The Celebration Begins...

Yesterday was the start of A Literary Odyssey's A Victorian Celebration. It is a two-month event that has me quite giddy!!!! To say the least! While I wanted, in a way, to save North and South, both the book and the movie, for the event. Well, I found I just couldn't wait. It wasn't in me to be that strong. If you haven't read it, you can enter to win a copy at her blog. (The master post which is the place to share all your links can be found here.) (The sign-up post is here.)

I also couldn't wait to watch Victoria and Albert and Young Victoria. In a way, I'm glad I didn't wait because watching these two movies inspired me to pick up some nonfiction books about Queen Victoria. I'm not sure I would have included these if I hadn't seen the movies!

So what am I planning on reading in the next two months?!

Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch by Kate Williams.

Wild Romance: The True Story of a Victorian Scandal by Chloe Schama

Murder in the First Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing by Kate Colquhoun.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

We Two: Victoria and Albert by Gillian Gill.

A Magnificent Obessession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death that Changed the British Monarchy. Helen Rappaport.

Inventing the Victorians: What We Think We Know About Them and Why We're Wrong by Matthew Sweet. 

The Dead Witness: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Detective Stories. Edited by Michael Sims.*

So you might think that I'm reading anything and everything but the Victorians themselves. I really, really, really hope that isn't the case. I hope to supplement my reading of the Victorians with some nonfiction and biographies. But. I want to really read some of my favorite Victorian authors and maybe even try a couple of new-to-me authors.

I definitely plan to read:

• Charles Dickens: Dombey and Son. 
• Anthony Trollope: Can You Forgive Her? OR standalone novel;
• Wilkie Collins: I'm so completely undecided on which of his to read next. I want to read them all...or reread them all as the case may be with some of them! I'm going to wait until I've finished Dombey and Son (my current novel) before deciding.

I hope to read:

• Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore (1869)
• Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)
• Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant (1866)
• Shirley by Charlotte Bronte (1849)
• Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell (1853)
• At The Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald (1871)

*The Table of Contents:
Introduction: Prophets looking backward / by Michael Sims -- The secret cell / by William E. Burton -- The murders in the Rue Morgue / by Edgar Allan Poe -- On duty with Inspector Field / by Charles Dickens -- The diary of Anne Rodway / by Wilkie Collins -- You are not human, Monsieur d'Artagnan / by Alexandre Dumas -- Arrested on suspicion / by Andrew Forrester Jr. -- The dead witness; or, The bush waterhole / by W.W. (Mary Fortune) -- The mysterious human leg / by James McGovan (William Crawford Honeyman) -- The little old man of Batignolles / by Emile Gaboriau -- The science of deduction / by Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Whitechapel mystery / by Anonymous -- The assassin's natal autograph / by Mark Twain -- The murder at Troyte's Hill / by C.L. Pirkis -- The Haverstock Hill murder / by George R. Sims -- The stolen cigar-case / by Bret Harte -- The absent-minded coterie / by Robert Barr -- The hammer of God / by G.K. Chesterton -- The angel of the lord / by Melville Davisson Post -- The crime at Big Tree Portage / by Hesketh Prichard -- The tragedy at Brookbend Cottage / by Ernest Bramah -- The case of Padages Palmer / by Harvey O'Higgins -- An intangible clue / by Anna Katharine Green.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews