My first Victorian toe dipping was Wuthering Heights and I absolutely hated it! My next was Jane Eyre, and it was mind blowing! I seriously thought it would be my #1 for the rest of my life. Then I entered the land of Dickens! I am a huge fanboy now and my favorite book that I am sure will never be changed, is David Copperfield! I am 60 percent finished with all his works, and I have absolutely loved every word!!! I also really loved Wilkie Collins and the Moonstone! I am looking forward to experiencing The Woman in White!
This was a terrific list, Kate! I really enjoyed how you worked your personal experiences with these books into your comments and thoughts-when in your life you read these books, why that may have affected how you felt about them at the time, etc. While I always enjoy a synopsis of a book, I always prefer when a UA-camr interacts personally with the book, like you have here!
My favorite Dickens novel is The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. It is so dang funny. The edition I first read is very old and has that full title. It wasn't my first Dickens but I've re-read it many times. For Victober, I'm reading The Warden (Anthony Trollope) and Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell). They may not make it into October, though, because I just started The Priory (Dorothy Whipple) and it's quite a long book. Love your channel, Kate.
Yes me too! I'm usually wanting to get rid of the book but Kate has inspired me to hold onto many a bit longer to see if it may be one I think of and will try again.
Thanks so much for your Victober videos! This is my first time taking part. I decided upon reading some Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Speckled Band and A Study in Scarlet. I read The Study in Scarlet and really enjoyed it. Also Wilkie Collins The Law and the Lady, Parables of the Cross. I started Kilverts Diary and am really enjoying so far. Thx again for all your great suggestions, i love your channel.
I find this so interesting. I have a diametrically opposed opinion of some of these books, but I love hearing why some did or did not work for you. My first Dickens was A Tale of Two Cities and I loved it, but I haven't read it for over 40 years so I want to reread and see how I like it now. My first Thomas Hardy was Tess of the D'Urbervilles and I hated it, but I have enjoyed most of his novels that I have read. And finally I read Silas Marner as my first Eliot and I didn't like it. It was many years ago and I suspect my feelings would be different now since I loved Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, and Adam Bede.
This is so fun! I remember starting with David Copperfield for Dickens and thinking this novel is HUGE...what have I gotten myself into?? 😂 Once I finish reading Dickens' novels at the end of this year, I can't wait to go back and re-read it next year. I think I'll pick up on so much I missed that first time. (It was one of my first Victorian novels too, so I really had no idea about the whole world!)
Just watched this and loved your candor about whether each book was a hit or a miss! I’m excited to put Lady Audrey’s Secret and The Woman in White on a future reading list! ❤ I enjoyed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but more for my appreciation of Anne Bronte’s willingness to speak out about difficult issues rather than just conforming to what she was expected to say. Wuthering Heights, while I didn’t like the relationship itself, is the absolute quintessential BEST embodiment of the untamed wildness of the moors and nature versus civilized society that I’ve ever encountered.
I had a similar experience with Wuthering heights. I love it now. I finished Middlemarch this year, and I don’t think I can ever read it again. It was not a fun experience.
Loved this! It's interesting how different a perspective we each bring to our reading. I absolutely loved Tenant of Wildfell Hall both times I read it. It's been years now so I need to re-read it, but I am sure I will love it again when I do. On the other hand, the Heir of Redclyffe... That was a "dusted and done" moment for me when I finally finished it. While you appreciated the faith elements, I found them very preachy and moralistic, moreso than Alcott, and I can only handle so much of hers. 😂 Now don't get me wrong, I love a good faith filled novel, but I guess I just found Yonge's tone off-putting. But that is why where are different books and authors, because we as readers are all different! What speaks to some of us won't speak to others.
I'm shocked you like Wuthering Heights! I'm the only one I know that likes it! I have liked it since 19 or 20 yrs. old. I collect different editions. Presently re- reading Jane Eyre. Love the Bronte sisters. Enjoyed this, thank you.
Thanks Kate. I feel the same way about the tenant of wildfell hall... but i really loved Agnes Grey... Anyways thanks for a great video , brought back a lot of reading memories. Happy Victober!
This is great! And I have to remind you that my love for Gaskell and Collins came from you❣️❣️❣️ Man and Wife is definitely a novel I wish I could read again, for the first time. Thank you🧡💛🧡
Jane Eyre was my first Victorian novel that I read as a teenager, it's still my favourite book to this day (I'm 58 !). Of course, I read all the Brontës novels I could lay my hand on. Way back then, I also loved Conan Doyle but was disappointed by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - I'll have to re-read it someday. Nowadays, Anthony Trollope is one of my favourites, Elizabeth Gaskell too and I also loved Middlemarch. I'm currently reading Oliver Twist and will probably get to Lady Audley's secret before the end of the year. Enjoy Victober 💜
So interesting you started with Oliver Twist! My Victorian novel and my first Dickens novel was Great Expectations, which I loved. I've had every tumultuous relationship with Dicken since. I want to love his work but I just don't and nothing has compared to Great Expectations.
can this be a tag?! I want to think about this question in my life....I love hearing about your reading history. I wish my aunts asked to read victorian fiction with me
What a wonderful video! I started with George Elliott through Middlemarch, too. But I had the advantage of watching your video about your experiences with Middlemarch first, so I went in with a whole different perspective and expectations, and I loved it. Charles Dickens: Great Expectations, and I didn't like it a bit, but loved everything I read by him since. Trollope: The Warden. Loved it. Gaskel: Cranford. The Brontës: Jane Eyre 😍 Wuthering Heights made me wonder all the time why it was sold to me as a love story. I thought it was a revenge story. But I understand how it can make people feel so strongly about it.
Sounds like Trollope is hit and miss. Both An Old Man's Love and The Small House at Allington did not come together for me, but The American Senator is now one of my favorite novels of the latter half of my life. Thanx for the heads up on Charlotte Yonge! Hope you and yours are better soon. Your family has been in my prayers. It's always nice to see you pop up in my UA-cam feed.
I love this Kate! I commented to Chelsea that i admire you rereading books you didn't love and you've definitely inspired me to do the same in the future. I was in high school and read A Tale of Two Cities. I didn't love it then but some characters stayed in my mind all this time. I think i read some of Great Expectations but can't remember. As an adult i listened to Jane Eyre and dnf'd it😂 back in 2019 i think. Then in 2022 i fell in love with it reading with my eyes. I read several other Brontes in the past couple years and fell in love with Anne's books. I need to reread Wuthering Heights because i thought it was ok. I know it was because i was new to VicLit. Then i joined your patreon and down the rabbit hole i went with Gaskell and Eliot. In 2022 i read my first Hardy for Victober (The Mayor) and fell in love with Hardy minus "the book that shall not be named".😅 i didn't love Man and Wife by Collins last year but I enjoyed his writing enough to try The Moonstone this year and I'm really enjoying it!
A “Christmas Carol” by Dickens was my introduction to a Victorian novel as a fifth grader. Rather than “Victorian”, my early reading was more peppered with some American 19th C literature: Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and “The Headless Horseman”. Also, Mark Twain’s novels “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn”. “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane. Victorian lit cam around again with “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” by Stevenson. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Loved a “Tale of Two Cities” and “David Copperfield”. In high school, on my own, I found “Jane Eyre” and Hardy’s “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”. Really liked both. I easily found more Hardy novels in the library and read the major ones. Now, decades later I’ve read all of Hardy’s novels. “Under the Greenwood Tree” is one of his weaker novels. “The Woodlanders” (with a similar title )is a much more vividly told story. Don’t waste your time reading the “Well Beloved”. It’s terrible and downright weird about a man with a bad case of “Peter Pan Syndrome”. It wasn’t until I started watching Book Tube and hearing all the raves about “Villette” that I was tempted to read it. I was disappointed that, for me, it didn’t live up to the hype. “Shirley” was another Charlotte Bronte novel I didn’t love. It was written during a very difficult time for Charlotte, her siblings were dying one after another. Thanks to Book Tube, Anne Bronte’s novels, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” and “Agnes Grey” came to my attention. Of the two, I enjoyed Tenant much more. Emily Bronte’s novel, “Wuthering Heights” is a remarkable and passionately written novel. I admired it more than loved it. (why two characters named “Cathy”?) I read it more due to FOMO. I wanted to know why all the fuss in the “comments” sections whenever a Book Tuber reviewed Wuthering. I’ve only read 9 Trollopes so far. Of those, “Barchester Towers” is my favorite because of its humor. “The Way We Live Now” is my second favorite in spite of parts of it being less than politically correct by today’s standards. I look forward to reading more of Wilkie Collins work. So far I’ve only read “The Woman in White”.
