Victorian Quarterly Check-In

• What books for this challenge have you read (or reviewed) recently?
• What are you currently reading?
• Are there any quotes you'd like to share?
• Who would you recommend? Anyone you would NOT recommend?
• Best book you've read for the challenge?
• Who was your favorite character?
• What did you love most about the challenge?
• What would you change about the challenge?

It's the end of the year. I think it may just be easier to show what I've read all year instead of trying to figure out what books went with each month.

✔ 1. A book under 200 pages
The Europeans. Henry James. 1878. 192 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 2. A book over 400 pages
The Adolescent. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. 1875/2004. 647 pages. [Source: Library] 
✔  3. A book that REALLY intimidates you
Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. 1860. 640 pages. [Source: Library]  
✔ 4. A book you REALLY want to reread
Barchester Towers. Anthony Trollope. 1857. 418 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 5. A new-to-you book by a FAVORITE author
La Vendee. Anthony Trollope. 1850. 512 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 6. A book with illustrations
Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens. 1838/1839. 608 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 7. A book that was originally published serially
The American. Henry James. 1877. 400 pages. [Source: Bought]

✔ 8. A book published between 1837-1849
The Macdermots of Ballycloran. Anthony Trollope. 1847. 636 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 9. A book published between 1850-1860
Doctor Thorne. Anthony Trollope. 1858. 639 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 10. A book published between 1861-1870
The Wretched. Victor Hugo. Translated by Christine Donougher. 1862/2013. 1456 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 11. A book published between 1871-1880
Confidence. Henry James. 1879. 224 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 12. A book published between 1881-1890
Portrait of a Lady. Henry James. 1881. 656 pages. [Source: Bought]
 ✔ 14. A book published between 1902-1999 with a Victorian setting

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser. 1990. 787 pages. [Source: Library]_ 15. A book published between 2000-2017 with a Victorian setting
✔ 16. A book by Charles Dickens
The Chimes. Charles Dickens. 1844. 116 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 17. A book by Wilkie Collins
Hide and Seek. Wilkie Collins. 1854. 384 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 18. A book by Anthony Trollope
The Warden. Anthony Trollope. 1855. Oxford World's Classics. 294 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 20. A book by George Eliot
Adam Bede. George Eliot. 1859. 624 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 21. A book by a new-to-you male author
Watch and Ward. Henry James. 1871. 128 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 22. A book by a new-to-you female author
Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 1852. 438 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 23. A book translated into English
The Karamazov Brothers. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Ignat Avsey. 1880/2008. 1054 pages. [Source: Library]
✔ 24. A fiction or nonfiction book about Queen Victoria
Victoria. Daisy Goodwin. 2016. 404 pages. [Source: Library] 
✔ 25. A book that has been filmed as movie, miniseries, or television show
Camille. Alexandre Dumas, fils. 1848. Translated by Edmund Gosse. 254 pages. [Source: Library]
✔ 26. A play OR a collection of short stories OR a collection of poems
The Best Short Stories. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by David Magarshack. 2001. 320 pages. [Source: Library] 
✔ 28. Genre or Subgenre of your choice (mystery, suspense, romance, gothic, adventure, western, science fiction, fantasy)
The Time Machine. H.G. Wells. 1895. Penguin. 128 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 29. Book with a name as the title
Roderick Hudson. Henry James. 1875. 398 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 30. Book You've Started but Never Finished
The Kellys and the O'Kellys. Anthony Trollope. 1848. 537 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 33. A book with a number in the title
The Three Clerks. Anthony Trollope. 1858. 648 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 34. A book with a place in the title 
Washington Square. Henry James. 1880. 288 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 35. free choice
The Bertrams. Anthony Trollope. 1859. 496 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 36. free choice
Castle Richmond. Anthony Trollope. 1860. 500 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 37. free choice
A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens. 1843. 96 pages. [Source: Bought]  
✔ 38. free choice  
The Cricket on the Hearth. Charles Dickens. 1845. 84 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 39. free choice
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain. Charles Dickens. 1848. 100 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 40. free choice
The Battle of Life. Charles Dickens. 1846. 88 pages. [Source: Bought]  

The categories I did NOT complete:

_ 13. A book published between 1891-1901
_ 19. A book by Elizabeth Gaskell
_ 27. Biography, Autobiography, or NONFICTION book about the Victorian era
_ 31. A Christian book fiction or nonfiction
_ 32. A children's book

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2018 Victorian Reading Challenge

Victorian Reading Challenge
Host: Becky's Book Reviews
Duration: January - December 2018
Goal: Read a minimum of 4 Victorian books

Sign up in the comments (If you have a blog, please leave your blog address. If you have a goodreads profile AND if you review regularly on goodreads, then you may leave that as well.)

