By the way, my favorite Dickens is Pickwick Papers so have you read that one! Again, love your video!
Have you read Wilkie Collins's novels? He was a contemporary and collegue of Dickens. His most well known novels are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, No name and Armadale. I recently read The Moonstone and absolutely fell in love with it. Next gonna move to No name. The characters may not be as quirky and memorable as with Dickens but the plot holds together remarkably well and his characters are interesting enough.
I've read the Woman in White and the Moonstone, but not for ages and ages. I liked them, but it's been nearly ten years since I read them, so I don't remember them that well. I really must read some more of his books
I've only actually read The Moonstone and the Woman in White, and while I enjoyed both, they wouldn't make it into my top 20 (maybe top 30 or 40). I need to read more!
I have only just found your channel, but I'm so glad I did! I am currently living in Japan and could only bring about a dozen books with me. In two months I've got through most of them, so I've recently turned to books in the public domain that I can read as free ebooks. You made so many great recommendations here, so thank you :)
Your sheer enthusiasm for Victorian literature had resulted in me downloading five new books (including my first ever Dickens) to explore, so whilst I have missed out on partaking in victober I think the overall goal to widen my reading to Victorian literature has hit its mark.
I got Wives and Daughters, Far from the Madding Crowd, Mary Barton, Our Mutual Friend and Dombey and Son. I thought those sounded like books with great female leads.
WOW. i love this list; agree so much on favorite Dickens , and also Hardy ( Jude) . I am quite intrigued to "meet" Elizabeth Gaskell - i have to read The Way We Live Now first,
And... im off to bed to read OMFriend (my very first Dickens)- thanks to you! & its not even October yet lol! Got a *gorgeous* edition of Villette too just waiting on my bookshelf which youve gotten me so inspired to read. You're very good at inspiring.. passion & insight = brilliant video!! : )) xx oh yeah... OMF read along somewhere here on your channel... what a bonus! xx
What a fabulous video! Thank you for your thoughts and analysis of these books!! My goal for next year is to read through Dickens. Totally daunting but I'm also excited. May I reach out to you to discuss some elements along the way?
Wow!!! This is my first time watching your video and I am soooo impressed! It is so amazing that I agree with you and feel the way you feel about so many of these books/movies! Just to name the few that I love and agree with you on: Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Little Dorit, Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights, Bleak House, Wives and Daughters, Far from the maddening crowd, North and South, and Dombey and Son. I haven't heard of some of the others but will check them out in the future. I am a late comer to these wonderful Victorian novels. I have introduced so many friends to some of them. My favorite is Pride and Prejudice. What do you think about Sense and Sensibility and Tess of D'Urbeville? Also what is your take on The Duchess? I just subscribed!
Thanks very much! I haven't read The Duchess, but yes, I do like Sense and Sensibility and Tess of D'Urbevilles. Pride and Prejudice is a real favourite novel of mine too, not in this list only because it's not Victorian :)
I have begun reading Elizabeth Gaskell as a result of following your blogs. I really appreciate your list of Victorian novels, and will focus on these for 2022. I, too, love Charles Dickens, but yet have to read a number of those which you have on your list. I read a lot of history, and this plays into my appreciation of good literature. Thanks for the wonderful insights you provide. We will differ on "Wuthering Heights." I did not enjoy this book as I found the characters very self-centred and unkind. I couldn't find any redeeming characteristics, and that made me sad. I hope you do offer a series on Dickens as you suggest in your 2022 Reading Plan. I'm try to get through "The Old Curiosity Shop," but my heart breaks for Little Nell. Thanks for your offerings! I love reading, and appreciate the perspectives you share. Happy Reading!
This may be your best one yet! I love Victorian lit but haven't read nearly as much of it as you. You are so enthusiastic about these books that I want to read them all! So glad that the ones at the top of your list are ones I've not yet read. Been wanting to read "Our Mutual Friend" for years, and "Little Dorrit" was recently recommended to me by a local librarian and I've not yet read it. I need to watch this again and take notes. Thank you so much for giving us just the right amount of information to make great reading decisions. Are you on Goodreads, by chance? I'd love to follow your reviews or link up as friends if you'd like. Thank you again!
Books and Things Thanks! I've heard there is a long and kind of dull part in OMF that was keeping me away. You must not have seen it that way at all though, since it's your most favorite of all time. Looking forward to it.
Many of my favourite novels and also novels to be read are on this list, which is great. To answer the end-of-video question, my current favourite Victorian novel is either A Tale of Two Cities or Wuthering Heights (partly due to them being the first Victorian novels I ever read), the latter of which I was so glad to see so high up on the list.
They're by the Collector's Library, now an imprint of Pan Macmillan - they used to be independent and have changed their design since they were acquired by Pan Macmillan.
My favorite Victorian novel is still Jane Eyre. I've not reread it in a while, though, so am not sure if it would be demoted a star.... But I had SUCH fun with Dombey and Son and think I'm going to jump right into Our Mutual Friend :D
Thanks :) And yes, there will be a Gaskell week hopefully this September. I hadn't thought of Oscar Wilde as I'd been doing novels so far, but of course he has a lot of great plays and shorter works too, and is a favourite of mine.
I felt so happy when you mentioned The Picture of Dorian Gray by the brilliant Oscar Wilde, I have, in fact, read it last year and it never left my head, his words, his cynicism, and his witty, forceful, hyperbolic language and how he successfully weaves his characters into a complex and profound ones. He has simply made me so inspired.
I’m thinking of trying my first Anthony Trollope novel. Do you think it should be “The Way We Live Now”? Or do you have any suggestions on reading order? Love your videos and your enthusiasm about classics!!❤️
I often recommend Doctor Wortle's School or The Claverings as good places to start with Trollope. The Way We Live Now is one of my favourites and a good decent place to start too - so long as you don't mind a long novel.
