VICTOBER 2025 discussion

Kate’s challenge is to: read a new to you book and/or short story by a favourite Victorian author

What are you planning on reading for this challenge?

Hardy’s poetry is the best! Happy reading.

The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy (yay quite a few Hardy fans here haha)

I'm planning to read The Trumpet-Major. Hardy is my favourite author but there are still a couple of novels left of his that I haven't read.

Yay....same!! I'm going to read Under the Greenwood Tree.

Charles Dickens' Sketches by Boz

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Dickens' Ghost Stories, which will also count for the favorite genre challenge.

Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell.

A Child's Garden of Verses and The Wooden Box, both by Robert Louis Stevenson

my favorite is probably Emily Bronte. but with such a small body of work I may need to select another.

I think I might go for The Cranford Chronicles (Mr Harrison's Confessions, Cranford and My Lady Ludlow in one volume) by Elizabeth Gaskell

I am quite confused which book to pick for this challenge.....

I will either read Charlotte Bronte's novel or I can pick Madame Bovary by Guastave Flaubert. I don't know much short stories of Victorian authors. Does anybody have recommendations for it?

Adrika wrote: "I am quite confused which book to pick for this challenge.....

I will either read Charlotte Bronte's novel or I can pick Madame Bovary by Guastave Flaubert. I don't know much short stories of Vic..."

Dickens and Gaskell both have some good short stories.

On second thought, I think I'll listen to the audiobook of either Cranford or Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell for this specific prompt!

O, I think I misunderstood the challenge. As far as my favorite Vic writer, it's a toss up between Hardy & Dickens. That said, as much as I adore Hardy, I think I need Dickens right now. Reading kept me sane after the election of Trump back in 2016, and now with another election looming I need Charlie again so I think I need to start: .

Short story which I need to find:

Lois the Witch and Mr Harrison's Confessions! Thank you Katie for suggesting them in your video.

It's difficult for me to choose a favourite Victorian author!

My choice for now is:
Commonplace, and Other Short Stories

And my recommendation for fans of Emily Brontë is:
Gondal's Queen: A Novel in Verse
(I've written about this book on my blog)

:)

I plan on reading two new-to-me Oscar Wilde pieces: A Woman of No Importance and The Picture of Dorian Gray and watch adaptations.

I wanted to read something short. I considered Dickens and Gaskell, but I have big books by them, which I am holding off on. I considered The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carol, but that's a poem rather than a short story. H.G. Wells' Victorian science fiction books are fairly short, but I have already read them. Oscar Wilde and Joseph Conrad wrote short stories, but I am already reading them this Victober. I considered a Sherlock Holmes case, but actually I cannot consider Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a favourite author. I read him as a teenager, but not since. I thought about reading The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling. I have watched the film but not read it. Then I found out I had not read all the stories in the Jungle Book. I must have read an abridged version years ago which only included the Mowgli story, so I will read at least one short story from that. It's a bit confusing because there are two jungle books. I thought the first was just about Mowgli and the other contained the short stories, but the first contains short stories as well.

I think I might finally get to North & South for this challenge! I read Wives and Daughters two years ago and absolutely adored it, and have watched the enchanting N&S miniseries and the Cranford series and really enjoyed both of them so I think Gaskell would count as a favourite author. I've been putting off N&S because I wanted to be able to savour it properly... firstly I wanted the mini series to not be too fresh in my mind so the plot details would go a little fuzzy, then I wanted to read P&P first, and then I didn't want to read N&S right after P&P in case their similarities detracted from N&S. But I think this is the year that all the stars will align for me to read North & South finally!

Wilkie Collins is one of my favourite Victorian authors, going to read either Jezebel's Daughter or Basil for this challenge.

Reading A Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

I will be reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for my "new to me" book. I've not ever read any Sherlock Holmes yet; time to change that!

Not so much a short story or book but gonna go with the plays of Oscar Wilde starting with ‘An Ideal Husband’

Hi All, I bought a copy of Louisa May Alcott’s “Flower Fables” on a trip to Orchard House four years ago and haven’t read it yet! (What’s wrong with me??) That’s going to be my “new to me “ read. Can’t wait to see what everyone else is reading!

For this challenge I will be reading Silvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll. I’ve read Alice many many times, and all of his poetry, but Silvie & Bruno has been right here in my “Complete Works” for decades, unread. Time to correct that!

I'm not promising anything (mood reader, and also rather slow), but I'll probably cover this prompt with either a Dickens (Bleak House or Oliver Twist; technically I read an abridged version of Oliver Twist as a kid but that hardly counts) or Stevenson's Weir of Hermiston (which also doubles as a book I had on my TBR last year).

I am reading Charles Dickens for this one. "The Battle of Life"

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde; it is a short story, and I am glad of that as I'm quite busy these days.

