VICTOBER 2025 discussion

A general place to discuss your TBR!

I’m trying to read from physical books that I actually own, so I’m doubling up challenges.

1. Read a book by Victorian female author (bonus: one that’s new to you). Lifted Veil, George Eliot

2. Re-read a Victorian book. Maybe North and South, time permitting.

3. Read a Victorian book under 250 pages and/or over 500 pages. See challenge 1 and 4. May read The Moonstone if time allows.

4. Read an underrated Victorian book from the same year your favorite Victorian classic – 1855. The Warden, Anthony Trollope. Not underrated, but I own it already.

5. Read by candlelight

Group read along: the Importance of Being Earnest and A Woman of No Importance. I bought the selection off plays, but thought it a worthwhile investment.

Can’t wait!

Hi! It is the first time that I will participate in this challenge (I will do my best to do it, considering that I know so few about victorian age)
So I was checking all the books suggested in the forums, and I decided that I will try to read the following books.

Challenges:
1.- Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
It seems to be very interesting.
2.- Dracula by Bram Stocker
I really loved this book, so I want to read it again
3.- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
It seems interesting but it is long. So I will do my best to read the whole book.
4.- The invisible man by H.G. Wells
I don't have a fav victorian book. But, considering that I really enjoyed Dracula written in 1897, this is my book then. Although, I am not so sure that it is an "underrated" book. But, maybe it is, considering that Wells has other more famous books.

5.- Candlelight
OK, mmm I am not sure I will do this challenge, It will kill my eyes hehehe.

wish me luck.

I have just placed my order with Book Depository....I can't get pretty editions of the classics I wanted in the USA....Hoping to have the books by October 1. Fingers are crossed.

1. Ange's Challenge - Agnes Grey Anne Bronte

2. Katie's Challenge - I'm going with under 250 pages - Carmilla J Sheridan Le Fanu (I also have The Withered Arm and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll....

3. Kate's Challenge - A Little Princess by Francis Hodgeson Burnett

4. Lucy's Challenge - Agnes Grey will count for this, if I get to it. I know she's not obscure, but I feel she is lesser known than her sisters.

I am planning on listening to the books in the group read along.

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." -L.M. Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables

I'm not good at TBR's, so I decided to give myself a few options for certain challenges. I probably won't read all the books on my TBR, but I'll be more than happy if I manage at least one book per challenge. Here it is:
1. Ange's challenge: Read a book by a Victorian female author (bonus: one that's new to you)

- A Hippo Banquet by Mary Henrietta Kingsley or The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
Both of these authors are new to me.

2. Kate's challenge: Reread a Victorian book

- Plays by Oscar Wilde (group readalaong) and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (possible re-read, if I have time)

3. Katie's challenge: Read a Victorian book under 250 pages and/ or over 500 pages

- Under 250 pages: Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, or The Book of Nonsense and Nonsense Songs by Edward Lear, or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Over 250 pages: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

4. Lucy's challenge: Read an underrated Victorian book from the same year as your favourite Victorian classic

- The Cabinet Minister by Arthur Wing Pinero (1890 – The Picture of Dorian Gray is my favourite)
This play only has 4 ratings and 2 reviews on Goodreads, I guess that means it's underrated.

5. General challenge: Read by candlelight
I'm so thrilled by this challenge, haven't done this in years. I'll try to read some chapters of all these books by candlelight.

Good luck to everyone!

1.A novel by a female author (new to me)
Lady Audley’s secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

2. Reread a Victorian book
Wuthering Heights - one of my favorites not read for a few years so overdue a reread.

3. Read a Victorian book less than 250 pages and/or over 500 pages
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (149 pages)
Tess of the Durbevilles by Thomas Hardy (518 pages) (if I have time)

4. Read an under rated book published the same year as your favorite
The Rebecca Rioter by Amy Dillwyn (published 1880 (don’t have a single favorite but have wanted to read this for a while).

I have already read the importance of being Ernest this year so won’t read that again but will join the group read of A woman of no importance by Oscar Wilde.

If I have time I would also like to read Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell.