Hi,just listened to your enthusiasm,very infectious it is.I,m not sure where to start.Amazon has now got a couple of orders. I have just finished my longest book ever,The last chronicles of barchester.So better steer of Trollope for a bit😜
Wonderful video what a wealth of knowledge! I would include George Eliot on this list especially if you're interested in gender during the Victorian period. Middlemarch, Adam Bede, the Mill on the Floss, Romola, and Felix Holt are fabulous. Daniel Deronda is on my to do list.
Thanks! I have read plenty of George Eliot (all of her novels save Felix Holt and Romola), but to be honest I'm not a big fan. I've just never really got into her writing style and don't really get her sense of humour. Daniel Deronda is my favourite of hers though, and a really interesting novel, so enjoy :)
Please can you review the novels of Ann Raclieffe?She was a 19nth century Gothic writer.Try The Romance of the Forest,The Castle of Udolpho and The Italian.
An excellent list. I know you are talking here exclusively of Victorian (English) literature, but in another video I just watched you talk about your favorite large novels, and included are French and Russian novels.... though I'm a novice to your channel, I must ask, do you read American (Victorian-era) novels? The pre-eminent novelists of the 1800's (Twain, Melville, Hawthorne) didn't really write novels in the vein you clearly prefer, but I wonder if you've ever read William Dean Howells? His books actually approximate the sort of novels Dickens and Trollope and Hardy wrote, and he was hugely popular in his day, though his reputation sadly has diminished considerably since. Not sure why, except that if one wants to read a Victorian-like novel, one can read an actual Victorian novel. Anyway, if you haven't read him, and if you may, I recommend "A Hazard of New Fortunes" and "A Modern Instance," both from the 1880s. And thank you for the trip through literary England.
Thanks! I haven't read Middlemarch, but I so enjoy your reviews and was wondering if I would put that on my list. I've just begun, Bleak House, which I am loving, and my next is Our Mutual Friend.
I love this video. I'm a huge fan of Victorian literature. There is still so much for me to read and this list could be really helpful for me. I've read all of the Bronte novels and they are closest to my heart - my top 3 : Wuthering Heights, Villette and Tenant of Wildfell Hall ;) I love North and South and my goal is to read all Gaskell novels but I don't know when that will be :) , you really got me curious about Mary Barton! I'm also looking forward to reading her book called Ruth after reading the synopsis. I couldn't get into Hardy but maybe I'll give him a chance again one day :P I loved Dickens's Bleak House, my favourite book of his so far but I still have lots to read so that could change. Personally, I am more drawn to female writers so I also plan to read more of George Eliot, I see her missing from your list. I really love The Mill On The Floss, it is one of my favourites, I need to re-read it one day :) Going a little offtopic - I was wondering, have you read any of the Edith Wharton novels? I totally recommend House of Mirth, I think it's fascinating and the last few chapters are simply heartbreaking.
I'm glad to hear you enjoy Gaskell and the Brontes too. If you love North and South, I very highly reocmmend Mary Barton, and Ruth is a great one too. I must actually read Miss on the Floss soon! I've only read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, which I really enjoyed, and I do need to get to more.
Excellent, I took some other ones to my TBR lists :) My favorite is The picture of Dorian Gray and also Jane Eyre, but I feel like I haven't read enough to know... By watching BBC adaptations I think I will also find in my favorites list North and South and Bleak House... which I plan to read in 2017 :) I got a copy of The Warden recently, because I'm curious about Barchester Towers and Doctor Thorne.
Wow! I’ll definitely add a bunch of these books into my reading list! I absolutely adore Jane Eyre, but I feel kind of bad for disliking Wuthering Heights haha (it feels like one of those books I ‘should’ enjoy). I think it’s written extremely well and beautifully, but I just abhorred all the characters so much...might be just a personal issue. Should try reading it again when I’m a bit older. Experience might help shift the lens through which I look at the book. Loved the video though, all the same!
@@katiejlumsden I just love the complexity and wealth of characters in the Novel, impossible to choose a favourite but I almost had sympathy for Bradley. The crafting of this story is the finest I have ever read, I mean he actually called the high society folks Vaneering! Nothing tells you more about a character than that name! I am interested in reading your work on this book if you'd be so kind and point me in the right direction. Thanks.
Dickens!!! Pip, oh sweet Pip. favorite. Copperfield is yes utterly wonderful. Pickwick! 2 Cities ! Scroooooge! Oliver! Bleak, bleak House! Nicholas Nickelby!! Mutual Friend Working on Donbey now. ( PS try Dan Simmons' Drood. 2009 Terrific!) Hardy's Jude, so tragic, so sad. Dorian Gray, yes. ALL the Brontes!!! Pride & Prejudice ----I know this is off topic but Susana Clark's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell! Soooo great! Also Cloud Atlas David Mitchell!! Grrreat video!!
Jane Eyre, The Professor, Wuthering Heights, Mary Barton , and North and South are my all time favorite classics.My goal before the end of next year is to complete all the Bronte's works as well as all of Gaskell's works. I recently read The Warden and enjoyed it so immediately bought Barchester Towers which I will get to shortly. I also recently read Dombey and Son, which i really enjoyed ..that was my first Dickens. I plan to read Little Dorrit next, followed by Our Mutual Friend. The Picture of Dorian Grey was one I did not enjoy at all. I realize so many people love that book but it did nothing for me. I have so many Classics I still need to get to. I have dedicated this year and next to reading classics as my main focus while still sprinkling in some modern works.