Dana ⚢ wrote: "The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde; it is a short story, and I am glad of that as I'm quite busy these days."

Dana, The Canterville Ghost is great fun.

just finished "the lifted veil" by George Eliot for this challenge. I didn't even read the synopsis before reading the book and that was a great decision... I enjoyed a lot. A 5 star read, no doubt

I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray yesterday. Lord Wotton is said to be modeled on Lord Ronald Gower, whose first volume of reminiscences I read for context. Lord Gower does not, of course, present himself as immoral or amoral. However, according to Lord Gower, his position in the “House of Commons had become an excuse for leading an idle but pleasant life. … These were days passed pleasantly amongst a society that only cared for the amusement and distraction of the hour, and which as long as it was amused and not bored was delightful” (396).

Today I watched the 2009 adaptation Dorian Gray starring Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton. Unfortunately, the movie rewrote crucial episodes and ruined the ending.

I know I can make my own rules here, but officially speaking it must be an author from the British Empire of the Victorian era, is that right?

Amelia wrote: "I know I can make my own rules here, but officially speaking it must be an author from the British Empire of the Victorian era, is that right?"

That's the way I understand it. I think Katie said an author from Britain or Ireland, but then she has read Mary Seacole who was born in Jamaica. I am reading Rudyard Kipling, who was born in India, and Joseph Conrad, who was a Pole who took out British citizenship. I would have said a Victorian was any of Queen Victoria's subjects, whether they liked it or not. I am not sure about Henry James, because he was an American citizen, but he lived a lot of his life in England.

Jamaica was a colony of Britain at the time Seacole was writing, no? She's listed as "British-Jamaican, as was India where Kipling was originally from. The sun never set on the Brits at one point, right?
Myself I tried to get Edith Wharton to be applicable to this Victorian challenge but she does not fit at all. Despite my devotion to her! Love her so hard! She is so American. & James wrote about or from the perspective of Americans abroad even though he resided in England so I think this is why he may not fit. I could be wrong here.

Jess wrote: "Jamaica was a colony of Britain at the time Seacole was writing, no? She's listed as "British-Jamaican, as was India where Kipling was originally from. The sun never set on the Brits at one point, ..."

Yes, I think you may be right about Henry James, but I have only read Daisy Miller, Turn if the Screw, some other short stories. So far, I don't like him. Have you read his other stuff? Are his longer books any good? I read David Lodge's fictionalised biography of him. I want to like him.

I have not read any of Edith Wharton's books, but she's early 1900's isn't she?

I’ve only read Wings of the Dove and Turn of the Screw and I’m gonna read Portrait of a Lady because he’s worth reading. Yet Wings was not necessarily enjoyable but I think that’s intentional. James was a failed playwright but I think he would have made a great film maker some gorgeous moments & imagery but I felt that his writing was too cerebral.
I would love to hear what you think.
Edith Wharton is incredible. She can do no wrong in my opinion. She is my all time favorite. I could go on as to why but you shouldn’t read me. Read her!

FWIW Kevin I'd recommend trying The Portrait of a Lady but I didn't realise that there were two versions when I tried it first, the original and a version that James revised for his later New York edition of his works. I found the later version less accessible and iirc the style more like the overly-complex later novels like The Golden Bowl. Critics seem to prefer the revised edition, I found the earlier version far more enjoyable.

I'd second Edith Wharton as an interesting writer, she's fascinating on women, class etc But I last read her a while ago. She's been blasted recently for her anti-Semitic views, something that surfaces in a lot of novels from that time, but which a number of critics say were unusually extreme even for her time/context, and that's making me hesitant about re-reading - read her novels at school. Although I get the impression her prejudice was more marked in her personal writing/life than in her fiction, although seems the 'House of Mirth' is fairly problematic...But I plan to try her ghost stories at some point...

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2012/03...

You sound as if you've read Wharton more recently Jess, does anti-Semitism stand out more in any of her novels than other novels of the same era? I read Amy Levy's 'Reuben Sachs' recently and that was quite odd in terms of how Jewish characters were represented, and made me quite uncomfortable at times, particularly unexpected as Levy was Jewish and the novel is about a Jewish family.

Kevin wrote: "Amelia wrote: "I know I can make my own rules here, but officially speaking it must be an author from the British Empire of the Victorian era, is that right?"

That's the way I understand it. I thi..."

So, usually 'Victorian', whether literature or something else, is defined as British or Irish 1837-1901, which is the definition I tend to use for Victober, but I think what you interpret 'British' as can be fairly loose. Writers like Mary Seacole, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, etc who were born elsewhere but spent a lot of their life in Britain or who had a British parent etc, are often counted as Victorian.

I've listened to Bram Stoker's short story The Squaw. Well, it was racist and mostly stupid.

I also reread The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle. My favourite of his Sherlock Holmes novels.