1.A novel by a female author (new to me)
Lady Audrey’s secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

2. Reread a Victorian book
Wuthering Heights - one of my favorites not read for a few years so overdue a reread.

3. Read a Victorian book less than 250 pages and/or over 500 pages
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (149 pages)
Tess of the Durbevilles by Thomas Hardy (518 pages) (if I have time)

4. Read an under rated book published the same year as your favorite
The Rebecca Rioter by Amy Dillwyn (published 1880 (don’t have a single favorite but have wanted to read this for a while.

I have already read the importance of being Ernest this year so won’t read that again but will join the group read of A woman of no importance by Oscar Wilde.

If I have time I would also like to read Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell.

I'm not sure the best place to post this, but as I plan my TBR, I wanted to ask for opinions about editions.

I normally buy Oxford World's Classics because I like their introductions and explanatory notes, but I've been eying Penguin English Library editions for their gorgeous covers. What does everyone think of the notes, text, etc. in these editions?

Thanks for any advice!

The books I wanted to read for Victober do fit the challenges rather well
1. new to me female author: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
2. re-read: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
3. under 250/ over 500: A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
4. book published the same year as favourite (which are Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories): A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde (next to Dorian Gray and Earnest it seems underrated)
5. read by candlelight: I'm probably going to use the poetry book by Housman for that

If I find time I might reread the Importance of Being Earnest, but it's more likely that I will read something new to me instead. I have some plays by Shaw as well as Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens on my TBR and a nonfiction book called To Marry An English Lord which I would like to get to

Freya wrote: "Ann wrote: "I'm not sure the best place to post this, but as I plan my TBR, I wanted to ask for opinions about editions.

I normally buy Oxford World's Classics because I like their introductions ..."

Very helpful! Thank you!

A novel by a female author new to me ? Middlemarch by George Eliot
The reread ? Persuasion by Jane Austen
My favorite book is Jane Eyre and I've decided to read Vanity Fair by Thackeray published the same year. It may be a famous book in UK but not in France ...
My over 500 pages is Middlemarch, and under 250 is Persuasion :-)

I'm just now nearing the end of a George Eliot binge: I read Adam Bede (now one of my all-time favorite books) and am nearly finished with The Mill on the Floss (also excellent).

I'm excited to try the challenges!

1. Read a book by a Victorian female author (bonus: one that’s new to you).
- Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë.
I've read Emily's Wuthering Heights and Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Shirley, and love them all dearly. Looking forward to getting to know Anne.

2. Re-read a Victorian book.
I am a big fan of rereading in theory, but my eagerness for new books is too great to reread anything this Victober.

3. Read a Victorian book under 250 pages and/or over 500 pages. - For the short book, I will take Katie's suggestion and read Doctor Wortle's School by Anthony Trollope. This will be my first Trollope!
- After two long Eliot novels, I think I'll leave out the over 500-page challenge

4. Read an underrated Victorian book from the same year of your favorite Victorian classic.
- My favorite is probably Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd from 1874, so I will choose Lost for Love by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, published that year. This also fulfills challenge #1, as it will be my first Braddon.

5. Read by candlelight
- I've done this several times, but have never been able to quite get the right candles, location, posture, etc, for it to be a comfortable experience. Thank goodness for electricity! But it will be fun to try it again - it's all about the ambiance! Perhaps I'll send a telegraph and bake with arrowroot while I'm at it.

I'm also very excited about the Oscar Wilde readalongs - I am a theatre scholar, but Wilde is not in my research area (though his Salome has some related elements). It will be interesting to get a bit more into his work.

Thanks to Katie, Kate, Ange, and Lucy for hosting this fantastic group!

Susan wrote: "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." -L.M. Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables "

Probably the most perfect quote for Victober.

Hi, folks!
After much deliberation, here is my TBR :)

- Ange’s challenge:
and/ or

- Kate’s challenge:


- Katie’s challenge:
-- under 250 pages:


--over 500 pages:


- Lucy’s challenge: It’s impossible for me to choose one favourite Victorian book, I have several favourites! 🤷‍♀️ So, I will adapt this prompt and read a book published in same year as the best Victorian novel I read for the first time this year (so far), which was Hester, by Margaret Oliphant (1883). For this, I have:
and/or

I posted my TBR on my blog: https://theblankgarden.com/2019/09/12...
... and spoke about it on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUqt6...

