January-March 2014 Theme Read: 19th Century Europe (& rest of the world, excluding Northern America)

The interior of the Crystal Palace in London during the Great Exhibition of 1851

Nineteenth century Europe was the time of Industrial Revolution, which brought wealth to some and poverty to many others. It was also the time of Queen Victoria on England, British Imperialism and the Regency period in that country, with strict social rules. 1845 brought the Irish Potato Famine (not restricted to Ireland) and a surge of emigration. The Crimean War was the great European conflict of the 19th century, followed by the second Russo-Turkish War. The women’s rights movement was also important in this time period, for instance the right to vote. Advances in medicine were partly responsible for a surge in population in Europe, resulting in urbanization. Railroads were introduced, changing travel and goods transportation forever.

In the wider world, the Mughal Empire and the Chinese Empire collapsed, while the Empire of Japan entered a time of prosperity and rapid modernization. Slavery was greatly reduced in the word, after a successful slave revolt in Haiti, Brazil abolishing slavery and the British Empire stopping Barbary pirates from kidnapping and enslaving Europeans as well as banning slavery in their entire domain. Australia, and in particular Tasmania, was used as a penal colony by the British Empire, but mid-nineteenth century more and more free people immigrated there. Aboriginals didn’t fare well due to this. New Zealand was first colonized by missionaries in this period and there, like in Australia, the native Maori population didn’t fare well. This led to the Land Wars.

Because there are so many things happening in the 19th century in both Europe and Northern America, this quarter's theme read will exclude novels set in Northern America. You can save novels set in 19th century Northern America (aka USA & Canada) for the next quarter, when we will focus exclusively on that part of the world in the 19th century. Novels about emigration to the USA which have a mostly European focus can of course go here, if it's more about building a life in the US, then I suggest putting it aside until the next quarter.

Now, there's many, many books that I could suggest. I've put together a (fairly) representative list of different themes and countries, but it's merely a small sample, depsite it being a long list.

The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen (UK, Regency)

Daughter of Siena by Marina Fiorato (Italy, Medici family)

The Lovely Ship by Storm Jameson (UK, nautical)

Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger (English abroad in Egypt)

The Famished Land by Elizabeth Byrd (Irish Potato Famine)

Zulu Hart by Saul David (Zulu War, South Africa, 1st in Zulu Hart series)

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (Women’s movement)

Empires of Sand by David Ball (Paris & the Sahara Desert)

The Ghost Eater by Frederick Highland (Dutch Sumatra)

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria, 1st in the Africa trilogy)

Philida by André Brink (South Africa, slavery)

Ladysmith by Giles Foden (South Africa, Boer War)

The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah (Ghana)

Hinterlands by Karen Mercury (Benin, colonization)

Empire of Heaven by Linda Ching Sledge (China, Taiping Rebellion)

Tai-Pan by James Clavell (Hong Kong, Opium Wars)

Kagami by Elizabeth Kata (Japan, Samurai)

Elysium by Robert Edric (Tasmania)

Outback by Aaron Fletcher (Australia, 1st in the Outback Saga)

Johanna’s World by O.M. Andresen (New Zealand)

The Strongest God by Heretaunga Pat Baker (New Zealand, Maori, Colonization)

The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (India, Indian Mutiny)

The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh (Burma)

I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay)

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M. Mayo (Mexico)

Monkey Hunting by Cristina García (Cuba)

The House of Rajani by Alon Hilu (Israel/Palestine)

The Stone Woman by Tariq Ali (Ottoman Empire)

The Sultan’s Seal by Jenny White (Ottoman Empire, mystery)

Visit the Quarterly Theme Reads Wiki Page for more information and add your own books for this quarter’s theme!

Long list of books this time, and that was with me trying to keep it small! I'm not sure yet what I'll be reading for this quarter. I can recommend The Sultan's Seal as I loved that book, and the sequel. I have the third (and for now last) book in the series on my shelves and might read that.

Thanks for setting this up Samantha. I am trying to read from my own shelves as much as possible next year and I have the sequel to Zulu Hart so I will be reading Hart of Empire.

