Thursday 21 September 2017

#Victober TBR!

Ange @ Beyond the Pages, Katie @ Books and Things, Kate @ Kate Howe and Lucy @ Lucy the Reader are back for the second year in a row with #Victober - a read-a-thon focused on British and Irish literature written during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837-1901.

Victorian literature was always my favourite era of literature to study when I was a student, I studied Victorian Popular Fiction and Victorian Gothic in the final year of my undergraduate degree and loved it, but I don't read much of it now that I'm no longer a student. There are so many more contemporary writers, particularly non-British, LGBT+ and poc writers, whom I'd rather devote my reading time to.

Having said that, I do still enjoy classics when I pick them up so I thought I'd join in and try to read a bit of Victorian literature this October alongside all of the other books I want to read this autumn!

There are five challenges:
  • Read a Victorian book by a Irish, Scottish or Welsh author
  • Read a Victorian book that was recommended to you 
  • Read a supernatural Victorian book
  • Read a lesser known Victorian book
  • Read a Victorian book by a female author
I'm only going to attempt three of them, because I don't want Victorian literature to completely take over my reading month, so the challenges I've crossed through are the ones I won't be tackling.


Read a Victorian book by an Irish, Scottish or Welsh author // I'm going to re-read The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, because I think I need to read it again to appreciate it. It's described as one of the best horror stories ever written but I remember being left a bit disappointed with it, so I'd like to give it another try. Arthur Machen was a Welsh author who focused on supernatural/horror stories, so he's worth checking out if you're into Victorian Gothic.

Read a supernatural Victorian book // Another re-read, this time of one of my favourite pieces of Victorian literature: Carmilla. Carmilla is a vampire story that pre-dates Dracula and I really, really enjoyed it when I had to study it for university. It'd be nice to read it again just for the pure enjoyment of it.

Read a Victorian book by a female author // I love Anne Brontë, but I've never read her masterpiece the whole way through. I've read bits of it here and there and I understand the social importance of it, but I want to read it properly so I can appreciate the often forgotten Brontë's genius. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the book I'd like to focus my attention on for this read-a-thon.

Are you taking part in #Victober? What are some of your favourite Victorian novels?

4 comments:

  1. What a lovely Gothic Victober TBR! It's crazy how many authors I hadn't heard of and keep finding while doing internet browsing. Arthur Machen sounds really interesting - I hope you enjoy him more the second time around. Looking forward to hearing how you enjoy all of these!

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    1. Thank you! The challenge made me realise just how few non-English Victorian writers I know of, but I currently live in Wales so I've encountered Arthur Machen a few times in various museum gift shops. I'm looking forward to discovering some new authors myself! ^_^

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  2. Ooh this looks really fun! I would definitely be interested in Carmilla, it would be nice to read a pre- Dracula vampire story and see how it is.

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  3. I'm so excited about Victober! I'll actually be reading Dracula for the supernatural novel, but I'm quite curious about Carmilla, I've been hearing a lot about it lately. Oh, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is one of my favourite books ever, Anne Brontë is such an amazing writer. :)

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