I will also be taking part in Knit and Listen, and I talk about that on my post and video as well. 🧶 I will be knitting the pattern The Sommer Regn, by Renate Yerkes, using the Brooklyn Tweed Arbor yarn, in the colorway Nightfall :)

And that’s all for now, folks! Happy Victober! 💖

I am not going to do the challenges, but I will do the read-alongs, which are An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde, and the other one, which I can't remember right now. I have a book of nine of his plays, so maybe I'll read the rest.

I am currently reading Confessions of a Window Cleaner, I mean English Opium Eater by Thomas de Quincey, which is actually pre Victorian, but the other two essays are Suspiria de Profundus and The English Mail Coach, which are Victorian, which I will keep back to next month.

When I finish those I will make a start on Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope.

I’ve decided to do a reading across the Victorian Era challenge. I made this up because I started looking into what date my Victorian novels were first published (as reading a book published in the same year as your favourite book is one of the challenges). Then I thought I could do ‘Reading a Victorian Year’. I would pick a year and read all the books published in that year, (that I owned), as well as any plays or poetry as well as reading newspapers online and generally researching the events and news of that year as if I was a Victorian person reading the latest releases and current events. Added to that reading by candle light! I got quite taken with this idea but the problem was that although I might have a lot of books published in a particular year, trying to read them all in a month back to back might not be the best way to do it. From participating in previous Victobers I know that however much I love Victorian novels I cannot read big door stoppers or heavy Elliot prose without a break.

My second idea, which I don’t like as much as the first, but I’m going with it, is to read a book from each decade of the era. This way I can get an overview of the 63 years and how novels changed and it gives me a lot more choice of what to pick. I can choose a mixture of longer and shorter novels, a balance of male and female authors and if I don’t like the book I can set it aside and pick up something else. So all that said I’m feeling quite excited about my little challenge and so looking forward to Victober!!

TBR

1. 1837 Ernest Maltravers by Lord Lytton

I know nothing about the plot of this this book, nor have I ever read anything by Lytton. It was published in the year Victoria became queen and has a sequel ‘Alice or The Mysteries’. I inherited an old copy of it and the sequel and because they are such sentimental objects they sit in heirloom splendour on the shelf gathering dust. It will be interesting to see what I think of them, and give them a proper reading rather than using them as ornaments.

2. 1843 Jessie Phillips by Mrs Frances Milton Trollope (mother of Anthony Trollope)

This fulfils the ‘Read a female author you haven’t read before’ challenge. Anthony Trollope’s brother the wonderfully named Thomas Adolphus Trollope also wrote books. I’d love to know if anyone has read any of his.

3. 1854 Hide and Seek by Wilkie Collins

I started reading Armadale by him earlier this year and couldn’t get on with it at all. This looks more promising. I’m avoiding reading the back as I’d like to go into it blind.

4. 1868-9 He Knew He was Right by Anthony Trollope

I wanted to have a long saga on my list and this one can also fulfil the longer than 500 pages challenge. I really liked ‘The Way We Live Now’.

5. 1879 Vixen by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

This looks like it will be a lighter more sensational read and a good balance to Jessie Phillips. (Again don’t know anything about the plot).

6. 1880 The Tragic Comedians by George Meredith

I also have a copy of ‘The Egoist’. I read the first chapter of it and felt a bit exhausted; this is much shorter (under 250 pages challenge) and if I like it will give me more confidence for the Egoist.

7. 1896 An Outcast of the Islands by Joseph Conrad

I’m counting him as English as he because he became a naturalised British citizen in 1884. I so enjoyed the language of ‘A Heart of Darkenss’ but it’s ages since I read it and is the only thing I’ve read by him.

8. 1901 -The Making of a Marchioness by Francis Hodgson Burnett

I remember reading ‘The Secret Garden’ as a child and the film. I’ve had this on my shelf for so long and forgot that officially it’s a Victorian novel.