3, DeltaQueen > Very cool, I think that the Zulu Hart series is a bit off the beaten path when it comes to this time period. Have you read Zulu Hart? What did you think of it?

I have read Zulu Hart, it was a few years ago and I admit a lot of it has faded somewhat. I remember that the author was very good with the battle scenes and the historical details. The actual plot was a little far-fetched but overall the book was a pretty good adventure story.

I know it doesn't totally coincide with the 19th century (the story start in the 1850s and ends with WWI) but The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth has been on my shelves forever and it keeps coming up. This book is trying to tell me something and this month might be the right moment to find out what exactly.

Oh! I'm actually reading something that fits with this challenge! :) Julia Quinn's Just Like Heaven is a romance set in the 1820s. Cute so far, though it doesn't seem like a must-read.

6, JustJoey > Considering the book is set over six (or maybe seven, depending on the actual dates of the book) decades with only one (or two, again depending), there's much more 19th century than 20th century. So it definitely counts.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the title also a music piece? Is it named after the music piece?

I just checked the wiki, & found that no one had listed the current challenge. Could someone remedy this? I'd do it, but I'm not good at adding stuff other than books.

# 8 - Basically, it's about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire as seen through the eyes of the von Trotta-family. The title refers to the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss that is played before von Trotta's house every sunday (according to the info on the back-cover).

9, Miela > The quarterly theme reads wiki does list this challenge (not the normal wiki for this group). Under This Quarter's Time Periods it says January-March 2014. Beneath that you can add your books. Make sure to go to the right wiki, the link to this challenge's wiki is at the bottom of the top post of this thread.

Currently about halfway through Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (Karl Marx) – it's pretty short – and just starting a reread of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Norton Critical Edition) with plans to read all the Norton supplemental material. I think I may also give a reread to the 2012 The Communist Manifesto (Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed.) with its supplemental materials. And I've had Jonathan Sperber's quite recent Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life in a TBR pile for a little while, so I'll see if I get to that.

I'm sure I'll be putting in quite a bit more on this quarterly (especially if the regular February period turns out to be Napoleonic), a good bit of it Brontë-related material.

ETA: I don't mean I've read the 2012 Communist Manifesto in Norton. I read the CM decades ago, so the reread would be using the new Norton Critical with its supplements. But I'm definitely not up for Kapital (and never will be), my real interests being literary. It's just that the other Marx stuff aside from the Sperber biography is a fairly quick read, and the CM Norton Critical includes at least one article on feminist criticism.

I'm plunging into the 19th century European et al read with Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. Good opportunity to pick that one up.

@ 13 -- Ooh, hope you enjoy it! I liked both the book and the recent(ish) miniseries.

I also liked the miniseries and am looking forward to the book.

I am reading Footprints of Lion by Beverley Harper. It is set in Africa in the last part of the 19th century in the lead up to the Boer War, and probably during (I'm only 90 pages in). I have read a couple of her other books some time ago and they seem to be consistently good.

Footprints of Lion sounds interesting, Roro. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about it after you've finished it.

I have finished Footprints of Lion which was half set in the 19th century but did cross into the 20th as it was set in the lead up to and throughout the Boer War which concluded in 1902. The story follows the lives of a British farming family in Africa, Dallas and Lorna and their 7 children, all of whom are involved in the war in different ways. The author did a wonderful job of portraying what life could have been like in such difficult times. Four stars.

Just finished my reread of Frankenstein in the Norton Critical Edition and posted this 4½**** review. That gives me, thus far for the first quarter, Frankenstein and Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.

I have started Cry of the Curlew. It is set in Australia, starting in 1862. It starts with a terrible scene of the dispersal of Aboriginal people on a rich landowners property. Then off to Sydney with the Irish-Australians.

I'm just about to start Trollope's The Warden.

The Generals is the well written back story of both Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington in their parallel struggles to rise to the top. I much preferred Wellington's story--I had not read anything focused upon him before, but I found a great deal in his attitude toward India's people and culture to please me.

I thoroughly enjoy well written historical fiction of this sort and will probably read more of Scarrow's work.

