… so many wonderful books were written during your reign. And so many more, both fact and fiction, have been written about these years too.
And so I never can resist a Victorian Reading Challenge …
The 2012 Victorian Challenge is hosted by Laura of Laura’s Reviews.
This is how it works:
- The Victorian Challenge 2012 will run from January 1st to December 31st, 2012. You can post a review before this date if you wish.
- You can read a book, watch a movie, or listen to an audiobook, anything Victorian related that you would like. Reading, watching, or listening to a favorite Victorian related item again for the second, third, or more time is also allowed. You can also share items with other challenges.
- The goal will be to read, watch, listen, to 2 to 6 (or beyond) anything Victorian items.
Perfect!
Now I love making lists of what I might read, and so I have made lists …
Six Victorian Novels
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (1841)
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery (1848)
The Warden by Anthony Trollope (1855)
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (1866)
The Odd Women by George Gissing (1893)
Liza of Lambeth by W Somerset Maugham (1897)
Six works of non fiction set during the reign of Queen Victoria:
Mr Briggs’ Hat by Kate Coloquon
The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders
A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes
Magnificent Obsession by Helen Rappaport
Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace by Kate Summerscale
Becoming Queen by Kate Williams
And six novels set in the Victoria era:
Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
The Whores’ Asylum by Kate Darby
The Seance by John Harwood
The Journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling
The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace
The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams
And I notice that Essie Fox has a new book coming to be published next autumn, which I am sure will be Victorian …
Now I should be very surprised if I read all of those books before the end of next year.
And I may well find other Victorian reading material.
But isn’t it nice to have such wonderful possibilities to ponder … ?
Fleur in her World 
I LOVE Vanity Fair! Though I still need to read the second half. 🙂 It’s excellent.
My mother had been telling me to read Vanity Fair for years, and she’s usually right about these things! I particularly want to read it now because she has has lost a lot of her short term memory and keep track of novels any more, but she remembers classics she read years ago and loves to talk about them.
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I just love the lists that have sprung on many blogs over the last couple of days. More books to discover.
Have fun with the challenge!
Great lists! I read The Warden a couple of years ago and enjoyed it (and am still slowly working my way through the rest of the Barsetshire series). I haven’t read any of the other books you mentioned but I’m hoping to read Wives and Daughters for this challenge too – and possibly Vanity Fair.
I can’t wait to see what you think of the ones you read. I plan to read Wives and Daughters too and I also have copies of Liza of Lambeth and The Seance at home which have been eyeing me up. Good luck! 🙂
so many wonderful books and I just know that you will be adding to my wish list!
Happy New Year, Jane!!!
I haven’t read any of your fiction choices except for The Odd Women and I didn’t enjoy it all that much – I hope you like it more than I did. I’d like to read more Victorian fiction myself so I think that I’ll join this challenge also!