9. Extras

I’d love to re-read either Lady Audley’s Secret or The Tennant of Wildfell Hall, if I have time, or I might have to read them in November instead.

I’d like to read some plays; I have ‘London Assurance and Other Victorian Comedies’ that I’m going to read between novels as well as the Wilde group plays if I can find them on audiobook.

If I have time I’d like to read a history book about the Victorian period, I have Erebus by Michael Palin.

I’m not a practiced enough knitter to knit a pattern and listen to a novel, but I can do crochet granny squares and mending, so I’ll do a simplified knitting project. I don’t know if I’ll do the Elliot novel I might see if any on my list are available as audiobooks.

Hello everyone! This is the first time I participate to a challenge and I'm not sure I'm going to read all those classics lol (I usually alternate a classic to a non-classic).


1. Ange’s challenge: Read a book by a Victorian female author (bonus: one that’s new to you)
☆ I'm going to read The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), this is my first approach to this author so I hope to like her style.

2. Kate’s challenge: Reread a Victorian book
☆ I think I'm going to reread The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde because of my great Halloween mood and because it's short lol.

3. Katie’s challenge: Read a Victorian book under 250 pages and/or over 500 pages
☆ I've already started Villette by Charlotte Brontë which is like 570 pages long. As I'm not goig to finish it this month I'm going to put it in this challenge.

So those are the challenges I'm going to participate to. I've tried to find something for Lucy's challenge, but I didn't find anything interesting (my fav Victorian books are Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad).
I don't think I'm going to read by candlelight because I usually read when I'm in bed, so the light won't be sufficient for me to enjoy my lectures (also I don't want to recreate Mr. Rochester story, if you know what I mean). Also I'm won't participate to the readalongs because... I don't appreciate Oscar Wilde...at all.

SO I decided to add three more Victorian books to my list, even if they didn't fit in the challenges:

☆King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard; I read it's a pretty racist book, but as a person who studied sociology and colonial history, I find really interesting to read about the absurdity of white men's ideology in the past, also because it's a great source material to better understand present days.

☆Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens; even if I watched the movie a billion times I've never read the book because I find Charles' writing difficult.

☆The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells; Victorian England with aliens. What else?

Sobriquet wrote: "I’ve decided to do a reading across the Victorian Era challenge. I made this up because I started looking into what date my Victorian novels were first published (as reading a book published in the..."

Interesting post. I advise you not to read anything by George Meredith, having read the Egoist. I think the 1880s were a fallow decade. Dickens was dead, Elliot was dead. The Brontes were dead. Gaskill was dead. Thomas Hardy had the field to himself, just about. After the 1880s literature started fragmenting. Books started getting shorter, and genre fiction started to take off.

Also, if you read anything by Joseph Conrad, you have to read something cheerful next. I remember some TV adaption of The Secret Garden when I was a child. It had a haunting quality.

I just found this on Wikipedia and thought some of you might be interested. It covers the entire 19th century, but you can just search through the years of Victoria's reign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

[Edit I just found this subcategory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...]

April wrote: "I just found this on Wikipedia and thought some of you might be interested. It covers the entire 19th century, but you can just search through the years of Victoria's reign.

https://en.wikipedia.o..."

I've been looking at this site for lists of novels;

http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl...

Sobriquet wrote: "April wrote: "I just found this on Wikipedia and thought some of you might be interested. It covers the entire 19th century, but you can just search through the years of Victoria's reign.

https://..."

Sobriquet, that is an amazing resource. Thanks for posting the link.

Just realized a book I own and was planning to read for new female was published in 1902! Ugh! I was planning to read Five Children and It by author E. Nesbit. I still might just because I’ve owned it for a few years and who knows when I will pick it up.

Sofia wrote: "
☆King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard; I read it's a pretty racist book, but as a person who studied sociology and colonial history, I find really interesting to read about the absurdity of white men's ideology in the past, also because it's a great source material to better understand present days."


I read it last year. It is pretty racist and a bit weird. It reminded me of those 1930s Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller I used to watch in the school holidays.

Hi all, this is my first time participating in Victober and I'm really excited about it.

I'll only be doing the first 3 challenges and the Oscar Wilde readalong.

1. Ange's challenge: "North and South" by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have never read anything by Gaskell so bonus point here :)

2. Kate's challenge: "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte. It's been 15 years since I've read this book and I remember not liking it. I am curious to see how I'll feel about it now.

3. Katie's challenge: "An Uninhabited House" by Charlotte Riddell. Under 250 pages, I came across this author at the British Library, and thought it would be nice to read a book by someone who is no longer well known and also, as this is a ghost story, to satisfy my craving for spooky Halloween-month reads.

I thought I'd share links to some fun books that others might find interesting. They are all by John Sutherland. Each book looks at little puzzles in classic literature. Not all the puzzles are from Victorian literature, but a lot of them are. Here are the links:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

April wrote: "I thought I'd share links to some fun books that others might find interesting. They are all by John Sutherland. Each book looks at little puzzles in classic literature. Not all the puzzles are fro..."

I read those, but only the chapters on the books I had read. I liked his essay on why Joe and Biddy did not invite Pip to their wedding - I wondered that when I read it. I liked his essay on who betrayed Elizabeth Bennet. I liked his Jane Eyre hypothesis, but in the next book he said a school teacher had written to him and demolished it, but did not say how.

Kevin wrote: "I liked his Jane Eyre hypothesis, but in the next book he said a school teacher had written to him and demolished it, but did not say how. "

This is very funny. Now I'm dying to know what the teacher said.

Well, I've decided to start Victober with Silas Marner for Katie's and Ange's challenges. I may follow that up with The Moonstone which covers a book over 500 pages and is a reread. I'm still looking for a book that was published in 1843, the same year A Christmas Carol was published. I'm also going to read Carmilla. Somewhere in this mix I need to get to Trollope's Doctor Thorne, which would be a reread, but I'm working on The Barsetshire Chronicles and need to get moving on that.

I'm almost certain I will participate in Victober, and just as almost certain that I'll fail if I set myself too strict a TBR. (I have this thing where I will absolutely not pick up books I tell myself I should pick up for some readathon or other).

So I'm just going to ignore all the challenges and read (some of) the Victorian authors I have lying around here anyway. Right now, possible choices include:

Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim
Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist (read this before ages ago)
George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss
Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady (does he even count?)
Robert Louis Stevenson - Weir of Hermiston
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights (I've tried this one before and really couldn't get into it)
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre (see Wuthering Heights, only I've already tried twice)

Oh, and a boatload of first-hand accounts about polar exploration and Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (which I've read most of for class some ten years ago but want to reread for resarch purposes) for non-fiction, in case I get bored of the novels.

(I'm also sorely tempted to pick up Wilkie Collins' The Frozen Deep, but I don't own that one and have already spent entirely too much money on books this year.)

No rereads unless I really feel like it, which is highly unlikely since I've either read the books in question not too long ago, really don't feel like rereading them right now, or won't manage to get through them on top of everything else. This last one goes for any and all Dickens on my shelves, much as I love the man. XD



Oh, and marginally related to the above: I can't remember who said they were going to pick up Michael Palin's Erebus for some non-fiction about Victorian science / exploration, but I can say I very much recommend that book. It's incredibly well-written, rather entertaining and also rather sad because... well. Everything that mentions the Franklin Expeditions turns sad eventually.

Merry wrote: "I'm almost certain I will participate in Victober, and just as almost certain that I'll fail if I set myself too strict a TBR. (I have this thing where I will absolutely not pick up books I tell my..."

Hi Merry. I was hoping to find a copy of Wilkie Collins' The Frozen Deep too. I've heard mixed reviews of it, but I think the idea sounds very interesting. Has anyone here read it?

Ann wrote: "I'm not sure the best place to post this, but as I plan my TBR, I wanted to ask for opinions about editions.

I normally buy Oxford World's Classics because I like their introductions and explanat..."

Hi Ann! From my own experience they're fairly similar. At least I haven't noticed anything better or worse about either copies. I tend to buy whatever one is either closest to hand (if time is a factor) or with the best cover. Hope this helps!

Sobriquet wrote: "I’ve decided to do a reading across the Victorian Era challenge. I made this up because I started looking into what date my Victorian novels were first published (as reading a book published in the..."

Wow, how clever! I love both of your ideas, and your TBR. This makes me want to do something similar early next year. Looking forward to seeing how your challenge goes - happy reading!

p.s. I love Collins, but had a hard time reading Armadale. I saw a stage production of it that I enjoyed much better.

Hello everyone! This is my first Victober, and I'm really excited about it!

1. Read a female author: "Cranford" by Elizabeth Gaskell. She's new to me (though I love her TV and movie adaptations), and I'll either be reading an 1892 copy that belonged to my great- or great-great-grandparents or a 1929 copy that belonged to my grandmother.

2. Reread: I'm picking my favorite, "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy. I may not get to this challenge, or finish the book in October, but I'm equal parts excited and nervous to see how a re-read holds up.

3. Under 250 and/or over 500 pages: For under 250, I'm reading "A House to Let" by Dickens, Collins, Procter, and Gaskell. I also might add in "The Making of a Marchioness" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. And, I might read an over 500 page-er too, but will see which Dickens or Collins or ... almost anyone, really, has that I own that sounds the best when I get to that point.

4. Underrated book published the same year as your favorite: Again, my favorite is "Jude the Obscure", published in 1895. I'll be reading "The Golden Age" by Kenneth Grahame for sure, maybe throwing in a couple of H.G. Wells' short stories too.

5. Read by candlelight: This will be fun, I haven't done it in years!

I'm also planning on reading both Wilde plays. Glad I checked my shelves first and saw that I already owned a copy before I went out and bought a duplicate.

I've had SUCH a great time watching Booktube videos, going through my shelves and making multiple lists for each challenge. Sometimes I think planning is more fun that participating. Nerd! Can't wait to see what everyone else's TBRs will look like.

so i think i'm finally done picking the books for my Victober Tbr bit ambitious but heyy

1. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, I'm completely new to Gaskell so am excited to see how i get on with her writing.

2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, i read this roughly 10 years ago so am probably due for a re read

3. Katie’s challenge: for the 250 i would like to read Carmilla, and Diary of a Nobody also i have Arthur Savilles Crime to get to at some point.

For the 500, Vanity Fair by William Mackpeace Thackary which i started reading earlier in the year and got about 300 pages into i would really love to finish.

4. Lucy’s challenge: now for this i picked the year 1853 as it was the same year that Bleak House by Charles Dickens was first published in its finished form. I will be reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte, not that unknown but more obscure than Jane Eyre, i want to compare them and see how her writing style changed between the intervening years.

5. General challenge: Read by candlelight

So this is not really possible where i live as very sensitive fire alarms but if i get a chance to go back home i think a couple of candlelit baths with some Bronte could be fun.

Group readalongs: The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde and A Woman of No Importance, Oscar Wilde which i will be reading along with as i adore Oscar Wildes writing/ it will be another re read as i'v already read all of his plays

My TBR at the moment consists on only Bröntes books:
1- Agnes Grey, by Anne Brönte
2- Shirley, by Charlotte Brönte
3- Stancliffe's Hotel, by Charlotte Brönte

I've never read any of the Bröntes and I'm very excited to start it on Victober.

My TBR is as follows:

Ange’s challenge:
-Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau
-East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood

Kate’s challenge:
-Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

Katie’s challenge:
-The Nurses Tale by Gaskell
-The Mayor of Casterbridge by Hardy

Lucy’s challenge:
-The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Mary Yonge

I am going to use this challenge as a way to read books I already own. I will be reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the planned group reads, and if I have enough time, Wilde’s De Profundis and Other Writings published by Penguin. I don’t own any underrated Victorian books and I really couldn’t name a favorite, but I am very interested to hear how others address this part of the challenge.

I've enjoyed selecting my TBR. These are definites and I will try to fit in anything else that I can. I'm not a very fast reader - life gets in the way!!

1. Read a book by Victorian female author (bonus: one that’s new to you). East Lynne by Mrs Henry Wood (624 pages and 62 chapters - will read at least 2 chapters per day). She's new to me.

2. Re-read a Victorian book. Hound of the Baskervilles by Sherlock Holmes (176 pages).

3. Read a Victorian book under 250 pages and/or over 500 pages. I'm doubling up here. My book for Challenge 1 is 624 pages and my book for Challenge 2 is 176 pages.

4. Read an underrated Victorian book from the same year as your favourite Victorian classic. I've decided to skip this challenge.

5. Read by candlelight - I think the Hound of the Baskervilles will be ideal for this - I've got a large pillar candle, left over from some Christmases ago. I've also inherited a cardboard box of WWII candles - but not burning those - even in such a good cause.

Group read along: will participate in the Oscar Wilde plays - have already bought the Penguin Classics book.

Wow, I'm excited to join in for my first Victober and am already about a third through The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy as a pre-read.

I've put together what feels like a beginners TBR as I'm very new to victorian lit. (I might have read War of the Worlds in high school but I'm not sure if we read it or just discussed it because we were reading The Day of the Triffids)

1. Female Author - Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
2 - Reread - can't really do, so I'm going to read A Christmas Carol as I love the Muppets adaptation
3 - a book under 250 pages and/or over 500 pages - I'm choosing The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Woman in White
4 - Underrated author - most of the authors I'd never heard of except the obvious two Brontes and Dickens, so I'm going to do the Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte...I didn't know there was another sister.

I think that gives me a good mix and I have picked up quite a few others that I can add if I feel like it.

Sarah wrote: "My TBR is as follows:

Ange’s challenge:
-Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau
-East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood

Kate’s challenge:
-Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

Katie’s challenge:
-The Nurses Tale by G..."
I’m really interested that you chose Ruth as a re read. I’ve chosen it for Lucy’s ‘underrated’ novel challenge. I’ve never read it so don’t know if is underrated or not. I was a bit worried I may not like it much, but your choosing it for Kate’s challenge gives me more hope that I’ll enjoy it.

I haven't made a massive tbr as I will need to finish Tristram Shandy before starting Victober. I plan to read Phineas Finn by Trollope which is definitely over 500 pages. This will be my 8th Trollope. I want to read all 47! I will reread At the Back of The North Wind by George Mcdonald. I loved it years ago. I read The Importance of Being Ernest at Uni so don't want to reread now. I have downloaded Diana Muller Craik's Olive after watching Katie's video - if I get to it it will be my new to me female author. I also have Wood Magic by Bevis to read. This is a victorian children's book. Should all those be finished though unlikely, I could start Dombey and Son.

Nicola Lodge-Bruce wrote: "I was planning on reading Vendetta by Marie Corelli for my unknown female author. I’ve tried to read the first 20 pages and I’ve given up. This book was not for me.
Any idea on who I can try? The V..."

How about Geraldine Jewsbury or Mrs. Oliphant?

My TBR is ambitious (for me) due to work, but I'll give it my best shot!

1. A novel by a female author (this one's not new to me but c'est la vie)
'The Lifted Veil' by George Eliot

2. Reread a Victorian book
'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde.

3. Read a Victorian book less than 250 pages and/or over 500 pages
'Flatland' by Edwin Abbott (synopsis sounds crazy!, 96 pages)
'Dracula' by Bram Stoker (504 pages)

4. Read an underrated book published the same year as your favourite (my favourite is 'Middlemarch' by George Eliot)
'Carmilla' by J. Sheridan le Fanu.

Read-a-long: Looking forward to both 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and 'A Woman of No Importance' by Oscar Wilde.

Reading by candlelight sounds lovely and relaxing! Maybe in the bath with some soft music and a glass of wine...

I’m so looking forward to the fiction reading I’ve selected for Victober. Now I want to include some background non fictional reading to go with it. I want to read Elizabeth Longford’s ‘Victoria R.I.’ And Juliet Barker’s ‘The Brontës’. There is also ‘Byron a Portrait’ by Leslie A Marchand that is on my want to read list (I have somewhere in my hazy memory that it was Lord Byron who inspired the creation of Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff I don’t know if that’s true but it’s all very intriguing and making me want to know about him). This one I’ll have to put on the list for next year though as I don’t see how I can fit all this reading into one month. The other two will likely continue through into my non fiction November reading.
Edit - after looking further into various biographies of Byron I realise he’s from the wrong period. I’ll look into him when I begin reading around the romantics. (Byron died when Emily was 6 years old).

