Favorite Victorian Novel

MrPeanut said:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is my favorite book of any era. I also love Great Expectations by Dickens.

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Winston said:

I never got around to The Count of Monte Cristo. It is a daunting book and definitely a prestigious novel. Same with Les Mis. I haven't read much French literature in general. Only the first book in Marcel Proust's saga, Swann's Way.

Great Expectations, straight up classic.

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Elvira said:

I love Wuthering Heights and Jane Erye...

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Wow! Firstly, I shall venture to remark upon Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre as complete. Ms. Brontë mended every crack in a tremulous plot in the perfect amount of words. She fastened her tale succinctly to my breastplate and she threw in extra adornments for free. J.E., were she alive as the radio is; would proclaim the source of her tale as divinely endowed with talents to chisel and clarify.
Unresolved tension manifesting in the form of a confidence forgotten, or a mysterious omission of narrative, regarding at least one major character occurs quite frequently in my choices in fiction. So, you must understand how happy I was when I closed the book like I closed a bill out at my favorite restaurant. Ms. Jane Eyre delighted me with her eye. She had a magic eye that saw through complications into the very nest of particulars. She would have made a wonderful detective.
During her rearing and adolescence she withstood glaring hardships to emerge with an ever pure state of mind. She maintained harmony amongst the discord of rejection, injustice, and cruelty. She had the correct measurement of each virtue she possessed, to fly far from her past. She balanced severity with compassion and shrewdness with willpower. I've never felt such a subtle and nuanced fondness for a character. So much so, that I stumble when proclaiming her dimensions. I would allow her to sit by the "hearthstone of my heart" any day of the week.
A scene at the home stretch of her tale resonates with me. She speaks with St. John about a prospective union for himself and Miss Oliver. Like other painful subjects, it takes tact and finesse to approach. However, Jane exercises her dynamic candor when she considers the following:

"I could not rest in communication with strong, discreet, and refined minds, whether male or female, 'til I had passed the outworks of conventional reserve, and crossed the threshold of confidence, and won a place by their heart's very hearthstone." (Brontë, 351.)

I am pleased with this novel to no end. I hold it dear and anticipate a second voyage. Parts of the novel moved me severely and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Victorian literature or a certain flair for sentence composition.

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MrPeanut said:

If you like Dickens you will like The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas isn't nearly as witty as Dickens, but the flow of the story is very similar. It goes from pleasant in the beginning, to crushing gloominess, and then ends on a satisfying note. It is a long read and spans an entire lifetime so it takes some patience.

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Winston said:

I made it through James Joyce's Ulysses, I can make it through anything. Although sometimes turning the pages is a chore .

Dickens wit! Yes, sometimes he even makes me laugh out loud. His droll observations of English life and rapacious wit is a charm!

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MrPeanut said:

Every book Dickens wrote is great. If we are talking wittiness though, Oscar Wilde is pretty much unbeatable. He was at the tail end of the era, but The Importance of Being Earnest had me cracking up. It's such a smooth read too. I don't find myself having to pause to look up some architectural term like a lot of the other books from the time period.

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MrPeanut said:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is my favorite book of any era. I also love Great Expectations by Dickens.

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MrPeanut said:

Every book Dickens wrote is great. If we are talking wittiness though, Oscar Wilde is pretty much unbeatable. He was at the tail end of the era, but The Importance of Being Earnest had me cracking up. It's such a smooth read too. I don't find myself having to pause to look up some architectural term like a lot of the other books from the time period.

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Kobie said:

Earnest is incredible.

I'm a big Dickens fan, with A Tale Of Two Cities probably at the top of my list.

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nota bene said:

So out of curiosity, do any of you Victorian fans read Matthew Arnold's lit. crit.?

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Winston said:

It is hard to top A Tale of Two Cities. The plot is paced so perfectly, character development is superb and the ending!

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Winston said:

What is your favorite Victorian novel? I used to be a major Victorian lit nerd. I even wrote Victorian fan fiction. I love the way they use language. It is pretentious sometimes but, I look past that. So, what is your favorite Victorian novel, you uncultured brutes?


Here's a small list of the Victorian Novels I've read..

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
A Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

My absolute favorite on that list is The Return of the Native. I like that Eustacia Vye, she's dark and mysterious in all the right ways. Hardy writes tragedies, masterfully.

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