Victorian Literature

[Lavendre]

I was looking for some good, brain-feeding type literature, seeing as I'm convinced that most "Teen High School Girl" novels are the same, nowadays. There are only a rare few I've enjoyed... but that's another discussion for another time!

I was wondering which novels you Victorian Maidens enjoy, say, in a brocade armchair while sipping Earl Grey? ;)

My favourite is Frankenstein, by Mary Woolenstonecraft Shelley. Mary Shelley was a complex individual, and her book is stunningly beyond what I expected.

I read it in it's original context, not the one which was rewritten with modern english terms. I found it was much better that way, but that's just me.

[BubbleTea17]

Ah, we had to read Frankenstein in the eighth grade, which I thought was funny because most of the kids couldn't really understand it. It was pretty good, though!

And you're so right about the books aimed at teenage girls--I genuinely liked only a few, and with them it's practically like once you've read one, you've read them all. But we're entitled to them every now and then for some light reading.

But for me I'm starting to lean toward books I know I'll always enjoy, even when I'm 80. I've always liked Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Emma. And I have Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre but I can't find time to read it...

It's my goal to someday have read all the books they have under the "Classics" section at Barnes and Noble, haha.

[Baroness]

I am always looking for Victorian Literature!

At times it seem hard just to walk in a book store and just look for Victorian Literature!

It is more just by word of mouth! That you find Victorian Literature!

Right now I am looking for this book Lady Audley's Secret By mary Elizabeth Braddon!


Which i heard was a Really good book Published in 1862! :D

[Kamikaze_Jen]

Not to sound like a dork, but Scholastic has this series of Classic books with some books that you might be interested in.
Black Beauty....Wuthering Heights...Sherlock Holmes. The list goes on with classic books.
I'm not sure if their victorian but their classic.
But, I'm sure Wuthering Heights is victorian. Since it's about a love between two people and yada yada yada...snoreville.

- Jen

[Bangles-hime]

I know they're aimed at a younger audience, but I still find the writings of Frances Burnett oddly comforting. I'm also a Jane Austen dork, even if that's technically more Regency than Victorian.

[sunflower seed]

:o Ah, we had to read Frankenstein in the eighth grade, which I thought was funny because most of the kids couldn't really understand it. It was pretty good, though!
Hey I read it in 8th grade too! The kids understood it, but only because they found out you could read the whole book online put into a few paragraphs... I read it though and it was great. We read the original version, too. The teacher gave us all these really hard assignments on it that were (supposedly) college level but they were pretty easy for me since I actually liked and paid attention to the book!

Frankenstein is really amazing considering Mary Shelley wrote the whole thing in one night for a contest with her friends

In 8th grade we actually studied Victorian literature and art for half the year. We read mostly short stories but we also read Frankenstein and a Christmas Carol (I hate Charles Dickens, he rambles on and on about nothing...). In 6th grade we read Oliver Twist and that was even worse... we also red the play A doll's House which is about what being a woman in the Victorian period was really like rather than the idealized version in most stories.

A really good victorian book is Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. It's sort of an autobiography. I read it in 8th grade too when we did book groups at the end of the year. No one else liked it or understood it, but I thought it was very interesting. the main character was a thoughtful, quiet person in a world of mostly aggressive and naive people. It made me realize that people back then weren't nearly as perfect and smart and moral as they are portrayed. It also is a prettyy racy book for a victorian book... :o

Oh and I read a version of Black Beauty I found sitting around my house that was published in 1896!!! It was really wierd, it was in really great condition but print back then was reallyyyy small I guess. I read it when I was 7, but for some reason I tried to read it a while ago and I thought it was boring...

ahh this post was really long considering I don't even read that much...

Actually I mostly read stupid teenage girl novels >>

[gluegungeisha]

You know, I'm a total bibliophile, but I've actually never really been all that into Victorian literature as a whole...

...but I've always had a soft spot for a lot of Southern Gothic literature.

[sunflower seed]

You know, I'm a total bibliophile, but I've actually never really been all that into Victorian literature as a whole...

...but I've always had a soft spot for a lot of Southern Gothic literature.
I just read A Good Man is Hard to find by Flannery O Conner, I don't know if that's considered gothic though... they are the most depressing and bizarre stories I've ever read and for some reason it's considered a comedy book? :? My teacher said it was hilarious but I didn't laugh once... I loved it though... even though a lot of it made zero sense...