VICTOBER 2025 discussion

I thought I'd start a new thread for Victober, so people can discuss what they're currently reading throughout the month.

No spoilers here please!

it’s not quite October yet, but I’m ~200 pages into Trollope’s novel, Can You Forgive Her? I realized after I picked this book that it doesn’t really fit any of the challenges (maybe TV adaptation?) I decided to read it anyway, as I’m gearing up to write a dissertation chapter on a later number in the Palliser series (The Prime Minister). I’m enjoying the book so far, though it feels less polished to me than some of Trollope’s later works. I loathe George Vavasor!

Is anyone reading this novel or another in the Palliser series?

Melissa wrote: "it’s not quite October yet, but I’m ~200 pages into Trollope’s novel, Can You Forgive Her? I realized after I picked this book that it doesn’t really fit any of the challenges (maybe TV adaptation?..."

I read that in August so am hoping to pick up Pineaus Finn in Victober :)

Katie wrote: "Melissa wrote: "it’s not quite October yet, but I’m ~200 pages into Trollope’s novel, Can You Forgive Her? I realized after I picked this book that it doesn’t really fit any of the challenges (mayb..."

That's great! I have ambitions of reading the whole series in order one day... but I'm not sure if it will happen this October!

I have officially started my Victober reading. I have read the first two chapters of Wives and Daughters. I'm going to go back and jot down a couple notes on those chapters and then zip right along. I'm waiting for a shipment from Book Depository to arrive with some other books for Victober. It sure takes a long time for their books to arrive in the U.S. I can hardly wait for them to get here!

I just finished Jane Eyre. I had been reading it before I found the Victober site. I went ahead and watched a DVD staring George C. Scott and Susannah York. The book was great. George C. Scott, as Rochester, was great. The movie though... well, I've seen better adaptations of Jane Eyre.
I'm waiting for my tbr books to arrive Friday so I can officially begin Victober.

My favorite Jane Eyre adaptation is the 1983 T.V. series with Timothy Dalton as Rochester. I haven't seen the version with the George Scott but it'd be interesting to watch though.

Sobriquet wrote: "My favorite Jane Eyre adaptation is the 1983 T.V. series with Timothy Dalton as Rochester. I haven't seen the version with the George Scott but it'd be interesting to watch though."

I will try to find the Timothy Dalton version and watch it. I have also seen the Orson Wells version that I thought was good.

Emel wrote: "Like a few others in here, I was so excited for Victober, that I couldn't wait for October to arrive properly, and started reading Our mutual friend, by Dickens. :) I had picked up Far from the mad..."

Your mood is so important to reading. You need just the right book at the right time. Right now I'm reading Wives and Daughters and really enjoying it, but I'm so in the mood for something dark and gothic. I may just have to double dip and start something creepy and haunting.

Im having a hard time waiting til Monday!

Whitney wrote: "Im having a hard time waiting til Monday!"

Me too! I am trying to finish all of my books that I am currently reading before Monday but I am already pondering what I am going to pick up when October starts! Victober has always been one of my favourite readathons of the year and I can't believe it is already almost October.

Antía wrote: "I started my Victorian month two weeks earlier. Read "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" last week (not counting it in Victober - but got me in the right mood for it) and this week I started reading "Mid..."

I wouldn't start with Barsetshire Towers - it's the second in the series after the Warden and is a direct sequel to the Warden. Far better to start there :)

I already started my Victober reading. I finished The Story of a Lie by Robert Lewis Stevenson. I really enjoy his writing,
I also started Wives and Daughters early. If I didn't, when the read along starts, the group will quickly pass me by and I won't be able to enjoy the discussion. I am just that darn slow!

re: Anita and Katie,

The Warden is probably a good suggestion, and it’s a quick read compared to most Victorian novels! My first Trollope was The Way We Live Now, and although that one is definitely not a quick read, I’d still recommend it. It’s hilarious, cunning, and moving by turns, and in my opinion really shows Trollope at his best. Plus, it’s not part of a series (though I think some of the secondary characters appear in other works).

Antía wrote: "Hi Melissa, you seem like the perfect person to answer this - I haven't read any book by Trollope - although I'm curious and have meant for ages. I just can't decide where to start - could you (or any other around, of course) please recommend me a good starting book?."

I also had no idea where to start with Trollope. Can You Forgive Her? was my first. I loved it. Although I'm not that into the idea of continuing with Phineas Finn, so maybe it is better to start with the Barsetshire series.

Whitney wrote: "Im having a hard time waiting til Monday!"

Me too, and may just start now as I’m so close. My TBR is ambitious plus I’m reading “The Story of the Stone” for another readalong. Fingers crossed!

Rebecca wrote: "Antía wrote: "Hi Melissa, you seem like the perfect person to answer this - I haven't read any book by Trollope - although I'm curious and have meant for ages. I just can't decide where to start - ..."

Really recommend starting the chronicles of Barsetshire. The first one, Warden, is such a quick read. It is definitely weaker than all of the other novels in the series but it is worth of try. I am actually going to try to finish the series this Victober and read The Last Chronicles of Barset.

I'm trying very hard to NOT start my Victober books until tomorrow - I'm glad you're all finding it as hard as I do! :)
I still have two other books I'm currently reading, so I'll focus on finishing those today if I can.
My first Victober reads will be Three Men on a Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (that'll be my audiobook for the commute), Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett and East Lynne, by Ellen Wood. My TBR is way too ambitious...

I started The Woman in White last night, and I've read the first six chapters of Wives and Daughters. This is going to be great fun!

I’m starting off with Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wives and Daughters. So far I’m very much enjoying both. 😊

Started Daniel Deronda last night. Starting Wives and Daughters and The Woman in White (a reread) for the read-alongs today.