I think starting with Silas Marner, especially in my twenties was a good choice for Eliot! And I’m the same for Tenant Kate but - I’m rereading it in December so let’s see if my opinion changes or not, or if we can be outliers together 😉
Your description of C.M. Yonge's books makes me excited to read The Heir of Redclyffe with the group! I was underwhelmed reading Under the Greenwood Tree last Victober too, and that ending left a bad taste in my mouth. Is Daniel Deronda where you recommend people start with Eliot now? The only one I've read so far is Silas Marner. I read it in high school and then again about eight years ago.
Loved getting to know more about your first time experience with each of these authors! The Way We Live Now was one I didn't struggle with and sort of liked while reading it, but it had almost no staying power at all. I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters and have no inclination to revisit it. I had much better luck with the Barsetshire chronicles (The Warden was my first ever Trollope. I know Katie recommends that it not be so but thankfully I liked it well enough to carry on with the rest 😅) and two of Trollope's other stand-alones Dr Wortle's School & He Knew He Was Right With George Eliot, my first was Middlemarch, which I buddy read with a friend. My friend had an absolute blast with it but I had the misfortune of picking it up at one of the worst & most stressful periods I've had at work, so while I clearly saw its merit I couldn't enjoy it. The second was Adam Bede which I didn't get along with (Though I remember finding the Hetty storyline interesting). But hey, third time's a charm like they say 😂 It was Romola that sealed the deal for me and made me interested in seeking out more of her work With Dickens I've had my ups and downs. Some bored me to tears (*Hides in the corner and whispers* Little Dorrit) while others were a mixed bag. David Copperfield was either my first or second and it was part of hooked me on Victorian literature. I really want to reread it soon (it's been over a decade) and see if it holds up Of CMY's books I've only read Countess Kate, which I picked up last Victober. Didn't have much luck with that one but hopefully I'll have better luck with this year's pick, The Stokesley Secret
I'm with you on The Way We Live Now. I've been reading & loving Trollope for about 15 years and have read 36 of his novels so far. Novel #36 was The Way We Live Now, which I read for the first time this year and I HATED it. I have no intention of re-reading it, either, although I've re-read many of his other novels (including The Belton Estate--I love Clara & Will!).
These books are some of the most known books of the period. I loved The Way We live Now. I read Unnder the Greenwood Tree amd Wloved it. I don't remember the sinister line at the end but I know one could be there. Hardy ends all his novels sad and bad, but I like him.We have a complicated relationship. I've not read any Dickens besides Christmas Carol. And I've not read Wilkie Colins I'd love to read the female authors you showed. Especially Olipphant.
I love people's Reading Stories--the stories of their reading lives. My first Victorian novel was Jane Eyre, at the ripe old age of 9! I was completely involved with Jane's early life, at her aunt's and at Lowood, but then I don't think I really understood much of what happened after that, although I did make it to the end!
I had the Way We Live Now on my shelf for almost five years when I read The Warden and fell in love with Trollope. I finally read RWWLN last Victober and did not love it. Sooooo I'm so glad I started with Barset.
Finally, another person who was disappointed by Jekyll and Hyde! So, far I have only liked Treasure Island. My first Dickens was A Tale of Two Cities and my first Bronte was Jane Eyre. Both I have read multiple times.