It's nice to see something rate the Professor highly. I enjoy it a lot (although I prefer Villette probably) and it often gets forgotten about. Have you read Villette? I hope you enjoy Barchester Towers and your ongoing Dickens :)
Books and Things i have read villette years ago and i loved it but somehow it has not made it into my all time favorites. i plan to give it a go again in a year or so :)
Alun Armstrong was DELICIOUSLY horrid in the R S C production and as wonderfully slimed as Sampson Brass in the old curiosity shop when played.Jeavons who could always play a revolting character with the greatest of ease repulsive in every way. dickens characters were a wonderful insight into his power of observation catch all the details FrancuscL Sullivan's beadle and his Jagger's were both masterpieces taken straight from the page I have the entire works of Dickens to hand for night reading they have given me years of pleasure God Bless Hugo
Ug your passion is infectious! XD Question do you know of any Victorian LGBT works? I suspect they may be hard to find but surely SOME exist somewhere.
If they were written, they wouldn't have been published! There are quite a few with undertones in various works of literature, whether intended by the author or not (there's an interesting critical book by Holly Furneux called Queer Dickens about homoeroticism and anti-hetronormativism in Dickens); then there's a lot of implications in Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray. Other than that, the earliest oververtly LGBT work I know is E. M. Forster's Maurice, written in 1913-14 (though not published until the 1970s).
Books and Things yeh which is a deep shame. :( I have Maurice but I haven't got around to it yet. I guess the closest I could get to Victorian LGBT stuff is modern books written in that era. Thanks for the recommendation about Dickens' work, though! :) (also I've been meaning to ask, why did you hate Dracula? Lols. It's one of my favorites but I like gothic horror type stuff. Hehe. )
I find the presentation of women in it very frustrating (and more sexist than the rest of Victorian literature, which is pretty problematic), and the way it which it depicts female sexuality and mingles sexuality and violence I find very uncomfortable. Plus I studied it at A Level, which didn't help me like it any more XD
Books and Things Ah I see. Hm the women didn't bother me too much in the book. I guess how they were treated was accurate for the times (still doesn't make it right etc) but I do like Mina's character so much more in the book then I do in any adaption they've made. She's always made to be Dracula's 'love interest' ug no thanks. =\
No George Eliot? How can you have a list of favorite Victorian novels without any George Eliot? Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda would make my list. Rosamond Vincy Lydgate is a chilling portrait of a narcissistic personality disorder I've ever read. Our Mutual Friend is my favorite Dickens - the story of Lizzie and Eugene is unique, I think. Charlie Hexam is fascinating. Next probably is Bleak House or Little Dorrit, it's hard to decide. Of Trollope, I think The Last Chronicle of Barset is arguably his best and most psychologically probing, and the Palliser novels generally. Trollope himself said if he would be remembered at all it would be for the characters of Josiah Crawley and Plantagenet Palliser. I would also include The Woman in White and perhaps The Moonstone as well. And isn't Oscar Wilde later than the rest? I think of him as Edwardian generally.
Oscar Wilde died 1900, a year before Victoria did - but yes, he's late Victorian, and a lot of my other favourites are early to mid Victorian. I'm glad to hear you love Our Mutual Friend too, and since making this video I've finished off the Barsetshire Chronicles are just adored them. I'm not a massive fan of George Eliot - I've read five out of her seven and while I like her characters and plots, especially in Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, her writing style just isn't very for me. Wilkie Collins is another author I enjoy, but haven't picked up for too long!
@@katiejlumsden Now i have read North and South and JUST completed THE WAY WE LIVE NOW. Gaskell was good stuff but i loved the Trollope moreso ! thanks
Thanks for uploading this list, hope i get to read atlest some of these books Just to comment on something that your statements on gender roles in vic. lit. reminded me of...this is a bit long so the TL;DR would be perhaps we could think of Dickens as a Maternal Feminist....oh and I hope you don't take offense of a guy talking about feminism as if he know something about the topic, I promise my sources are all women. I read a collection of essays through out this year, "Feminist Theorists: Three centuries of women’s intellectual traditions"(1983). The idea of the book wasn't so much to present a full view of feminism so much as to introduce you to feminist authors. My big take away was that feminism was for a, surprisingly long, time a fairly conservatively motivated position to hold. Alot of the women in the book, mostly the XIX century and English, didn't seem interested in abolishing patriarchy. The problem they wanted solved wasn't that men and women are expected to have different roles, women being expected to be docile housewives, but that the education that women received didn't prepare them for this position, and, later on, that this role should not just be confined to home life but that it should also be extended to social and political life as well. In one of the essays a distinction was drawn between Political/Equal Rights feminist, e.g. the suffragists movement, and Social/Maternal feminism, this more one more focused on equal education, for a decent conservative society. Another essay points to the fact that the education women received in the late XIX early XX century was actually something women had fought to obtain, and the reason this sounds so weird is that women's history is not taught. Point being, i've never read Dickens and know nothing about him or English feminism(or really history in general) - is it possible that he was being subtly/mildly feminist in his work, but the strain of feminism he was inline with has fallen out today? Again sorry if any of this came off as patronizing, and for the length of my post(s).
Thanks! And no offence taken of course. There is certainly a sort of social feminism within Dickens, and he certainly aims to fight for the plight of women and for the equality of women - although his emphasis on the separate spheres / different roles for men and women are very very problematic; it's a 'different but equal' idea, which in some ways is better than a lot of other schools of thought within the nineteenth century, but still not exactly what would be considered feminism.
