Victorians! discussion
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So what Victorian novel is everyone reading at the moment?
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Darcy
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 02:10PM)
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Dec 05, 2007 08:47PM

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I find it comforting that no matter what happens in my life, there will always be more Victorian novels to read.

I've had to take a break from my pleasure reading due to school, but once finals are over, I'll be finishing Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White and H.G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon. . . . Any other H.G. Wells fans out there?

Actually, I think "The Eustace Diamonds" is my favorite Trollope novel, but I really struggled through "Barchester Towers" and I never finished "The Warden." "Diamonds" is supposedly a detective novel, but really it is more about Lady Eustace and social ambition.
I haven't read any Wells--I hear the one to start with is "The Time Machine." Or do you have another favorite, Laura?

I loved The Woman in White, although I loved The Moonstone even more. Supposedly the latter is one of the first detective novels? That's what the intro says, but maybe Eustace Diamonds was earlier?
For fun Trollope, I really recommend The Way We Live Now (and the BBC version is awesome - that goes on a different post). It's funny, engaging, and bitter and has both the most despicable bad guys and most sympathetic bad guys I've ever enountered in fiction. I'm also really enjoying the Palliser Series, but I admit to skimming some of the more detailed politics talk.

After I finish for the evening, I always want to say "Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you Kings of New England," from Cider House Rules (the only book by John Irving I like). In my case, this would be addressed at my husband and dogs? Rescued pooches are kind of like orphans, I guess.

Right now I'm reading "Jane Eyre", because I'd like to start the Thursday Next series as a light breather and thought maybe the background knowledge would be useful. I just finished "Oliver Twist", which was pretty disappointing. I remember really, really liking it at...ohhh...age 10, maybe. Now I thought it was a bit boring; the characters didn't develop, the plot was silly and predictable, the humor slim. Kind of a shame. I've lots of Vic. Lit. to choose from, though, as I've a vast collection here at home. Let me know how you like "Summer", as I've got it in a double edition with some other work of hers that temporarily escapes me. I loved both "The Age of Innocence" and "The House of Mirth", although maybe loved isn't the right word. They're awfully sad but awfully well-written. I guess I did love them after all.

Reading Jane Eyre is definitely a good idea, before starting the Thursday Next series. The Eyre Affair is really clever in how it rewrites Jane Eyre.
Guess I'll start with The House of Mirth. Sounds like a cheerful holiday read . . . ;)

I agree, Inder, The Way We Live Now is a great novel. I'd forgotten about that one. Has anyone read Can You Forgive Her? I'm thinking about giving it a try, but I'm hesitant with Trollope because I have a hard time getting interested in some of his novels.

For some reason, it never occurred to me that the "Moonstone" came before "Eustace Diamonds" but that explains a lot. Oooh, I can't decide which to read first, "North and South," or "The Eustace Diamonds." They both sound absolutely wonderful.




Perhaps Women writers have better male characters - Jane Austen, obviously (Darcy is practically a cult phenomenon these days). George Eliot (I'm in love with Adam Bede, but even more in love with the women in her books).
But I really, really liked Paul Montague in The Way We Live Now - he's passionate about his work and has a mysterious past, always appealing in a man. But Trollope had an amazing eye for character, both male and female. Phineas Finn is such a cutie! Sure, he's a bit of a woman's man, but I could forgive him for that.
And I'll never get over my crush on Gabriel Oak in Far From the Madding Crowd. Bathsheba didn't deserve him!


I agree with you--Diggory is much more interesting when he's red, and it seems fitting (given his profession) that he should simply melt off in the same way that reddlemen eventually did.




People do say Wilkie Collins wrote the first English detective novel, with the moonstone (I think Poe's Rue Morgue was the first European detective novel). I don't remember Eustace Diamond being a detective novel so much it's more like reading Vanity Fair, about a scheming social climber. The diamonds aren't really LOST or stolen, it's more a question really of how to rip them out of her hot little hands.
I always worry when people start with The Warden, just because it's the first in the series; if I'd started with the Warden, I don't think I would have read any other Trollope's.
Can you forgive her (and forgive me for commenting on old posts!) had nice characters and all but I did find her a little annoying; she was a bit TOO much of a repressed honor-bound Victorian.










I recently listened to the audiobook of Middlemarch, which I found helped my understanding of the book greatly! I will probably do this more in the future with classic literature: first read the actual book, and then listen to it!
Check out librivox.org for free audiobooks that you can listen to on your ipod or on your computer.

I wonder if we have it around the house...
Nickolas Nickleby for me. I'm coming off a Great Expectations high, so I'm hoping to recapture that feeling again.

I'm still reading Dickens's Christmas books--I'm done with A Christmas Carol and about 2/3 of the way through The Chimes, and then it's on to The Cricket on the Hearth.



Thanks for that, looking for it now....found it at the library...whoopee


Jane Eyre is perhaps my all time favourite book so Villette has a lot to live up to but I'm engrossed in it now.

Oh yes... (big sigh and batting eyelashes...). I loved Villette but didn't know it until I was finished. Now it's like a lost love. And for some reason, (how do I say it without giving anything away?) I didn't think ahead or make predictions with the book. I was very much in the present, so I was dragged along with Lucy and was as much shocked as she was with the turn of events (although I bet I cried more).
Of the two, I love Jane Eyre the most, but I feel that I have 'lived' Villette and it still lives in me.
Of the two, I love Jane Eyre the most, but I feel that I have 'lived' Villette and it still lives in me.
PS: I'm reading David Copperfield and The Victorian Governess right now, and I'm a Margaret Oliphant fan as well.

Lady Glencora is a pip! I am currently addicted to Trollope, and listening to most of his novels on Librivox. I loved "Can You Forgive Her?" and "the Eustace Diamonds". I'm currently listening to "The Warden", which started out slow, but is getting better and better. Trollope is truly fascinating, as he hits on all levels of society, from the cops to bad household help to the elite, Parliament and the clergy.


Cher, you have hit the nail on the head with regard to how I feel about the book too. I am so much in the present with this - I feel like I am walking in Lucy's shoes with her and have become part of her life. I have no idea what will happen as I don't know the story but I am enjoying just being "there" right now. It's a wonderful book - I am at the part where Lucy has just gone to La Terasse and met up with Paulina again.

Gail wrote: "Oh, I love that...it would be great to call my husband "a prince of Maine", since he was born and raised there and it had a formative effect on his life.
Right now I'm reading "Jane Eyre", becaus..."
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