VICTOBER 2025 discussion
Victober 2021
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The TBR thread
Looking forward to participating in my first Victober!I plan on reading just the one book (although it's almost 1000 pages long), Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
This has been on my TBR for a very long time, so glad for the push to finally read it.
I plan on listening to the audiobook by Miriam Margolyes on Audible :)
I'm not sure if my books meet the challenges, I can make a guess that the Trollope novella will take place in a rural setting, Thelma is going to have a female main character judging from the title. Corelli and Caine both wrote best sellers. I can tell you afterwards if 'Shadow of a Crime' was sensational. Rather than concentrate too much on the challenges I've tried to vary the genre and type of book. I've not included any plays, partly because I don't really know many Victorian dramatists apart from Wilde and I'm not quite in the mood for one of his. Also I've not included 'literary fiction' or anything very long; this was more deliberate. For me I don't think readathons are the best time to start an Elliot novel or a Trollope door stopper. It's nicer to read long and thoughtful novels slowly, and if I have a time limit it puts me off. I always come up with the most enormous list of books to read every October and in the past I've tried to rewrite it into a more sensible estimation of what would be possible. But that's so dull and not in the spirit of the thing, Making the list is part of the fun. So here is my far too long list.
Novels
The Shadow of a Crime - Caine Hall - Sensation?
Thelma [1887] - Marie Corelli - Drama/ Romance
Short Novels
The Inheritors - Ford Maddox Ford and Joseph Conrad [1901] - Science Fiction
Under the Red Robe - Stanley Weyman [1894] - Historical
Short Stories / Novellas
The Two Heroines of Plumpington - Anthony Trollope [1882] A Barsetshire Story
Lazy thoughts of a Lazy Girl - Jenny Wren (Jerome K Jerome) [1891] Humour
Tales of the Islanders - Charlotte Bronte [posthumously published] Fantasy
Children's
The Golden Age [1895] - Kenneth Grahame
The Martian [1897] - George Du Maurier
Diaries
The Diaries of William Allingham
Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879
Non Fiction
On Liberty and Other Essays - John Stuart Mill
Biography
Maria Pasqua - Magdalen Goffin
Poetry
Poems of Francis Thompson. (I've only read 'The Hound of Heaven' so I'll see what I think of his other poems).
Great Expectations because it is a shorter easier read and a great introduction to Dickens. Bleak House is my favorite!
Sobriquet wrote: "I'm not sure if my books meet the challenges"An interesting and varied list; I've only read the Trollope selection, and am not familiar with any of the other works except On Liberty.
Happy reading!
Hi everyone this is my TBR:1. Sensation Novel: The Woman In White (Wilkie Collins)
2. Set In The Countryside: The Turn Of The Screw (Henry James)
3. Female Character: Romola (George Eliot)
4. Popular Novel (then or now) i haven't read: Great Expectations (Dickens)
5. Bonus Challenge/ Read aloud: one of the short stories or novellas from In A Glass Darkly (Sheridan Le Fanu).. probably Carmilla.
* I would so much love to include The Way We Live Now (Trollope) but i dont think i could possibly fit that in.. we'll see. Great to see lots of people reading Great Expectations.. it was a toss up between this & Bleak House- the latter being a bit too much of a chunkster & probably deserving its own undivided love and attention : )
Happy Victober everyone!! : ))
I'm planning to read Lady Audley's Secret, Gothic Tales and perhaps The Life of Charlotte Brontë or The Doctor's Wife.
Kathy wrote: "Janice wrote: " and I will be reading Elizabeth and Her German Garden..."I love von Arnim...that was a lovely book. I have yet to read one that I don't like."
That's good to hear. :) I have only read one of her books so far; The Enchanted April and I really enjoyed it. I hope to read some more of her books, especially Vera. :)
Mai wrote: "I have a plan of what I want to read, though I'm not sure if this selection fits all of the prompts, especially if any of these qualify as sensation novel:- Vilette - Charlotte Brontë
- Shirley - ..."
I have all of those books on my TBR. :)
Sobriquet wrote: "I'm not sure if my books meet the challenges, I can make a guess that the Trollope novella will take place in a rural setting, Thelma is going to have a female main character judging from the title..."Your list looks amazing!!! I will be checking out all the books listed. I also can't think of a Victorian playwright besides Oscar Wilde and I think I have read all his plays recently. I always make too long of a list of books that I want to read every month. :) and I also find I like reading a longer novel with more time to enjoy it and absorb it.