It is SO interesting how people take to books and can have such different reactions. For example, I completely loved Middlemarch the first time I read it. I thought it was so deep and so interesting and probably the best written example I had ever seen of how a woman can completely destroy a man (Dr. Lydgate and Rosamond) and also, upon re reading, could see Dorothea's flaws in a way I hadn't before and found to be very good lessons for myself in that I relate to her so much! But on the other hand, I just can't say that I love Wuthering Heights. I want to love Wuthering Heights so much and I have tried. I have read it three times. I appreciate it. I get the whole monstrous, wild, untamed rushing wave that it is, but I just don't like it. There is no place to rest my mind or anyone to care about. I come back to it hoping that this time I'll take to it since I know what I am in for, but so far, it's just not a place I like to be. But who knows. Maybe some day?
My first Dickens was a high school read of Tale of Two Cities. I do want to reread it now as a much older adult. I’ve read and reread A Christmas Carol numerous times and earlier this year I read and enjoyed Barnaby Rudge. I have a lot of Dickens to catch up on. Since getting started with Victober, I’ve read Hardy’s Tess and Far from the Madding Crowd. I read The way we live now last year, my only Trollope so far, and Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray. I have sadly come to realize I don’t care much for any of the Bronte’s writings. Villette was probably my most liked but that’s not saying much really. Others I’ve read one and don’t see myself picking up any more from are Eliot (middlemarch) and Thackeray (vanity fair). Happy Victober!
I started with Jane Austen - not Victorian but a gateway to Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and others. In contrast to you, I really like "Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy. I find it gently pastoral and good fun though I think "Far from the Madding Crowd" might be a better starting point. With George Eliot I think "Silas Marner" might be a better start than Middlemarch being shorter and easier to get into. Overall I like your list.
My first Victorian toe dipping was Wuthering Heights and I absolutely hated it! My next was Jane Eyre, and it was mind blowing! I seriously thought it would be my #1 for the rest of my life. Then I entered the land of Dickens! I am a huge fanboy now and my favorite book that I am sure will never be changed, is David Copperfield! I am 60 percent finished with all his works, and I have absolutely loved every word!!! I also really loved Wilkie Collins and the Moonstone! I am looking forward to experiencing The Woman in White!
An 'explosion of a novel' is such a great way to describe Wuthering Heights!
This was a terrific list, Kate! I really enjoyed how you worked your personal experiences with these books into your comments and thoughts-when in your life you read these books, why that may have affected how you felt about them at the time, etc. While I always enjoy a synopsis of a book, I always prefer when a UA-camr interacts personally with the book, like you have here!
Well said, Darryl. I agree.
My favorite Dickens novel is The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. It is so dang funny. The edition I first read is very old and has that full title. It wasn't my first Dickens but I've re-read it many times. For Victober, I'm reading The Warden (Anthony Trollope) and Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell). They may not make it into October, though, because I just started The Priory (Dorothy Whipple) and it's quite a long book. Love your channel, Kate.
I'm always impressed by your willingness to reread books even when you didn't enjoy them the first time through!
Yes me too! I'm usually wanting to get rid of the book but Kate has inspired me to hold onto many a bit longer to see if it may be one I think of and will try again.
Thanks so much for your Victober videos! This is my first time taking part. I decided upon reading some Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Speckled Band and A Study in Scarlet. I read The Study in Scarlet and really enjoyed it. Also Wilkie Collins The Law and the Lady, Parables of the Cross. I started Kilverts Diary and am really enjoying so far. Thx again for all your great suggestions, i love your channel.
I find this so interesting. I have a diametrically opposed opinion of some of these books, but I love hearing why some did or did not work for you. My first Dickens was A Tale of Two Cities and I loved it, but I haven't read it for over 40 years so I want to reread and see how I like it now. My first Thomas Hardy was Tess of the D'Urbervilles and I hated it, but I have enjoyed most of his novels that I have read. And finally I read Silas Marner as my first Eliot and I didn't like it. It was many years ago and I suspect my feelings would be different now since I loved Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, and Adam Bede.
This is so fun! I remember starting with David Copperfield for Dickens and thinking this novel is HUGE...what have I gotten myself into?? 😂 Once I finish reading Dickens' novels at the end of this year, I can't wait to go back and re-read it next year. I think I'll pick up on so much I missed that first time. (It was one of my first Victorian novels too, so I really had no idea about the whole world!)