Such a pity it's the last day it's been great may I suggest to give you even more enjoyment reading Mr Squeers try watch the Royal Shakespeare company production of the life and times of Nicholas nickleby then you can think of the totally vile and horrid squares character wonderfully invoked in this production which goes so well with the original text. I shall keep an eye on your readings they are done with such a lovely manner
It's great to see how reading has opened up a whole world for you it is such a shame that the majority of your generation don't have the ability to spend time reading you are so keen eager and inspired LOVELY to see. I shall keep an eye open to follow your site have a great summer Very Best Wishes Hugo
Well, yes, it does. These are my favourite Victorian novels (as opposed to what I think are categorically the best Victorian novels), and the theme and topic of gender is probably the one I find most interesting when explored within Victorian literature, it does to a large extent dictate what my favourite Victorian books are.
I've read a lot of Dickens, but Dombey and Son is the only one I decided to stop reading. It bored me soooo much. It went on and on and on and on with nothing happening. None of the lovable 'characters' usually found in his novels; nor a great driving plot as found in his others, not even a sense of social injustice or obvious theme. It just goes on and on and on ..... you get the point.
I think I read about 60% of it (on a kindle) before giving up. Dickens usually delivers such good books. Nicholas Nickleby is probably one of my top three favourite books. I've read and loved many others of his; but Dombey and Son just wasn't for me. Perhaps it was the mood I was in when reading it. I'll perhaps try it again sometime. Thanks for the recommendation.
@@muskndusk Possibly we just have very different Dickens taste, then - Nicholas Nickleby is one of my least favourites. His books are all a bit different :)
As soon as I saw the title of this vid I knew OMF wd be #1. No surprise. Lesser known novelists Gissing & Meredith made your list, & a Trollope; well known more heavyweight sophisticated ones as G. Eliot & Thackeray did not. Interesting. As you read more lesser-known writers, maybe 1 or more novels will crash your top 20 in future. Who knows.
I'm sure that's true. Since filming this I've finished The Half Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury which would easily creep into my top 20. However, while I have enjoyed some things by George Eliot and Thackeray, I haven't loved them as much and they wouldn't make it into my top 20.
I love how passionate about Victorian novels you are. It really makes me want to grab some of the books and read them.
Thanks - I hope you enjoy them if you do.
Books and Things I agree, I love watching your videos very much, your passion is genuinely inspiring, and you kinda remind me of myself talking about classical Russian literature :D
Anyway, thank you for your wonderful videos!
Same
Load up this channel whenever I don't know what to read lol
So much enthusiasm in this video. I love these videos so much. I think my favorite Victorian novel and my favorite novel of all time is little Dorrit. And my top 20 are all novels you mentioned. Victorian literature is just the best. Keep up with these amazing videos.
Thank you :) I do love Little Dorrit a lot - what a book!
My two favorite Victorian novels are The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Wuthering Heights!!! I really like this video!!!
Thanks :)
I really appreciate your enthusiasm! I think we could have wonderful discussions over tea!
You are amazing. Just when I think I have read a novel, I listen to you and I am inspired to read it again!
Is there a charity that distributes free books to the homeless and the poor. I can only think that literature is as necessary to one's well being as food and shelter.
Thanks! And there are quite a few book charities - if look take a look on google, they are a few.
I just love your pasion for Victorian novels. Wonderful, wonderfull video!! Most of the authors you mentioned are among my favorite novelists list. Hardy, Dickens, Gaskell, and the Brontë sisters, ahh.. I just can't get enough of their writings! Your pasion and enthusiasm has encouraged me to read the other titles you have introduced in your lovely video!
Thanks so much - I highly recommend everything I've spoken about that you haven't read :)
Books and Things you are most welcome! I will absolutely read all of them!
Great video……thanks so much for your enthusiasm regarding these great works of literature!
wonderful video! I'll use this as my TBR! I'm actually going to start Wives and Daughter's today :-) thank you SO much!
Thanks :) I hope you enjoy Wives and Daughters!
Your enthusiasm for Victorian literature is infectious! I do not read a lot of Victorian literature; I have read two Hardy's, two Gaskell's, four Bronte's, all of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and am slowly working my way through Dickens. I first read A tale of two cities (my favourite Dickens thus far) and then started at the beginning with Pickwick Papers to read them in publication order. I am currently reading Martin Chuzzlewit. (I have also read all Jane Austen's novels, but she is of course not Victorian). Love your videos!
Thanks :) I hope you enjoy getting through Dickens in chronological order - it'll be interesting to see his development.
Wuthering Heights got me into the Classics I’m forever grateful! I am keeping this list so i know which books to buy 💛
Thanks :) Wuthering Heights is so good!
I loved it you are amazing 😉 with your passion for Victorian literature
Thankyou for sharing it. I've read Jane eyre and withering heights
I have an Elizabeth Gaskell collection and also Anthony Trollope collection
Thank you. I hope you enjoy Gaskell and Trollope!
Love your video! And thanks for featuring five novels by Charles Dickens! So many from which to select but Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and David Copperfield are first rate!!! I am reading and listening to Our Mutual Friend and there are some great sections there (The Rising Fall of the Rooshan Empire!) so, yes, a very, very good novel. I tried reading Dombey and Son twice but it was just too rough for me. Mr. Dombey was such a drag but your enthusiasm has me wondering if I should give it another try. By the way, my favorite Dickens is Pickwick Papers so have you read that one! Again, love your video!
Dickens is my fave! So glad you're enjoying Our Mutual Friend. I do really recommend giving Dombey and Son another try - I absolutely adore it.
@@katiejlumsden I will give it a try, for sure! Yes, me too... Love my Dickens!!!
Have you read Wilkie Collins's novels? He was a contemporary and collegue of Dickens. His most well known novels are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, No name and Armadale. I recently read The Moonstone and absolutely fell in love with it. Next gonna move to No name. The characters may not be as quirky and memorable as with Dickens but the plot holds together remarkably well and his characters are interesting enough.