Mai wrote: "I have a plan of what I want to read, though I'm not sure if this selection fits all of the prompts, especially if any of these qualify as sensation novel:- Vilette - Charlotte Brontë
- Shirley - ..."
I am reading Villette for Victober, but I have always been interested in reading Shirley... and of course, Wives and Daughters. I have been getting so interested in Elizabeth Gaskell recently. I think she's such a fascinating figure.
Melissa House wrote: "Hi everyone this is my TBR:1. Sensation Novel: The Woman In White (Wilkie Collins)
2. Set In The Countryside: The Turn Of The Screw (Henry James)
3. Female Character: Romola (George Eliot)
4. Pop..."
I'm going to be reading The Turn Of The Screw for the first time. :) Ihave it as prompt #4.
Janice: I read The Turn of the Screw some years ago and while I did enjoy it, I had to go back to the book and read it from a different perspective. My level of enjoyment for the book after the new perspective definitely went up.
Janice wrote: "I can't think of a Victorian playwright besides Oscar Wilde"George Bernard Shaw wrote about 10 plays during the 1890s. Also I saw Kate Howe will be reading/listening to a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, The Pirates of Penzance.
Hi all, I'm VERY excited for Victober and I have lots of plans but very little time in October, so here is my tentative TBR:1. Sensation Novel: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
2. Set in the countryside: Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
3. Female main character: Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
4. Popular novel I haven't read yet: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
5. Bonus challenge: ? (tbc)
Group read: Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
possible extras:
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Janice wrote: I'm going to be reading The Turn Of The Screw for the first time. :) Ihave it as prompt #4.That's fab Janice- we can compare notes & confer.. im expecting it to be both creepy & ambiguous (been on a Henry James mission lately just read Portrait of a Lady & The Golden Bowl; loved the former liked the latter (super dense & certainly not for everyone lol) but i like James : ) Message me anytime re TOTScrew or Great Expectations : )
Hi everyone, here's my Victober TBR:1. Sensation Novel: Lady Audley's Secret
2. Set in the countryside: Tess of the d'Urbervilles
3. Female main character: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
4. Popular novel I haven't read yet: Mary Barton
5. Bonus challenge: TBC
I'm excited to read these!
Hi, I'm Gaby from Germany. This is my first Victober and here is my TBR:1. East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (the only reread on my list)
3. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
4. The Odd Women by George Gissing or
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
5. I'll listen to some poems by Anne and Emily Brontë on YouTube.
Readalong: Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
My Victober plans are to read Gothic Tales, Dorian Gray, and Jane Eyre (re-read). Can’t wait!
I am so excited for the books I'm planning to read this year! I just posted my TBR video over on my Booktube channel (Voyage of a Time Wanderer), but the brief answers for each of the prompts is as follows:Kate's challenge: Read a sensation novel
"The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins
Katie's challenge: Set in the countryside and/or the city
"The Sign of the Four" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (city)
"Lorna Doone" by R D Blackmoore (countryside)
Lucy's challenge: Female main character
"Villette" by Charlotte Bronte
Group challenge: A popular Victorian book you haven't yet read
"Far from the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy
Bonus challenge: Listen to a book read aloud
"Barchester Towers" by Anthony Trollope
Group read
"Gothic Tales" by Elizabeth Gaskell
My TBR:Silas Marner by George Eliot
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Struggling to read lately so will probably only get to Silas Marner and Lady Audley's Secret.
My TBR, I hope.David Copperfield
North and South
The Woman in White
and I may listen to Lady Audley's Secret on Audible.
I will not read the group pick because I just read it last year but I will listen to Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell and read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.I have about 10 others that I want to read but I know that I won't get to them. These two books will cover most prompts and I am happy with just two. If for some miracle I get them done I will read something by Dickens or Hardy.
Having already warmed up for Victober with some Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest) and H.G.Wells (The Time Machine), my TBR is as follows: 1. George Gissing (New Grub Street)
2. Anthony Trollope (The Way We Live Now)
3. Elizabeth Gaskell (Gothic Tales)
4. Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South)
5. Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White)
Have I over reached? Probably 🤣
Sensation novel - Great ExpectationsCountryside setting & Female main - Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Popular & City setting - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Group - Gothic Tales
Bonus - I'll be listening to Great Expectations and probably reading out loud a few chapters from my list of books to my cat and/or spouse.
