2011 Challenges: Victorian Literature Challenge

I am joining Words, Words, Words' Victorian Literature Challenge. This is another reading challenge that was "easy" for me to join! I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Victorian literature. I do. The challenge is for all of 2011. It covers books written between 1837 and 1901. 

I'll be reading Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, and perhaps some George Eliot or a Bronte sister or two. Of course, I might add a few more authors along the way!

I am joining at the Great Expectations level--5 to 9 books. It will probably be closer to five than nine. But I *hope* to get to at least five of these in 2011!

1. A Study in Scarlet. Arthur Conan Doyle. 1887.
2.  Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens. 1864/1865. 880 pages.
3. North and South. Elizabeth Gaskell. 1854-1855. 452 pages.
4. Framley Parsonage. Anthony Trollope. 1861. 576 pages.
5. Little Dorrit. Charles Dickens. 1855-1857. Penguin. 928 pages.
6. The Small House at Allington. Anthony Trollope. 1864. 752 pages.
7. The Pickwick Papers. Charles Dickens. 1836/1837/1999. Penguin Classics. 810 pages.
8. The Last Chronicle of Barset. Anthony Trollope.
9. The Light Princess by George MacDonald
10. The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins.
11. Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens.

Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens. 1864/1865. 880 pages.

First sentence: In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark Bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.

The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins. 1860. 672 pages.

First sentence: This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve.

Framley Parsonage. Anthony Trollope. 1861. 576 pages.

First sentence: When young Mark Robarts was leaving college, his father might well declare that all men began to say all good things to him, and to extol his fortune in that he had a son blessed with so excellent a disposition. 

The Small House at Allington. Anthony Trollope. 1864. 752 pages.

First sentence: Of course there was a Great House at Allington. How otherwise should there have been a Small House? Our story will, as its name imports, have its closest relations with those who lived in the less dignified domicile of the two; but it will have close relations also with the more dignified, and it may be well that I should, in the first instance, say a few words as to the Great House and its owner.

The Last Chronicle of Barset. Anthony Trollope. 1867.  928 pages.

First sentence: 'I can never bring myself to believe it, John,' said Mary Walker, the pretty daughter of Mr. George Walker, attorney of Silverbridge.

Little Dorrit. Charles Dickens. 1855-1857. 1024 pages.

First sentence: Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day. 

Other possibilities:

Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant
Hester by Margaret Oliphant
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell
Adam Bede by George Eliot
Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Vilette by Charlotte Bronte
The Daisy Chain by Charlotte Yonge
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

If I should finish the three Trollope, I've got the Palliser novels to begin!

Can You Forgive Her?
Phineas Finn
The Eustace Diamonds
Phineas Redux
The Prime Minister
The Duke's Children

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews