34 - A book set in Victorian times

[Toni]

I'm reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte for this prompt.

[JessicaMHR]

I used Outlawed by Anna North. It takes place in 1894-1895.

[Kaia]

I read To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, which is a time travel book. Some of the story happens in 2060, but for the most part the two time travelers are in 1888.

[Carly]

I'm using A Lady's Formula for Love. It looks silly but it is on my shelf because I won it in a giveaway a while ago. Everyone needs something light every once in a while, right? :) Especially since I am reading How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America at the same time...

[Anita]

Almost anything by Jules Verne is set in Victorian times I’m reading a couple of his books for prompts.

[Nicky]

I just read The Dictionary of Lost Words and although it continues past the Victorian era, it does start in the early 1880's in Oxford. So I feel this could possibly be considered for this prompt?

Any thoughts on this?

[Kelly]

I'm finally reading Black Beauty, which fits for this category. Can't believe I never read it as a kid!

[Esther]

Would Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez fit here? The book takes place between 1875 and 1924, according to Wikipedia.

[Kim]

I read A Most English Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria's Daughter

[Mandy]

Esther wrote: "Would Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez fit here? The book takes place between 1875 and 1924, according to Wikipedia."

Queen Vick was coronated in 1837. So anything from that year on
takes place in Victorian Times until 1901.

[Sarah]

According to Google, The Turn of the Screw takes place in the 1840s, so it's early Victorian! I was hoping not to do a reread for this category, but I also wanted to pull from my own shelves and apparently I've already read every book I own that's set in Victorian times :D

[Cathy]

I've opted for Bryce Courtney's Solomon's Song, as the 3rd in the Potato Factory trilogy and I have read the first 2. All three are set during the 19th century so would fit this category. The story starts in London until the characters find themselves transported to Tasmania which was at the time very much under British rule.

[Brandy]

I finally read Wuthering Heights, and it wasn't really my thing.

[Ron]

I'm still having a hard time with this topic.

Anyone have any recs?

[Jen K]

Ron wrote: "I'm still having a hard time with this topic.

Anyone have any recs?"

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World was really good.

[Leona]

Ron wrote: "Okay found a few fiction novels I don't mind working with since I already have them:

-Pride & Prejudice
-Jane Eyre
-Dracula"
I have Dracula and started it yesterday. I bought at a thrift store.

[Dea]

If you would like a bit more diversity in your Victorian-setting fiction, check out Gail Carriger. She writes humorous, fascinating supernatural alt-history with a spectrum of gender and sexual identities in the Finishing School, Parasol Protectorate, and Custard Protocol books.

First book of each series…

[Regan]

I actually have a bunch of books on my TBR already that fit here (although my tastes mean they pretty much all have a fantasy element)
Ordinary Monsters
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
The Once and Future Witches (that one is American, so a little more woobly)
The Factory Witches of Lowell apparently doesn't give a specific year, but the mills in Lowell that the book is based on ran almost exclusively in the Victorian period (also American)
I thought I had more, but turns out a number that I thought would be Victorian had scooched over into Edwardian

[sassysistah]

I read the Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe. It is historical fiction about Anita Hemings, the first black woman to attend Vassar college. I enjoyed the story but I thought that the author really did a beautiful job recreating the environment Anita grew up in Boston of educated, thriving middle class black folk who were breaking boundaries in medicine, education and politics while living their best life though the larger American society did their utmost to try to tear them down. A wonderful portrait of African Americans in the late 1890s.

[Britany]

Finished The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Ron]

I find myself reading a lot of classics lately and saw that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories is part of the Victorian era so I think I'll end up going with this one.

[Jessica]

I am almost finished with House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig and I am really enjoying it!

[Joanne]

I chose "Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World" by Matthew Goodman. The race took place in late 1889 to early 1890. Interesting non-fiction that I felt just needed a little editing to tighten it up. My audiobook didn't have any photos or the map so I'm waiting for the ebook from the library

[Leah]

I read Lily by Rose Tremain, set from 1850 to the 1870s. A really good read.

Recommended:
North and South; Victoria R. I.; Middlemarch.

[Kelly]

I read The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton. It was a fun book.

[cvtherin]

Does Picnic at Hanging Rock count?

[Jessica]

I read The House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin Craig

[Sherri]

I read And Only to Deceive

[Lilith]

I read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror

I can't find my edition on Goodreads, but it had a really good intro essay by Nabokov, and a great afterword by Thomas Chaon. Highly recommend

[Joanna G]

For some reason, my mind is being weird about this one. I read a book set in the 1860s, but elsewhere in Europe, and couldn't make myself fill in it for the prompt. I've also thought about a few fantasy /alternate history novels, but can't bring myself to accept that it would also be the Victorian era within those worlds.

So does any one have any recs for books in the time period, set in Britain, where it's explicit within the book that Victoria is on the throne? It doesn't need to be a huge part of things, I think I just want in-text confirmation. Thanks!

[Kaia]

Joanna wrote: "For some reason, my mind is being weird about this one. I read a book set in the 1860s, but elsewhere in Europe, and couldn't make myself fill in it for the prompt. I've also thought about a few fa..."

I read To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is set in Oxford. I can't remember if they specifically that Victoria is on the throne, but the time travelers are trying to keep history intact, so I think it's pretty certain. It was my favorite read this year.

The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious Daughter is on my TBR. I can't speak to the quality, but it looks interesting.

[Jamie]

The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin is set in both Victorian-era England and Russia. Technically any of the books in the series would work, but The Winter Queen is the first.

[Trish]

Having realised that my first two choices, Northanger Abbey and Wuthering Heights, are too early to be truly Victorian (NA was published in 1817 and WH was written in the right period, but is set in 1801-02), I've decided to go for something completely different!

So I'm currently thinking of A Night in the Lonesome October, on the basis that the characters include thinly veiled versions of Holmes and Watson, Jack the Ripper, and Dracula, all firmly Victorian, as well as Dr. Frankenstein and Burke and Hare who, while not quite in era, are close enough.

Also, having now reread it, it also make a reference to a portrait of the Queen, and from the context, that's Victoria, not Elizabeth II.

[Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer]

If you're looking for something quicker to read, the middle grade Myrtle Hardcastle series is set in England in 1893. Premeditated Myrtle

[Ron]

Even though I already completed this topic, I'm currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray which I find works for this time period.

[Vaish]

Ron wrote: "Even though I already completed this topic, I'm currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray which I find works for this time period."

even I read the same book..