1AnnieMod
With all the turmoil with my health last month, I forgot to post a thread about this. So let's figure out what we are reading in Q4 (the Q3 titles did not get too much interest but summer and vacations do that) so let's try for Q4.
The already selected 6 so far this year are listed in the Tavern: https://www.librarything.com/topic/337959
The authors of these 6 are not eligible (for quick reference: Dickens, Collins and Trollope; Braddon, Gaskell and Oliphant). Anyone else is. We are looking for one male and one female author, anything and everything written in the strict period (1837–1901) by British subjects is eligible: prose, poetry, drama, non-fiction of all types.
Deadline: September 20.
As usual: no edits please, post a new comment if you want to add/withdraw a vote.
The already selected 6 so far this year are listed in the Tavern: https://www.librarything.com/topic/337959
The authors of these 6 are not eligible (for quick reference: Dickens, Collins and Trollope; Braddon, Gaskell and Oliphant). Anyone else is. We are looking for one male and one female author, anything and everything written in the strict period (1837–1901) by British subjects is eligible: prose, poetry, drama, non-fiction of all types.
Deadline: September 20.
As usual: no edits please, post a new comment if you want to add/withdraw a vote.
3thorold
Determined to get some poetry in before we escape, I’m going to nominate
— Aurora Leigh (verse novel, 1865) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
— In memoriam A H H (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Aurora Leigh is EBB’s big feminist manifesto, setting out lots of ideas on education, social attitudes and all the rest of it in the story of an idealised independent woman intellectual who rescues a working-class single mother; In memoriam takes us into the field of Victorian religious and scientific ideas, where we haven’t really been yet on this trip.
…but I’m not optimistic that anyone will vote for either. SassyLassy’s nominations are both from authors I haven’t got around to yet, so I wouldn’t be terribly upset if they were picked. Wood is maybe in a bit too much of the same mould as the last couple of women authors we had, though.
— Aurora Leigh (verse novel, 1865) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
— In memoriam A H H (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Aurora Leigh is EBB’s big feminist manifesto, setting out lots of ideas on education, social attitudes and all the rest of it in the story of an idealised independent woman intellectual who rescues a working-class single mother; In memoriam takes us into the field of Victorian religious and scientific ideas, where we haven’t really been yet on this trip.
…but I’m not optimistic that anyone will vote for either. SassyLassy’s nominations are both from authors I haven’t got around to yet, so I wouldn’t be terribly upset if they were picked. Wood is maybe in a bit too much of the same mould as the last couple of women authors we had, though.
4SassyLassy
>3 thorold: Wood is maybe in a bit too much of the same mould as the last couple of women authors we had, though.
That is a problem I had too while searching for female authors. I had considered Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau, but felt the same thing about it as well. Then I thought some of Martineau's political and economic writing might be interesting, but a quick check looks as if they might be difficult to find. I still regret not buying a three volume edition I found in Glasgow five years ago.
Anyway, I had read the Martineau, but not the Wood, so that was my rationale. As you suggest, it's a good idea to look beyond novels.
That is a problem I had too while searching for female authors. I had considered Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau, but felt the same thing about it as well. Then I thought some of Martineau's political and economic writing might be interesting, but a quick check looks as if they might be difficult to find. I still regret not buying a three volume edition I found in Glasgow five years ago.
Anyway, I had read the Martineau, but not the Wood, so that was my rationale. As you suggest, it's a good idea to look beyond novels.
5kac522
I'm going to throw a few names & works out there, but I'll read anything by these authors:
Anne Bronte: Agnes Grey (1847)
George Eliot: Felix Holt, the Radical (1866)
Amy Levy: The Romance of a Shop (1888)
Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
G. B. Shaw: Arms and the Man, play (1894)
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest, play (1895)
Shaw also wrote a few novels; The Unsocial Socialist (1883) was his last attempt at a novel, and reflects early socialist views of the era.
Basically, I'll second anything by one of these authors.
Anne Bronte: Agnes Grey (1847)
George Eliot: Felix Holt, the Radical (1866)
Amy Levy: The Romance of a Shop (1888)
Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
G. B. Shaw: Arms and the Man, play (1894)
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest, play (1895)
Shaw also wrote a few novels; The Unsocial Socialist (1883) was his last attempt at a novel, and reflects early socialist views of the era.
Basically, I'll second anything by one of these authors.
6dchaikin
I haven’t been able to fit these in my reading, which is unfortunate, but I’m going to attempt Middlemarch in Oct/Nov. i think. So i’ll leave that title here.
7arubabookwoman
Would love to read/reread something by George Eliot and something by Thomas Hardy. Not sure if I'm entitled to vote because I haven't been very good on following through, though I did read The Law and the Lady and (so far) more than half of North and South, which I still pick up occasionally. Also reread about half of David Copperfield, but I don't think I will be finishing it this year. (And I did buy Lady Anna and Hester.
9kac522
I'll second Middlemarch. I have an audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson. She does a brilliant Casaubon.
10AnnieMod
Looks like we are reading
Middlemarch by George Eliot (the only one to get 2 votes above plus a few in principle votes for the author)
and
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (host choice from the list of nominations with a single vote above).
Bonus books: In Memoriam A.H.H. by Alfred Lord Tennyson and Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti because I refuse to close the year without some poetry (we managed to sneak in a play above or this would have been the "Drama and Poetry" thread) - I will have these as a "Victorian poets" thread and will include a few more in there.
Threads coming up this week.
PS: I know that there were other female poets nominated above. I will add them to the thread when I start it. But Rossetti is my nomination and then everyone has 1 and it is host choice so... :) Plus I think that everyone should at least try her anyway while we are in the mood for Victorian.
Middlemarch by George Eliot (the only one to get 2 votes above plus a few in principle votes for the author)
and
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (host choice from the list of nominations with a single vote above).
Bonus books: In Memoriam A.H.H. by Alfred Lord Tennyson and Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti because I refuse to close the year without some poetry (we managed to sneak in a play above or this would have been the "Drama and Poetry" thread) - I will have these as a "Victorian poets" thread and will include a few more in there.
Threads coming up this week.
PS: I know that there were other female poets nominated above. I will add them to the thread when I start it. But Rossetti is my nomination and then everyone has 1 and it is host choice so... :) Plus I think that everyone should at least try her anyway while we are in the mood for Victorian.
12MissBrangwen
I have not really heard about Rossetti before (I have heard the name but didn't realize that she was a Victorian author). I just downloaded the collection to my kindle. I have another poetry collection I want to finish first, but after that I will start Goblin Market and Other Poems.
I also plan to read The Importance of Being Earnest because it is on my shelf and it is short, so I hope I will manage :-)
I also plan to read The Importance of Being Earnest because it is on my shelf and it is short, so I hope I will manage :-)
13thorold
>10 AnnieMod: All sounds good — thanks for the cat-herding that got us there!
A revisit of Christina Rossetti sounds like a very good idea. As do all the rest, even if re-reading Middlemarch is going to be a big time-sink…
Maybe we you’ll let us sneak in a bonus Christmas Book at the end of Q4?
A revisit of Christina Rossetti sounds like a very good idea. As do all the rest, even if re-reading Middlemarch is going to be a big time-sink…
Maybe we you’ll let us sneak in a bonus Christmas Book at the end of Q4?
14AnnieMod
>13 thorold: Shhhht on that Christmas book thing - it is not even Halloween, let alone Thanksgiving so we don't start on the topic. :)
If I can get enough stories/poems (all Victorians are out of copyright so it is just a question of getting them together in a list), I was planning on a little "Victorian Christmas/Advent/New Year Countdown calendar" in December (and if things don't go weird with my health or something else again of course - this year's plans had been a bit sidetracked so I decided not to post about plans). May start a nice tradition in the group if it works out :) If someone meets/sees a New Year's related Victorian poem/story, drop by here or send me a note or something - I am pretty sure I can find enough Christmas-related stuff but the few I need to end the year are harder ;)
If I can get enough stories/poems (all Victorians are out of copyright so it is just a question of getting them together in a list), I was planning on a little "Victorian Christmas/Advent/New Year Countdown calendar" in December (and if things don't go weird with my health or something else again of course - this year's plans had been a bit sidetracked so I decided not to post about plans). May start a nice tradition in the group if it works out :) If someone meets/sees a New Year's related Victorian poem/story, drop by here or send me a note or something - I am pretty sure I can find enough Christmas-related stuff but the few I need to end the year are harder ;)
15kac522
>14 AnnieMod: THE CHIMES: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books": five short books with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840's.
I believe ghost stories were a tradition of both Christmas and New Year's.
I believe ghost stories were a tradition of both Christmas and New Year's.
16AnnieMod
>15 kac522: Yeah... the first one I thought of. I need at least 6. Thanks for posting! And that may be an idea - worst case scenario, I can just go for ghost stories... Or more Christmas stories - Orthodox Christmas is in January after all (nice way to go into next year's topics as well). We shall see.
17japaul22
Middlemarch is one of my favorite books and I have a new Folio Society edition that I haven't read yet. Maybe I'll join in for a reread. Also, for those who like audio books, I loved Juliet Stevenson's reading of this.
18thorold
>14 AnnieMod: Sorry for inadvertently leaking your secret plan :-)
Apart from Dickens, Thackeray and no doubt many other mainstream Victorians produced short seasonal books for the Christmas market on a regular basis. The should be no shortage.
Apart from Dickens, Thackeray and no doubt many other mainstream Victorians produced short seasonal books for the Christmas market on a regular basis. The should be no shortage.