I've read the Woman in White and the Moonstone, but not for ages and ages. I liked them, but it's been nearly ten years since I read them, so I don't remember them that well. I really must read some more of his books
Good list. No love for Wilkie Collins? Woman in White, No Name, Armadale, The Moonstone?
I've only actually read The Moonstone and the Woman in White, and while I enjoyed both, they wouldn't make it into my top 20 (maybe top 30 or 40). I need to read more!
Wow! You really make me want to read them all! I'll probably start with your number 1, and then go on with The Way We Live Now.
Enjoy :)
I have only just found your channel, but I'm so glad I did! I am currently living in Japan and could only bring about a dozen books with me. In two months I've got through most of them, so I've recently turned to books in the public domain that I can read as free ebooks. You made so many great recommendations here, so thank you :)
Thanks :) I hope you enjoy some of them.
This was such a great video, and I now have some new titles to read! This is one of my new favorite videos! Excellent content.
Thanks!
Your sheer enthusiasm for Victorian literature had resulted in me downloading five new books (including my first ever Dickens) to explore, so whilst I have missed out on partaking in victober I think the overall goal to widen my reading to Victorian literature has hit its mark.
Hoorah! I really hope you enjoy them :) What are the five books?
I got Wives and Daughters, Far from the Madding Crowd, Mary Barton, Our Mutual Friend and Dombey and Son. I thought those sounded like books with great female leads.
Ooo such brilliant books. I hope you enjoy them all :)
WOW. i love this list; agree so much on favorite Dickens , and also Hardy ( Jude) . I am quite intrigued to "meet" Elizabeth Gaskell - i have to read The Way We Live Now first,
Gaskell is AMAZING - I highly recommend her books.
@@katiejlumsden thank you ! you know i will
And... im off to bed to read OMFriend (my very first Dickens)- thanks to you! & its not even October yet lol! Got a *gorgeous* edition of Villette too just waiting on my bookshelf which youve gotten me so inspired to read. You're very good at inspiring.. passion & insight = brilliant video!! : )) xx oh yeah... OMF read along somewhere here on your channel... what a bonus! xx
Hope you like them both! :)
What a fabulous video! Thank you for your thoughts and analysis of these books!! My goal for next year is to read through Dickens. Totally daunting but I'm also excited. May I reach out to you to discuss some elements along the way?
Thank you! And of course :) I hope you enjoy your Dickens experience :)
Wow!!! This is my first time watching your video and I am soooo impressed! It is so amazing that I agree with you and feel the way you feel about so many of these books/movies! Just to name the few that I love and agree with you on: Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Little Dorit, Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights, Bleak House, Wives and Daughters, Far from the maddening crowd, North and South, and Dombey and Son. I haven't heard of some of the others but will check them out in the future. I am a late comer to these wonderful Victorian novels. I have introduced so many friends to some of them. My favorite is Pride and Prejudice. What do you think about Sense and Sensibility and Tess of D'Urbeville? Also what is your take on The Duchess? I just subscribed!
Thanks very much! I haven't read The Duchess, but yes, I do like Sense and Sensibility and Tess of D'Urbevilles. Pride and Prejudice is a real favourite novel of mine too, not in this list only because it's not Victorian :)
I have begun reading Elizabeth Gaskell as a result of following your blogs. I really appreciate your list of Victorian novels, and will focus on these for 2022. I, too, love Charles Dickens, but yet have to read a number of those which you have on your list. I read a lot of history, and this plays into my appreciation of good literature. Thanks for the wonderful insights you provide.
We will differ on "Wuthering Heights." I did not enjoy this book as I found the characters very self-centred and unkind. I couldn't find any redeeming characteristics, and that made me sad.
I hope you do offer a series on Dickens as you suggest in your 2022 Reading Plan. I'm try to get through "The Old Curiosity Shop," but my heart breaks for Little Nell.
Thanks for your offerings! I love reading, and appreciate the perspectives you share.
Happy Reading!
Glad you've been enjoying Gaskell - she is so wonderful.
This may be your best one yet! I love Victorian lit but haven't read nearly as much of it as you. You are so enthusiastic about these books that I want to read them all! So glad that the ones at the top of your list are ones I've not yet read. Been wanting to read "Our Mutual Friend" for years, and "Little Dorrit" was recently recommended to me by a local librarian and I've not yet read it. I need to watch this again and take notes. Thank you so much for giving us just the right amount of information to make great reading decisions. Are you on Goodreads, by chance? I'd love to follow your reviews or link up as friends if you'd like. Thank you again!
Books and Things Thanks! I've heard there is a long and kind of dull part in OMF that was keeping me away. You must not have seen it that way at all though, since it's your most favorite of all time. Looking forward to it.
I've actually never heard anyone say that. There certainly isn't a dull moment for me!
Great video. I LOVE Victorian literature.😁
I love the Brontës, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell & Henry James. Read any of his books?
I've read some Henry James - I'm not a massive fan to be honest, but I haven't read much.
Many of my favourite novels and also novels to be read are on this list, which is great. To answer the end-of-video question, my current favourite Victorian novel is either A Tale of Two Cities or Wuthering Heights (partly due to them being the first Victorian novels I ever read), the latter of which I was so glad to see so high up on the list.
Two very good books :)
Wow!! You have so much knowledge about this time period! The copies you have are lovely, who published those?
They're by the Collector's Library, now an imprint of Pan Macmillan - they used to be independent and have changed their design since they were acquired by Pan Macmillan.
Thanks!
