Victorian books off my shelf

I am hopefully starting a Victorian Masters at the end of this year so I thought I would give myself a head start by trying to read through as many of them as I can that are on my shelf. I will post up a list of the ones i'm starting with soon.
1) I will read lots of dickens because most courses have a whole module studying him.
2) I will try to stay away from Thomas Hardy because I really don't like his books buts I will read a couple
3) I will choose the books based on importance so the brontes, dickens and austen will be quite impotant but Trollope isn't as widely studied so he won't be as important. (I will sadly have to read lots of Hardy)

I am just getting into Dickens and plan to read a few more this year (whatever is on the 1001 Books to Read Before you Die list) so I will follow your thread with anticipation. Sounds like an interesting area to study!

Have fun! They all went in for quantity, so starting in early might be your only chance of reading the books that aren't directly on the syllabus.
If it's really a "Victorian" course, George Eliot might be a safer bet than Jane Austen. Unless they just mean "19th century".

Good point, Thorold!

In my opinion, Mr. Trollope is very worth while reading; for one thing, his books are more accessible to the modern reader than Mr. Dickens' works.

Do you expect to read any non-fiction? I can heartily recommend Voices from Dickens' London, which I read in February, and enjoyed immensely.

Not to mention the Victorian historians who are amusing for the most part.
I would recommend reading some Anthony Trollope though - I find him interesting, especially in contrast with Dickens. And I am a Dickens fan...

Add to this Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, Doyle, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Kingsley, Thackeray and the period is actually pretty charming.

PS: Even if the mean just the 19th century, Eliot fits...

...Tennyson and the Brownings are pretty essential reading too, and you need to give them plenty of time. If you want to get a feel for Victorian London, Henry Mayhew is well worth dipping into (he's probably in the book staffordcastle mentioned above, too).

Seconding the Trollope recommendation. If you don't want to get into the series, try The Way We Live Now -- a big book but a total page-turner, all about Bernie Madoff aka Augustus Melmotte (plus ça change...)

>6 thorold: thorold

Yep! Mayhew is indeed one of the quoted sources.

most of the courses are looking at the nineteenth century as a long nineteenth century so probably looking at things from about 1789, or at least that is my bet. I love Trollope's books and I really hope I get to study at least one of his books in my masters degree study because I didn't get to look at any at degree level. Thanks for all your suggestions, some of these I hadn't thought of!

Ooooh also, a couple of the unis have whole dickens modules so which were your favourites and which would you suggest I read?

I loved Bleak House but be warned -- it's not a book, it's a universe.:)

Bleak House is difficult to start--so many characters, however, I was hooked about 1/4 of the way in--one of my favorite Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities is by far my favorite Dickens. Don't forget Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (on the cusp) as well as George Eliot

Another vote for Bleak House, and I also enjoyed Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. It's been so long since I read A Tale of Two Cities I can't say whether it would be one of my recommendations.

Some of his short fiction is worth reading too, but academic courses often ignore it. If you have time, check out his short stories!

The Birkbeck course has a look at some of his short fiction and I'm quite excited about that! I am currently on Tom Brown's School Days although I've been having a break from all the literature after all the learning but I think I'm about ready to get back into it.

I normally read A Christmas Carol for Christmas but I think that for this year I will have a look at some of his other Christmas stories. For my first essay I had to choose a novel from the Farrar library which is kept at Brikbeck uni and I chose Edward Bulwer Lytton's The Caxtons has anyone else read it? If not I do recommend it, it is a little slow going but makes you feel all warm inside!

I have also just started Adam Bede which was suggested to me after our Evangelical lesson and I plan to start Tristram Shandy although it isn't Victorian. I have often heard it discussed alongside The Caxtons and felt weird writing about it not having read it.

Tell me your thoughts and what you're reading now?

To be honest, I only knew the name Bulwer-Lytton for that "dark and stormy night" thing. Will be interested in hearing your impressions of The Caxtons!