Just watched this and loved your candor about whether each book was a hit or a miss! I’m excited to put Lady Audrey’s Secret and The Woman in White on a future reading list! ❤ I enjoyed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but more for my appreciation of Anne Bronte’s willingness to speak out about difficult issues rather than just conforming to what she was expected to say. Wuthering Heights, while I didn’t like the relationship itself, is the absolute quintessential BEST embodiment of the untamed wildness of the moors and nature versus civilized society that I’ve ever encountered.
I had a similar experience with Wuthering heights. I love it now. I finished Middlemarch this year, and I don’t think I can ever read it again. It was not a fun experience.
I really must read CMY one of these days!
Loved this! It's interesting how different a perspective we each bring to our reading. I absolutely loved Tenant of Wildfell Hall both times I read it. It's been years now so I need to re-read it, but I am sure I will love it again when I do. On the other hand, the Heir of Redclyffe... That was a "dusted and done" moment for me when I finally finished it. While you appreciated the faith elements, I found them very preachy and moralistic, moreso than Alcott, and I can only handle so much of hers. 😂 Now don't get me wrong, I love a good faith filled novel, but I guess I just found Yonge's tone off-putting. But that is why where are different books and authors, because we as readers are all different! What speaks to some of us won't speak to others.
I'm shocked you like Wuthering Heights! I'm the only one I know that likes it! I have liked it since 19 or 20 yrs. old. I collect different editions. Presently re- reading Jane Eyre. Love the Bronte sisters. Enjoyed this, thank you.
Thanks Kate. I feel the same way about the tenant of wildfell hall... but i really loved Agnes Grey... Anyways thanks for a great video , brought back a lot of reading memories. Happy Victober!
This is great! And I have to remind you that my love for Gaskell and Collins came from you❣️❣️❣️ Man and Wife is definitely a novel I wish I could read again, for the first time. Thank you🧡💛🧡
Jane Eyre was my first Victorian novel that I read as a teenager, it's still my favourite book to this day (I'm 58 !). Of course, I read all the Brontës novels I could lay my hand on. Way back then, I also loved Conan Doyle but was disappointed by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - I'll have to re-read it someday. Nowadays, Anthony Trollope is one of my favourites, Elizabeth Gaskell too and I also loved Middlemarch. I'm currently reading Oliver Twist and will probably get to Lady Audley's secret before the end of the year. Enjoy Victober 💜
So interesting you started with Oliver Twist! My Victorian novel and my first Dickens novel was Great Expectations, which I loved. I've had every tumultuous relationship with Dicken since. I want to love his work but I just don't and nothing has compared to Great Expectations.
can this be a tag?! I want to think about this question in my life....I love hearing about your reading history. I wish my aunts asked to read victorian fiction with me
What a wonderful video!
I started with George Elliott through Middlemarch, too. But I had the advantage of watching your video about your experiences with Middlemarch first, so I went in with a whole different perspective and expectations, and I loved it.
Charles Dickens: Great Expectations, and I didn't like it a bit, but loved everything I read by him since.
Trollope: The Warden. Loved it.
Gaskel: Cranford.
The Brontës: Jane Eyre 😍
Wuthering Heights made me wonder all the time why it was sold to me as a love story. I thought it was a revenge story. But I understand how it can make people feel so strongly about it.
Sounds like Trollope is hit and miss. Both An Old Man's Love and The Small House at Allington did not come together for me, but The American Senator is now one of my favorite novels of the latter half of my life. Thanx for the heads up on Charlotte Yonge! Hope you and yours are better soon. Your family has been in my prayers. It's always nice to see you pop up in my UA-cam feed.
I love this Kate! I commented to Chelsea that i admire you rereading books you didn't love and you've definitely inspired me to do the same in the future.
I was in high school and read A Tale of Two Cities. I didn't love it then but some characters stayed in my mind all this time. I think i read some of Great Expectations but can't remember.