My favorite Victorian novel is still Jane Eyre. I've not reread it in a while, though, so am not sure if it would be demoted a star.... But I had SUCH fun with Dombey and Son and think I'm going to jump right into Our Mutual Friend :D
YAY. I am so glad you have loved Dombey and Son and I hope you like Our Mutual Friend too.
Oh Katie! Your passion is infectious !! I'm wondering if you will be devoting a week to Elizabeth Gaskell , or Oscar Wilde ?
Thanks :) And yes, there will be a Gaskell week hopefully this September. I hadn't thought of Oscar Wilde as I'd been doing novels so far, but of course he has a lot of great plays and shorter works too, and is a favourite of mine.
I felt so happy when you mentioned The Picture of Dorian Gray by the brilliant Oscar Wilde, I have, in fact, read it last year and it never left my head, his words, his cynicism, and his witty, forceful, hyperbolic language and how he successfully weaves his characters into a complex and profound ones. He has simply made me so inspired.
It's a fantastic book :)
I’m thinking of trying my first Anthony Trollope novel. Do you think it should be “The Way We Live Now”? Or do you have any suggestions on reading order? Love your videos and your enthusiasm about classics!!❤️
I often recommend Doctor Wortle's School or The Claverings as good places to start with Trollope. The Way We Live Now is one of my favourites and a good decent place to start too - so long as you don't mind a long novel.
Hi,just listened to your enthusiasm,very infectious it is.I,m not sure where to start.Amazon has now got a couple of orders.
I have just finished my longest book ever,The last chronicles of barchester.So better steer of Trollope for a bit😜
Thanks! I hope you enjoy them :)
Wonderful video what a wealth of knowledge! I would include George Eliot on this list especially if you're interested in gender during the Victorian period. Middlemarch, Adam Bede, the Mill on the Floss, Romola, and Felix Holt are fabulous. Daniel Deronda is on my to do list.
Thanks! I have read plenty of George Eliot (all of her novels save Felix Holt and Romola), but to be honest I'm not a big fan. I've just never really got into her writing style and don't really get her sense of humour. Daniel Deronda is my favourite of hers though, and a really interesting novel, so enjoy :)
Please can you review the novels of Ann Raclieffe?She was a 19nth century Gothic writer.Try The Romance of the Forest,The Castle of Udolpho and The Italian.
Thanks, I'll try and read them :)
An excellent list. I know you are talking here exclusively of Victorian (English) literature, but in another video I just watched you talk about your favorite large novels, and included are French and Russian novels.... though I'm a novice to your channel, I must ask, do you read American (Victorian-era) novels? The pre-eminent novelists of the 1800's (Twain, Melville, Hawthorne) didn't really write novels in the vein you clearly prefer, but I wonder if you've ever read William Dean Howells? His books actually approximate the sort of novels Dickens and Trollope and Hardy wrote, and he was hugely popular in his day, though his reputation sadly has diminished considerably since. Not sure why, except that if one wants to read a Victorian-like novel, one can read an actual Victorian novel. Anyway, if you haven't read him, and if you may, I recommend "A Hazard of New Fortunes" and "A Modern Instance," both from the 1880s. And thank you for the trip through literary England.
I've read very few American 19th century novels, but I would like to. William Dean Howells sounds great!
Thank you, again. Have you reviewed Middlemarch, by George Elliot?
I've read it, but not since I was about 15, so haven't mentioned it much on this channel. Not hugely one of my favourites but I must reread it.
Thanks! I haven't read Middlemarch, but I so enjoy your reviews and was wondering if I would put that on my list. I've just begun, Bleak House, which I am loving, and my next is Our Mutual Friend.
I’m about to have cervical and lumbar surgeries. I’m looking for books to read during this time. These all look like good choices.
I love this video. I'm a huge fan of Victorian literature. There is still so much for me to read and this list could be really helpful for me. I've read all of the Bronte novels and they are closest to my heart - my top 3 : Wuthering Heights, Villette and Tenant of Wildfell Hall ;) I love North and South and my goal is to read all Gaskell novels but I don't know when that will be :) , you really got me curious about Mary Barton! I'm also looking forward to reading her book called Ruth after reading the synopsis. I couldn't get into Hardy but maybe I'll give him a chance again one day :P I loved Dickens's Bleak House, my favourite book of his so far but I still have lots to read so that could change. Personally, I am more drawn to female writers so I also plan to read more of George Eliot, I see her missing from your list. I really love The Mill On The Floss, it is one of my favourites, I need to re-read it one day :)
Going a little offtopic - I was wondering, have you read any of the Edith Wharton novels? I totally recommend House of Mirth, I think it's fascinating and the last few chapters are simply heartbreaking.
I'm glad to hear you enjoy Gaskell and the Brontes too. If you love North and South, I very highly reocmmend Mary Barton, and Ruth is a great one too. I must actually read Miss on the Floss soon! I've only read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, which I really enjoyed, and I do need to get to more.
How did I live without this channel?
Ha thank you!
I am from Pakistan.
I glad to know that someone who is passionate about literature on TH-cam.
Thanks! There are lots of us.
Excellent, I took some other ones to my TBR lists :) My favorite is The picture of Dorian Gray and also Jane Eyre, but I feel like I haven't read enough to know... By watching BBC adaptations I think I will also find in my favorites list North and South and Bleak House... which I plan to read in 2017 :) I got a copy of The Warden recently, because I'm curious about Barchester Towers and Doctor Thorne.
North and South and Bleak House are wonderful books, and I hope you enjoy them :) If you like the adaptations, I'm sure you will!
Wow! I’ll definitely add a bunch of these books into my reading list! I absolutely adore Jane Eyre, but I feel kind of bad for disliking Wuthering Heights haha (it feels like one of those books I ‘should’ enjoy). I think it’s written extremely well and beautifully, but I just abhorred all the characters so much...might be just a personal issue. Should try reading it again when I’m a bit older. Experience might help shift the lens through which I look at the book. Loved the video though, all the same!