I am going on a one week business trip on Sunday and still debating on which book to take aka with which book to start the challenge...
Lorri wrote: "My Victorian TBR:1. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins sensation, countryside, popular, gothic, epistolary
2. Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy countryside, heroine with male author, popular..."
I am replacing The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s Bargain Charles Dickens, with Both Sides the Border A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower and postponing My Reminiscences vol. 2 Lord Ronald Sutherland-Leveson-Gower.
Happy Victober everyone! I woke up to the best gothic weather in Queensland, Australia. Grey skies and rain! Perfect Victorian lit reading ambiance 👏🏼
I was going to be reading Dicken’s ‘Hard Times’, but de used to go with Jules Vernes around the world in 80 days. I love to travel and am a glutton for punishment ;)
Many of the books I have chosen cover multiple challenges:1. Kate's challenge: Read a Victorian sensation novel - this is the one challenge I haven't committed to yet. I am debating The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Lady Audley's Secret, or Dracula
2. Katie's challenge: Read a Victorian book set in the countryside and/or the city: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
3. Lucy's challenge: Read a Victorian book with a female main character - Wildfell Hall falls into this!
4. Group challenge: Read a popular Victorian book you haven't read yet: Wives & Daughters by Gaskell and Great Expectations by Dickens.
I loved North & South last year, so I can't wait to read another Gaskell this year. I haven't read a Dickens other than A Christmas Carol since high school, and The Tenant of WIldfell Hall is a book I keep attempting to read and never getting to it, year after year. Can't wait!
For Victorian sensation I chose The Woman in White, my first time reading Wilkie Collins.Wuthering Heights for set in the countryside. It’s a reread but it’s been years since my last read.
Female MC I chose The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, my first Anne Brontë.
I’m reading an anthology called Classic Horror Tales, published by Word Cloud Classics and it’s got a lot of popular Victorian authors. That’s gonna be my group challenge read.
1. Read a Victorian sensation novel No name by wilkie collins
2. Katie’s challenge: Read a Victorian book set in the countryside AND/OR the city
woman in black by Susan hill
3. Lucy’s challenge: Read a Victorian book with a female main character
Portrait of a lady by Henry James
4. Group challenge: Read a popular Victorian book you haven’t yet read (how you define popular is up to you – could be popular now, popular on Booktube, popular in the Victorian period itself
phantom of the opera by Gaston Leroux
1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte2. Magic for Marigold by L.M Montgomery
3. An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
4. Great Expectations (or) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
PS: please help me decide for prompt 4, since I do like David Copperfield because it is comical but I do already know the storyline based from the movie AND I am curious about Great Expectations so for those who read those books, which do you think is better?
My Victober reading hopes are to read the group read Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell, and also The Cranford Chronicles and the Moorland Cottage also by Elizabeth Gaskell, Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (finally! This will be for the novel set in a city and novel with a female lead prompts) and the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (for the sensational novel and popular novel prompts) Then if I finish all of these, the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. For the group challenge of reading aloud, or being read to, several of my TBR choices will be listened to via audiobook. So excited! 😄♥️📘🎧🙌
The books I chose could fit multiple challenges:1. The woman in white, Wilkie Collins - sensation novel, countryside
2. Middlemarch, George Eliot - countryside setting, popular Victorian book
3. The tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte - female main character, countryside setting
4. The picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde - popular victorian novel, city setting
Not sure one month will be enough, but here's hoping!
Now that I've finished Jane Eyre to kick off Victober, I've decided to watch 7 different filmed versions of Jane Eyre throughout Victober:1943 with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles--feature film
1970 with Susannah York and George C Scott--feature film
1973 with Sorcha Cusack and Michael Jayston--BBC mini-series
1983 with Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton--BBC mini-series
1997 with Ciaran Hinds and Samantha Morton--feature film
2006 with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens--BBC mini-series
2011 with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender--feature film
This should be interesting, and I plan to watch in chronological order. I have not included any versions that are too short to include most of the plot. I have not seen the 1970, 1973 or 2011 versions.