Just finished Trollope's The Warden (4****, though I personally found Trollope's conservative "God-bless-the-squire-and-his-relations-and-keep-us-all-in-our-proper-stations" repulsive). I do want to get around to a thorough review.

Now I'm on to Miss Miles by Mary Taylor, one (along with Ellen Nussey) of Charlotte Bronte's two lifelong school-days friends. I suspect I'll like this one a good deal more than The Warden if only for the Brontean connection.

I have just finished Hart of Empire by Saul David. A historical adventure that was a fun read. I am now starting The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton by Kathryn Hughes.

I have finished Cry of the Curlew by Peter Watt. It was every bit as good as I had hoped. I will definitely be reading more of this series.

Obviously, I should have been staying abreast of the threads in Reading Through Time! Back in 2012, I copied the list from the first post of the original "Opinions Please" thread, where the 19th century North America was before the 19th century Europe. Whoops! The January reads I had ready to plug in here don't fit!

One of my reads accidentally fell into this slot, though. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. California girl who "self medicates with Jane Austen" time travels to 1814 England.

>26 countrylife:. That is disappointing for you. I hope they were good books anyway. I'll pop into your thread and have a look.

I finished The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton by Kathryn Hughes today and overall I was disappointed with this book. I found it to be an overly long, tedious read with the odd bit of interesting information scattered throughout.

I just finished Antonia Fraser's Perilous Question (4****), a history of the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 under William IV. Victoria would become queen five years later, and Perilous Question is an excellent prologue to the early Victorian period. Fraser does a very good job of making a reader comfortable with the names and identities of parliamentarians with whom contemporary readers might not be too familiar, but at the same time she isn't condescending. I was especially interested in getting a feel for who Lord Brougham was, because he's extensively mentioned in the first volume of Harriet Martineau's Autobiography (but in a way that's very confusing to a reader). As a result of getting a better feel for these pre-Victorian personalities, I may go on to read Martineau's three-volume The Thirty Years' Peace, 1816-1846.

I just finished The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer, which follows Brigade-Major Harry Smith and his wife, Juana, through the Peninsular campaigns of the Napoleonic wars. Harry and Juana were real historical figures, and this book sticks pretty closely to the documented history -- definitely not as much of a romance as most of Heyer's other books!

I just finished Philip Dwyer's Napoleon: The Path to Power and posted a 4**** review — a carry-over from the February "Napoleonic Era" time-period read that also fits in with this first-quarter 2014 period read.

I started out thinking I would read Little Dorrit, but found myself unable to resist a reread of David Copperfield, one of my absolute favorite Dickens' novels. I have now finished rereading and find myself once again so taken with Dickens' characters. David, Peggoty, Mr. Micawber, Uriah Heep, Betsy Trotwood and all of them are still flying around in my brain. Sometime I will read Little Dorrit and have some new characters to add to my list, but for now I'm very glad I revisited David Copperfield and, although this book is not a short one, I highly recommend it.

There's still a little over a week left on this quarter, but I've already created next quarter's thread, here.

Please take the time tis week to put any books you've read for this theme in the wiki, as next weekend I will be changing the wiki to reflect our new quarterly theme!

My reads for the quarter:

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Lauarie Viera Rigler (2.7 stars / January) (1814 England)
Thunder From the Sea: The Adventures of Jack Hoyton and the H.M.S. Defender by Jeff Weigel (5 stars / February) (1804-1809 England)
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes (3.3 stars / March) (19th century Jamaica, but mostly on the seas)
Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken (3.3 stars / March) (19th century England)

My actual (as opposed to merely hoped-for) first quarter reads:

Frankenstein (Norton Critical Edition) for a reread of the novel and a read of the NCE supplementary materials
Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
Trollope's The Warden
Antonia Fraser's Perilous Question: Reform or Revolution? Britain on the Brink, 1832
Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts
Roseanne Montillo's The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley's Masterpiece

Edit to fix link

Nice batch, CurrerBell! You should add them to the wiki!

>36 countrylife: Thanks for the reminder. I just did. (I'm lazy about this because I'm not the greatest at editing wikis.)

I'm lazy about it, too. I usually just add 'em all in a batch after the month ends, so I only have to get in there once.