I love Wuthering Heights but it's definitely a marmite book!
I never thought I'd find an individual who shared a most favourite book. OMF is the most amazing book! I think I need to be took down!
Such a wonderful book!
@@katiejlumsden I just love the complexity and wealth of characters in the Novel, impossible to choose a favourite but I almost had sympathy for Bradley. The crafting of this story is the finest I have ever read, I mean he actually called the high society folks Vaneering! Nothing tells you more about a character than that name! I am interested in reading your work on this book if you'd be so kind and point me in the right direction. Thanks.
Can't wait to read The Way we Live Now by Anthony Trollope and Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell.
I can't wait for you to read them - I so hope you like them :D
Wuthering heights is an eloquent artwork!!!! ☺️
It's just brilliant.
Dickens!!! Pip, oh sweet Pip. favorite. Copperfield is yes utterly wonderful. Pickwick! 2 Cities ! Scroooooge! Oliver! Bleak, bleak House! Nicholas Nickelby!! Mutual Friend Working on Donbey now. ( PS try Dan Simmons' Drood. 2009 Terrific!) Hardy's Jude, so tragic, so sad. Dorian Gray, yes. ALL the Brontes!!! Pride & Prejudice ----I know this is off topic but Susana Clark's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell! Soooo great! Also Cloud Atlas David Mitchell!! Grrreat video!!
Why no George Eliot? Middlemarch?
Jane Eyre, The Professor, Wuthering Heights, Mary Barton , and North and South are my all time favorite classics.My goal before the end of next year is to complete all the Bronte's works as well as all of Gaskell's works. I recently read The Warden and enjoyed it so immediately bought Barchester Towers which I will get to shortly. I also recently read Dombey and Son, which i really enjoyed ..that was my first Dickens. I plan to read Little Dorrit next, followed by Our Mutual Friend. The Picture of Dorian Grey was one I did not enjoy at all. I realize so many people love that book but it did nothing for me. I have so many Classics I still need to get to. I have dedicated this year and next to reading classics as my main focus while still sprinkling in some modern works.
It's nice to see something rate the Professor highly. I enjoy it a lot (although I prefer Villette probably) and it often gets forgotten about. Have you read Villette? I hope you enjoy Barchester Towers and your ongoing Dickens :)
Books and Things i have read villette years ago and i loved it but somehow it has not made it into my all time favorites. i plan to give it a go again in a year or so :)
Cythraea? Is that Hardy's character's name? Not really South Korea or Sie Freya, right?
You are a treasure!
Alun Armstrong was DELICIOUSLY horrid in the R S C production and as wonderfully slimed as Sampson Brass in the old curiosity shop when played.Jeavons who could always play a revolting character with the greatest of ease repulsive in every way. dickens characters were a wonderful insight into his power of observation catch all the details FrancuscL Sullivan's beadle and his Jagger's were both masterpieces taken straight from the page I have the entire works of Dickens to hand for night reading they have given me years of pleasure God Bless Hugo
I luv the classics but have never been attracted to dickens but you have converted me !
I highly recommend his books!
Ug your passion is infectious! XD Question do you know of any Victorian LGBT works? I suspect they may be hard to find but surely SOME exist somewhere.
If they were written, they wouldn't have been published! There are quite a few with undertones in various works of literature, whether intended by the author or not (there's an interesting critical book by Holly Furneux called Queer Dickens about homoeroticism and anti-hetronormativism in Dickens); then there's a lot of implications in Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray. Other than that, the earliest oververtly LGBT work I know is E. M. Forster's Maurice, written in 1913-14 (though not published until the 1970s).
Books and Things yeh which is a deep shame. :( I have Maurice but I haven't got around to it yet. I guess the closest I could get to Victorian LGBT stuff is modern books written in that era. Thanks for the recommendation about Dickens' work, though! :)
(also I've been meaning to ask, why did you hate Dracula? Lols. It's one of my favorites but I like gothic horror type stuff. Hehe. )
I find the presentation of women in it very frustrating (and more sexist than the rest of Victorian literature, which is pretty problematic), and the way it which it depicts female sexuality and mingles sexuality and violence I find very uncomfortable. Plus I studied it at A Level, which didn't help me like it any more XD
Books and Things Ah I see. Hm the women didn't bother me too much in the book. I guess how they were treated was accurate for the times (still doesn't make it right etc) but I do like Mina's character so much more in the book then I do in any adaption they've made. She's always made to be Dracula's 'love interest' ug no thanks. =\
Don't forget Hester by the wonderful Mrs Oliphant.
I haven't read it yet!
No George Eliot? How can you have a list of favorite Victorian novels without any George Eliot? Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda would make my list. Rosamond Vincy Lydgate is a chilling portrait of a narcissistic personality disorder I've ever read. Our Mutual Friend is my favorite Dickens - the story of Lizzie and Eugene is unique, I think. Charlie Hexam is fascinating. Next probably is Bleak House or Little Dorrit, it's hard to decide. Of Trollope, I think The Last Chronicle of Barset is arguably his best and most psychologically probing, and the Palliser novels generally. Trollope himself said if he would be remembered at all it would be for the characters of Josiah Crawley and Plantagenet Palliser. I would also include The Woman in White and perhaps The Moonstone as well. And isn't Oscar Wilde later than the rest? I think of him as Edwardian generally.