Any favorites here? Any you despise?
Kathy wrote: "Now that I've finished Jane Eyre to kick off Victober, I've decided to watch 7 different filmed versions of Jane Eyre throughout Victober:1943 with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles--feature film
19..."
I've seen the 1943 and 2006 versions. I remember liking the 2006 version, but Joan Fontaine is a terrible Jane Eyre; she conveys nothing of the strong will and independence of the book character. I'm really interested to see which you will like best of all these!
Tiffany- ON HIATUS wrote: "Janice: I read The Turn of the Screw some years ago and while I did enjoy it, I had to go back to the book and read it from a different perspective. My level of enjoyment for the book after the new..."I am more than 1/2 way done reading the book and I am not sure what I think of it.
Melissa House wrote: "Janice wrote: I'm going to be reading The Turn Of The Screw for the first time. :) Ihave it as prompt #4.That's fab Janice- we can compare notes & confer.. im expecting it to be both creepy & amb..."
I am 1/2 way finished of The Turn of the Screw and I have no idea what to think of it or even if I like it or not. I do have Portrait of a Lady on my TBR list so if I end up not liking The Turn of the Screw then I will not give up on James Henry.
Owlette wrote: "Starting to re-read two Victorian novels for my first Victober: Great Expectations and Jane Eyre."I read Jane Eyre for the first time this year and loved it!!!
Ioana wrote: "The books I chose could fit multiple challenges:1. The woman in white, Wilkie Collins - sensation novel, countryside
2. Middlemarch, George Eliot - countryside setting, popular Victorian book
3. T..."
I read Middlemarch for the first time and really enjoyed it and I also have The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on my TBR list. :)
Janice wrote: "Owlette wrote: "Starting to re-read two Victorian novels for my first Victober: Great Expectations and Jane Eyre."I read Jane Eyre for the first time this year and loved ..."
I reread Jane Eyre for my 1st Victober and really loved it! Hadn't read it in about 55 years and absolutely loved it! A shame I didn"t read it yrs ago but there was no Victober until I found it 4 yrs ago!!!
Janice wrote: "Melissa House wrote: "Janice wrote: I am 1/2 way finished of The Turn of the Screw and I have no idea what to think of it or even if I like it or not. I do have Portrait of a Lady on my TBR list so if I end up not liking The Turn of the Screw then I will not give up on James Henry."Ah! re TTOTScrew that seems to be alot of peoples thoughts/ reaction & i wonder then if ill feel the same lol! HJ isn't the most popular of classic Vic novelists it seems.. i really loved POALady though. Approaching half way of TWIWhite (enjoying) & not sure if ill go straight to TOTS or GExpectations.. we'll see.. i am really curious about it though (i love HJ) : )
Anyone else reading poetry for Victober? I’m loving Robert Louis Stevenson.
Melissa House wrote: "Janice wrote: "Melissa House wrote: "Janice wrote: I am 1/2 way finished of The Turn of the Screw and I have no idea what to think of it or even if I like it or not. I do have Portrait of a Lady on..."I actually have put four of his novels on my TBR list: Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, Daisy Miller, and The Wings of a Dove.
Janice wrote: "Melissa House wrote: "Janice wrote: "Melissa House wrote: "Janice wrote: I actually have put four of his novels on my TBR list: Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, Daisy Miller, and The Wings of a Dove. ..."Yep ive got TWOTDove, TAmbassadors & DMiller on my shelves too lol defo want to read TBostonians as well : )
My TBR this year is 'David Copperfield', 'Villette', 'East Lynne' and 'Dr. Thorne', and as I'm unlikely to finish them all in October, my Victober will run until I'm done.But no matter, as I'm celebrating my "Diamond Jubilee" this year, and to celebrate I've decided to read fifty classics I've been putting off for far too long.
VICTOBER 2025
Books mentioned in this topic
Jane Eyre (other topics)Great Expectations (other topics)
Great Expectations (other topics)
Jane Eyre (other topics)
Jane Eyre (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Wilkie Collins (other topics)Thomas Hardy (other topics)
Anne Brontë (other topics)
Oscar Wilde (other topics)
Elizabeth Gaskell (other topics)
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- Vilette - Charlotte Brontë
- Shirley - Charlotte Brontë
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
- Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell