If there is one thing I share in common with Emma Woodhouse, it is the drawing up of reading lists - and they are always very good lists, if I do say so myself - so I'm signing up for the Victorian Literature Challenge at words, words, words. I have quite a few 19th century novels on my Project Fill in the Gaps list, and I have even more lurking on my shelf, so this seems a good way to clear some space and actually get some books read.
There are different levels for the challenge, but I'm going to aim for Great Expectations: 5-9 Victorian Books in 2011. And, while the challenge itself is flexible, I'm going to be a bit mental and make life harder for myself by limiting it to books published during Queen Victoria's reign, 1837-1901. The (short) list of potential books is as follows:
- Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
- North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
- Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes
- Villette by Charlotte Bronte
- The Tennant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
- Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
- Bleak House by Charles Dickens
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
I have a few more, and am also aware that all of these books are written by British authors - I would say so was Victoria, but that bit from Blackadder keeps running through my head*. Some of them are also pretty big, which is why I haven't included all of my Dickens because they are technically weapons. This should be interesting.
* Can't find the clip on Youtube, but basically "so your father's German, you're half-German and you married a German?".
Tee hee hee! 'technically weapons' is so true, and so funny. Vanity Fair is big, but your list looks so good! Thanks for joining in!
ReplyDeleteA great list! Have fun with this. :-)
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteOh, Vanity Fair is a regular missile! My uni library had a very old edition in about twenty-four little volumes. I don't know if these ultimately seem more manageable or more intimidating.
Good luck with the challenge!
@Bethany - thanks for running the challenge, tho I suspect I may wimp out of reading some of the weapons and go for shorter books.
ReplyDelete@Jillian - thanks, I'm hoping it will be fun.
@Enbrethiliel - I think those books are scarier as the mini-volumes - our library had Clarissa in separate volumes that were somehow bigger than the single paperback. Much more daunting.