Oscar Wilde died 1900, a year before Victoria did - but yes, he's late Victorian, and a lot of my other favourites are early to mid Victorian. I'm glad to hear you love Our Mutual Friend too, and since making this video I've finished off the Barsetshire Chronicles are just adored them. I'm not a massive fan of George Eliot - I've read five out of her seven and while I like her characters and plots, especially in Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, her writing style just isn't very for me. Wilkie Collins is another author I enjoy, but haven't picked up for too long!
funny, i have read the Warden and doc Thorne but not Barchester ( or the Way we Live Now )
Oh, if you liked The Warden, you must read Barchester Towers!
@@katiejlumsden Now i have read North and South and JUST completed THE WAY WE LIVE NOW. Gaskell was good stuff but i loved the Trollope moreso ! thanks
You reasd allot of Charles Dickens, but what about Monica Dickens?
I do own one book by her, but haven't yet picked it up.
Thanks for uploading this list, hope i get to read atlest some of these books
Just to comment on something that your statements on gender roles in vic. lit. reminded me of...this is a bit long so the TL;DR would be perhaps we could think of Dickens as a Maternal Feminist....oh and I hope you don't take offense of a guy talking about feminism as if he know something about the topic, I promise my sources are all women.
I read a collection of essays through out this year, "Feminist Theorists: Three centuries of women’s intellectual traditions"(1983). The idea of the book wasn't so much to present a full view of feminism so much as to introduce you to feminist authors. My big take away was that feminism was for a, surprisingly long, time a fairly conservatively motivated position to hold. Alot of the women in the book, mostly the XIX century and English, didn't seem interested in abolishing patriarchy. The problem they wanted solved wasn't that men and women are expected to have different roles, women being expected to be docile housewives, but that the education that women received didn't prepare them for this position, and, later on, that this role should not just be confined to home life but that it should also be extended to social and political life as well. In one of the essays a distinction was drawn between Political/Equal Rights feminist, e.g. the suffragists movement, and Social/Maternal feminism, this more one more focused on equal education, for a decent conservative society. Another essay points to the fact that the education women received in the late XIX early XX century was actually something women had fought to obtain, and the reason this sounds so weird is that women's history is not taught.
Point being, i've never read Dickens and know nothing about him or English feminism(or really history in general) - is it possible that he was being subtly/mildly feminist in his work, but the strain of feminism he was inline with has fallen out today? Again sorry if any of this came off as patronizing, and for the length of my post(s).
Thanks! And no offence taken of course. There is certainly a sort of social feminism within Dickens, and he certainly aims to fight for the plight of women and for the equality of women - although his emphasis on the separate spheres / different roles for men and women are very very problematic; it's a 'different but equal' idea, which in some ways is better than a lot of other schools of thought within the nineteenth century, but still not exactly what would be considered feminism.
Such a pity it's the last day it's been great may I suggest to give you even more enjoyment reading Mr Squeers try watch the Royal Shakespeare company production of the life and times of Nicholas nickleby then you can think of the totally vile and horrid squares character wonderfully invoked in this production which goes so well with the original text. I shall keep an eye on your readings they are done with such a lovely manner
I have seen the RSC play of Nicholas Nickelby, which I really did love :)
Mary Barton has been sitting on my shelf since university! (like more than a decade now!). I'm going to try to read it this year.
It's a great book - enjoy!
I'm proud to say I've read all of these except the Egoist. MUST REMEDY IT NOW.
You must!
How bout I grab a Diet Coke?!
It's great to see how reading has opened up a whole world for you it is such a shame that the majority of your generation don't have the ability to spend time reading you are so keen eager and inspired LOVELY to see. I shall keep an eye open to follow your site have a great summer Very Best Wishes Hugo
This is a much appreciated video, thank you. But for goodness sake, does everything have to be rated based on how it portrayed gender?
Well, yes, it does. These are my favourite Victorian novels (as opposed to what I think are categorically the best Victorian novels), and the theme and topic of gender is probably the one I find most interesting when explored within Victorian literature, it does to a large extent dictate what my favourite Victorian books are.
Books and Things Uhuh
Yes I am surprised you didn't pick Charles Dickens as all of your choices to read. Lol.!
Haha yes, not quite.
If you have a couple of hours, I think you'll really enjoy this: th-cam.com/video/mP8dllTkpEg/w-d-xo.html
I'll add it to my watch later playlist :)
I've read a lot of Dickens, but Dombey and Son is the only one I decided to stop reading. It bored me soooo much. It went on and on and on and on with nothing happening. None of the lovable 'characters' usually found in his novels; nor a great driving plot as found in his others, not even a sense of social injustice or obvious theme. It just goes on and on and on ..... you get the point.
I would really recommend continuing with it. Dickens can often take a while to get going and for me, Dombey and Son is full of lovable characters.
I think I read about 60% of it (on a kindle) before giving up. Dickens usually delivers such good books. Nicholas Nickleby is probably one of my top three favourite books. I've read and loved many others of his; but Dombey and Son just wasn't for me.
Perhaps it was the mood I was in when reading it. I'll perhaps try it again sometime. Thanks for the recommendation.
@@muskndusk Possibly we just have very different Dickens taste, then - Nicholas Nickleby is one of my least favourites. His books are all a bit different :)
Interesting.
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As soon as I saw the title of this vid I knew OMF wd be #1. No surprise. Lesser known novelists Gissing & Meredith made your list, & a Trollope; well known more heavyweight sophisticated ones as G. Eliot & Thackeray did not. Interesting. As you read more lesser-known writers, maybe 1 or more novels will crash your top 20 in future. Who knows.
I'm sure that's true. Since filming this I've finished The Half Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury which would easily creep into my top 20. However, while I have enjoyed some things by George Eliot and Thackeray, I haven't loved them as much and they wouldn't make it into my top 20.
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I appreciate the education, but wish you would speak much more slowly and fix the room echo.