I think I’ve got this worked out.
Female author new to me: “A Struggle for Fame” by Charlotte Riddell (I just finished this and it’s brilliant, I’ve been thinking about it all week, and I think I might read some more Charlotte Riddell in Victober proper).
Reread: “Carmilla” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, I’m also planning on watching some adaptations of this one.
A book less than 250 or more than 500 pages: “The Coming Race” by Edward Bulwer-Lytton which is under 250 pages.
Read an underrated book from the year of your favorite book: “The Doctor’s Wife” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, this one was a struggle since I don’t have one favorite Victorian book. I finally settled on “Alice in Wonderland” since that was the first Victorian book I ever read. Also this one sounds interesting, it’s a retelling of “Madam Bovary” for a Victorian audience. I don’t know what that entails but I’m curious to see.
Read by candlelight: probably a pass, I’ve done that before and all I remember about the experience is it hurt my eyes and the smoke gave me a headache.
Books I’m reading but not for any particular challenge: “Traffic” by John Ruskin (a little nonfiction) and two anthologies of supernatural fiction from the nineteenth century, not all Victorian but mostly. “Deadlier Than The Male” edited by Graeme Davis which focuses on women writers, “Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories,” and some collections of stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. I may not read all of them but I think this is a good start.

Sorry to edit, title was “More Deadly than the Male”

Emma wrote: "Merry wrote: "Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights (I've tried this one before and really couldn't get into it)
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre (see Wuthering Heights, only I've already tried twice)"

I'm..."

Aw, good to know/hear! I'm planning on going mostly with my mood when deciding which books to pick up during Victober, but I'll make sure to let you know if one of them happens to be Wuthering Heights and/or Jane Eyre. I really want to get to both of them eventually, but I know that forcing myself to read books usually makes me dislike them, so it might be better to wait.

Ok I think I finally have my TBR list:

1. Read a Female Author: Michael Armstrong, by Fanny Trollope. I've never read her before! I may pick a different one, but for now that's the one I'll read.

2. Reread a Victorian Book: Bleak House, by Dickens.

3. Read a Victorian Book under 250/Over 500. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot. It's under 250, it's quite short actually. I may do another one for the over 500 if I have time.

4. Read an underrated Victorian Novel written the same year as your favorite. This is a hard one! First I had to pick a favorite novel, then I had to find when other books were written. I have three that are pretty close to the top. My Absolute Favorite is A Christmas Carol, but I couldn't find anything being published that sounded interested - I'm sure there were loads of underrated books but I couldn't find them. I finally settled on my 3rd favorite, Agnes Grey, and will be reading the underrated classic (maybe?) Varney the Vampire. It was being serialized during the year that Agnes Grey was published.

Other victorian books I have on my list, if I have time: a collection of Victorian Ghost Stories, Jude the Obscure, the Worsley biography of Queen Victoria, American Notes by Dickens, and then a book called A Christmas Carol and It's Adaptations - which is not Victorian, but talks about the film and stage versions of the book.

I'm looking forward to next month as I have not read any of these books before except for Bleak House!

I haven't read any Oscar Wilde yet, so I'm really looking forward to the general read-along!

As for the other challenges, I have several books that cover multiple challenges (of course, haha)

1. A novel by a female author
2. Reread a Victorian book
3. Read a Victorian book less than 250 pages and/or over 500 pages
4. Read an underrated book published the same year as your favorite

Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë (1, 3; although not a new to me female author)
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (2)
The Lifted Veil, George Eliot (1, 3, 4; again not a new to me female author)
Bleak House, Charles Dickens (3)
Beulah, Augusta Jane Evans (1, 4)

Alicia wrote: "I haven't read any Oscar Wilde yet, so I'm really looking forward to the general read-along!

As for the other challenges, I have several books that cover multiple challenges (of course, haha)

1. ..."

Great Expectations is so good, I haven't read it in ages. Agnes Grey is excellent! Your list looks fun!