I started a little early so I’m partway through Middlemarch and Wives and Daughters. I’m really enjoying Wives and Daughters, not so much Middlemarch...

I started Dr. Thorne by Anthony Trollope a couple of days ago, and have started Wives and Daughters today for the read-along! Wives and Daughters will be my lunchtime reading, and then I will switch back to Dr. Thorne after work. Enjoying both so far!

I just started reading The Professor!

I started with Agnes Grey earlier today.

I started reading Poor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins today, along with Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell and Kim by Rudyard Kipling on audiobook.

I have started and finished The lifted veil by George Eliot (it’s really short) and I’m reading Wives and daughters.

Reading Wives and Daughters and tomorrow starting Wuthering Heights

I started An Ideal Husband by Wilde and plan on finishing it tonight, so I can start David Copperfield tomorrow:)

Along with Wives and daughters, I'm reading Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and The Odd Women. I started The Pickwick Papers, but I don't like it.

I started far from the madding crowd today. I'm not participating in the readalong, as I think I stuffed my plate with six books, so I don't want to take on more.

I just started a non-fiction travel memoir by Robert Louis Stevenson called The Amateur Emigrant. I love travel writing and had no idea there were Victorian choices in that genre. I'm quite excited about it.

Just started Far From the Madding Crowd today and Wives and Daughter's!

I just started Wives and Daughters and The Diary of a Nobody

I started reading yesterday, The Warden by Anthony Trollope. Also Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. I’m liking them both, but such different writing styles.

I just started Dombey and Son by Dickens. If I finish early, I'll also listen to Victorian ghost stories by various authors. I finished the novella The Man Who Would Be King by Kipling.

I started reading yesterday The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins And Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Really enjoying both!! :)

Started Wives and Daughters yesterday. I hope to read along with the schedule but we'll see how it goes :)

Want to start Dracula today.

Whitney wrote: "Along with Wives and daughters, I'm reading Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and The Odd Women. I started The Pickwick Papers, but I don't like it."

Whitney, I started reading The Pickwick Papers years ago. I remember one scene that I found so funny I started laughing out-loud and couldn't stop.

Hi. I started reading The Picture of Dorian Gray one day early. OK so far but didn't manage to read yesterday. Hoping I will get a lot read tonight

I started Wuthering Heights last night. I wanted to get it out of the way first, but I’m not enjoying it. I’m going to give it today and see. I have too many other books I want to read more than struggle with this book.

Sheryl wrote: "I started reading yesterday, The Warden by Anthony Trollope. Also Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. I’m liking them both, but such different writing styles."

I'm also reading a Trollope novel at the same time as Wives & Daughters - and I noticed the same thing! The difference in their styles is so pronounced that you can see it on the page even before you start reading the words. There's so much dialogue in Trollope that he tends to use fairly short paragraphs, whereas Gaskell's are often very long.

Along with Wives and Daughters I've been reading The Picture of Dorian Gray - the style of narration and dialogue couldn't be more different between the two.

Wilde's writing is indisputably beautiful, but I just can't get past my dislike of Henry Wotton's teasing cynicism and 'scandalous' opinions, and I take it the character is a mouthpiece for Wilde himself (in fact I'm recognizing some of the same themes, about Art particularly, which Wilde raises in the later Queensberry libel trial).

Its a fun experience contrasting the two authors, but clearly I'm a just a sucker for Gaskell's gentle, warm depictions of human relationships.

April wrote: "Whitney wrote: "Along with Wives and daughters, I'm reading Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and The Odd Women. I started The Pickwick Papers, but I don't like it."

Whitney, I started reading The Pickwick..."

I've had the same experience, I find once you get into the rhythm of it there are so many memorable and laugh-out-loud scenes! You get the sense of how much fun Dickens must have had in the writing, and creating these characters (I mean just the names alone: Winkle and Snodgrass particularly)!

I'm reading Wives and Daughters, which I'm loving so far. Also currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Reading East Lynne and so it is fabulous! Will start listening to The Moonstone on audio today

I’m changing my titles again. I’m moving Dombey and Son to November when I hope the temperature will be lower than the upper 80s. I’ve finished re-reading Wuthering Heights and I still didn’t enjoy it. I’m moving on to “The Lost Stories of W. S. Gilbert" Peter Haining (Editor). So far the style reminds me of Jerome K. Jerome.

I just finished the audiobook of Middlemarch! I’ll admit, it was a bit hard to get through at times, but I wonder if I should blame that more on the monotonous voice of the narrator for the audiobook. I did enjoy each of the main plots in their own way and how the mingled together. I would definitely consider this to re-read again someday which means I will probably buy my own copy!

I started “A String of Pearls” on Monday and I’m nearly halfway through. The writing really makes me appreciate the subtlety of writers like Dickens and Gaskell. It’s so overwrought and melodramatic—especially the scenes that have no business being overwrought and melodramatic, like characters discussing the scenery going on for half a page. That being said, the descriptions of Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett are wonderfully sinister and fun. If they had mustaches they’d be twirling them. Also, the descriptions of people eating the pies are completely gruesome and over the top, even if a reader doesn’t know the secret ingredient of Mrs Lovett’s pies they know there’s something nasty going on. I’m having a lot of fun, so far.

Working my way through the Woodlanders. It isn't as compelling to me as Far from the Maddening Crowd but it's a Thomas Hardy so I'm still finding it difficult to put down at times. Not the biggest fan of Giles. I will admit I have been slacking. I haven't picked up Wives and Daughters yet but I am hoping to do so this weekend. *crossing my fingers*