As an adult i listened to Jane Eyre and dnf'd it😂 back in 2019 i think. Then in 2022 i fell in love with it reading with my eyes. I read several other Brontes in the past couple years and fell in love with Anne's books. I need to reread Wuthering Heights because i thought it was ok. I know it was because i was new to VicLit. Then i joined your patreon and down the rabbit hole i went with Gaskell and Eliot. In 2022 i read my first Hardy for Victober (The Mayor) and fell in love with Hardy minus "the book that shall not be named".😅 i didn't love Man and Wife by Collins last year but I enjoyed his writing enough to try The Moonstone this year and I'm really enjoying it!
A “Christmas Carol” by Dickens was my introduction to a Victorian novel as a fifth grader. Rather than “Victorian”, my early reading was more peppered with some American 19th C literature: Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and “The Headless Horseman”. Also, Mark Twain’s novels “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn”. “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane. Victorian lit cam around again with “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” by Stevenson. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Loved a “Tale of Two Cities” and “David Copperfield”.
In high school, on my own, I found “Jane Eyre” and Hardy’s “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”. Really liked both. I easily found more Hardy novels in the library and read the major ones. Now, decades later I’ve read all of Hardy’s novels. “Under the Greenwood Tree” is one of his weaker novels. “The Woodlanders” (with a similar title )is a much more vividly told story. Don’t waste your time reading the “Well Beloved”. It’s terrible and downright weird about a man with a bad case of “Peter Pan Syndrome”.
It wasn’t until I started watching Book Tube and hearing all the raves about “Villette” that I was tempted to read it. I was disappointed that, for me, it didn’t live up to the hype. “Shirley” was another Charlotte Bronte novel I didn’t love. It was written during a very difficult time for Charlotte, her siblings were dying one after another.
Thanks to Book Tube, Anne Bronte’s novels, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” and “Agnes Grey” came to my attention. Of the two, I enjoyed Tenant much more.
Emily Bronte’s novel, “Wuthering Heights” is a remarkable and passionately written novel. I admired it more than loved it. (why two characters named “Cathy”?) I read it more due to FOMO. I wanted to know why all the fuss in the “comments” sections whenever a Book Tuber reviewed Wuthering.
I’ve only read 9 Trollopes so far. Of those, “Barchester Towers” is my favorite because of its humor. “The Way We Live Now” is my second favorite in spite of parts of it being less than politically correct by today’s standards.
I look forward to reading more of Wilkie Collins work. So far I’ve only read “The Woman in White”.
I think starting with Silas Marner, especially in my twenties was a good choice for Eliot! And I’m the same for Tenant Kate but - I’m rereading it in December so let’s see if my opinion changes or not, or if we can be outliers together 😉
Your description of C.M. Yonge's books makes me excited to read The Heir of Redclyffe with the group! I was underwhelmed reading Under the Greenwood Tree last Victober too, and that ending left a bad taste in my mouth. Is Daniel Deronda where you recommend people start with Eliot now? The only one I've read so far is Silas Marner. I read it in high school and then again about eight years ago.
Loved getting to know more about your first time experience with each of these authors!
The Way We Live Now was one I didn't struggle with and sort of liked while reading it, but it had almost no staying power at all. I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters and have no inclination to revisit it. I had much better luck with the Barsetshire chronicles (The Warden was my first ever Trollope. I know Katie recommends that it not be so but thankfully I liked it well enough to carry on with the rest 😅) and two of Trollope's other stand-alones Dr Wortle's School & He Knew He Was Right
With George Eliot, my first was Middlemarch, which I buddy read with a friend. My friend had an absolute blast with it but I had the misfortune of picking it up at one of the worst & most stressful periods I've had at work, so while I clearly saw its merit I couldn't enjoy it. The second was Adam Bede which I didn't get along with (Though I remember finding the Hetty storyline interesting). But hey, third time's a charm like they say 😂 It was Romola that sealed the deal for me and made me interested in seeking out more of her work
With Dickens I've had my ups and downs. Some bored me to tears (*Hides in the corner and whispers* Little Dorrit) while others were a mixed bag. David Copperfield was either my first or second and it was part of hooked me on Victorian literature. I really want to reread it soon (it's been over a decade) and see if it holds up
Of CMY's books I've only read Countess Kate, which I picked up last Victober. Didn't have much luck with that one but hopefully I'll have better luck with this year's pick, The Stokesley Secret
Thomas Mann, Hesse, Huxley, and Nabokov
I'm with you on The Way We Live Now. I've been reading & loving Trollope for about 15 years and have read 36 of his novels so far. Novel #36 was The Way We Live Now, which I read for the first time this year and I HATED it. I have no intention of re-reading it, either, although I've re-read many of his other novels (including The Belton Estate--I love Clara & Will!).
These books are some of the most known books of the period. I loved The Way We live Now. I read Unnder the Greenwood Tree amd Wloved it. I don't remember the sinister line at the end but I know one could be there. Hardy ends all his novels sad and bad, but I like him.We have a complicated relationship. I've not read any Dickens besides Christmas Carol. And I've not read Wilkie Colins I'd love to read the female authors you showed. Especially Olipphant.
I love people's Reading Stories--the stories of their reading lives. My first Victorian novel was Jane Eyre, at the ripe old age of 9! I was completely involved with Jane's early life, at her aunt's and at Lowood, but then I don't think I really understood much of what happened after that, although I did make it to the end!
@@elizabethjonczyk6818 Libby, I LOVE that you read it at 9! I'm so impressed!
@@katehowereads 😂when I read it again at 18 it was a whole new book!
I had the Way We Live Now on my shelf for almost five years when I read The Warden and fell in love with Trollope. I finally read RWWLN last Victober and did not love it. Sooooo I'm so glad I started with Barset.
Finally, another person who was disappointed by Jekyll and Hyde! So, far I have only liked Treasure Island. My first Dickens was A Tale of Two Cities and my first Bronte was Jane Eyre. Both I have read multiple times.
It is SO interesting how people take to books and can have such different reactions. For example, I completely loved Middlemarch the first time I read it. I thought it was so deep and so interesting and probably the best written example I had ever seen of how a woman can completely destroy a man (Dr. Lydgate and Rosamond) and also, upon re reading, could see Dorothea's flaws in a way I hadn't before and found to be very good lessons for myself in that I relate to her so much! But on the other hand, I just can't say that I love Wuthering Heights. I want to love Wuthering Heights so much and I have tried. I have read it three times. I appreciate it. I get the whole monstrous, wild, untamed rushing wave that it is, but I just don't like it. There is no place to rest my mind or anyone to care about. I come back to it hoping that this time I'll take to it since I know what I am in for, but so far, it's just not a place I like to be. But who knows. Maybe some day?
My first Dickens was a high school read of Tale of Two Cities. I do want to reread it now as a much older adult. I’ve read and reread A Christmas Carol numerous times and earlier this year I read and enjoyed Barnaby Rudge. I have a lot of Dickens to catch up on. Since getting started with Victober, I’ve read Hardy’s Tess and Far from the Madding Crowd. I read The way we live now last year, my only Trollope so far, and Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray. I have sadly come to realize I don’t care much for any of the Bronte’s writings. Villette was probably my most liked but that’s not saying much really. Others I’ve read one and don’t see myself picking up any more from are Eliot (middlemarch) and Thackeray (vanity fair). Happy Victober!
_Nicholas Nickleby_ by Charles Dickens is a good book to include sooner or later.
@@Richard.HistoryLit It was a miss for me unfortunately.
@@katehowereads !!!!!!!!!!!!????????? I'm stunned.
I started with Jane Austen - not Victorian but a gateway to Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and others. In contrast to you, I really like "Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy. I find it gently pastoral and good fun though I think "Far from the Madding Crowd" might be a better starting point. With George Eliot I think "Silas Marner" might be a better start than Middlemarch being shorter and easier to get into. Overall I like your list.
Are Charlotte Mary Yonge's books out of print?!
@@scripturesandstories Yes but most are available as ebooks on project Gutenberg.
@@katehowereads thank you!!
I REALLY struggled with The Way We Live Now last year, so now I feel vindicated?! justified?! 😂♥️
@@amyofhearthridge Elizabeth feels the same way - we should start a support group!
@@katehowereads 🥰👊🏼😅it’s not only me! 😂
❤❤❤