I'll have quarterly check-in posts. I'll be posting check-in posts March 25, June 24, September 23, and December 30. You may leave links to your reviews on any of those four posts. If you want to share your review with me BEFORE that, AND if you have twitter, feel free to tweet me a link @blbooks.

Option A.  Read alphabetically A-Z with authors OR titles OR a blend of authors/titles. I've decided that from now on X in reading challenges stands for multiple authors. I'm flipping my "x" to a "+".

Option B. Choose one author to read exclusively for this challenge; perhaps challenge yourself to read chronologically OR to read through an entire series in one year.

Option C. Do as many books from the checklist as you can. Feel free to copy/paste this. You can replace the _ with an X or a ✔ (copy/paste it) when you finish reading a book.

Option D. Make the challenge completely your own and read as YOUR whimsy dictates.

IF you love Victorian literature AND you happen to love tea...consider joining my Share-a-Tea reading challenge. 

Feel free to copy/paste this. You can replace the _ with an X or a ✔ (copy/paste it) when you finish reading a book. If you list the books you read, that may help other people decide what to read.

This year's checklist:

1. _ A book that was originally published serially
2. _ book published between 1837-1840
3. _ book published between 1841-1850
4. _ book published between 1851-1860
5. _ book published between 1861-1870
6. _ book published between 1871-1880
7. _ book published between 1881-1890
8. _ book published between 1891-1901
9. _ nonfiction published between 1837-1860
10. _ nonfiction published between 1861-1901 
11. _ A book published between 1902-1999 with a Victorian setting
12. _ A book published between 2000-2018 with a Victorian setting
13. _ A fiction or nonfiction book about Queen Victoria
14. _ Biography of a Victorian
15. _ Nonfiction book about the Victorian era
16. _ free choice
17. _ place name in the title
18. _ character name in the title
19. _ book in a series
20. _ drama or melodrama
21. _ gothic, suspense, mystery
22. _ romance or historical
23. _ comedy 
24. _ science fiction or fantasy
25. _ adventure, crime, western
26. _ poetry collection OR story collection
27. _ happily ever after
28. _ unhappily ever after 
29. _ children's book
30. _ translated into English from another language
31. _ a book under 250 pages
32. _ book over 500 pages
33. _ a book over 800 pages
34. _ A book that has been filmed as movie, miniseries, or television show
35. _ memorable heroine
36. _ memorable hero
37. _ British author
38. _ Irish author OR Irish setting
39. _ Scottish author OR Scottish setting
40. _ American author
41. _ reread
42. _ book with a subtitle (the longer the better!)

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Victorian Quarterly Check-In

• What books for this challenge have you read (or reviewed) recently?
• What are you currently reading?
• Are there any quotes you'd like to share?
• Who would you recommend? Anyone you would NOT recommend?
• Favorite book you've read so far...

What books for this challenge have you read (or reviewed) recently?

✔ 25. A book that has been filmed as movie, miniseries, or television show
Camille. Alexandre Dumas, fils. 1848. Translated by Edmund Gosse. 254 pages. [Source: Library]
✔ 16. A book by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. 1860. 640 pages. [Source: Library]
✔ 17. A book by Wilkie Collins
Hide and Seek. Wilkie Collins. 1854. 384 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 3. A book that REALLY intimidates you
The Wretched. Victor Hugo. Translated by Christine Donougher. 1862/2013. 1456 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 35. free choice
The Bertrams. Anthony Trollope. 1859. 496 pages. [Source: Bought] 

What are you currently reading?

• Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope
• Adam Bede by George Eliot

Are there any quotes you'd like to share?

How many ways does the heart take, how many reasons does it invent for itself, in order to arrive at what it wants. ~ Alexandre Dumas, fils

Art wouldn't be the glorious thing it is, if it wasn't all difficulty from beginning to end. ~ Wilkie Collins

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. ~ Charles Dickens

Love is an ardent forgetfulness of everything else. ~ Victor Hugo

 Constant thoughts will break forth in words. ~ Anthony Trollope

 Who would you recommend? Anyone you would NOT recommend?

I'm enjoying what I'm reading.

Favorite book you've read so far...

The Karamazov Brothers. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Ignat Avsey. 1880/2008. 1054 pages. [Source: Library] 

Of note to ALL participants! VICTOBER 2017 Hosted by these book-tubers

Ange (Beyond the Pages)
Lucy (Lucy the Reader)
Katie (Books and Things)
Kate (Kate Howe)

• 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

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Victorian Quarterly Check-In

• What books for this challenge have you read (or reviewed) recently?
• What are you currently reading?
• Are there any quotes you'd like to share?
• Who would you recommend? Anyone you would NOT recommend?
• Favorite book you've read so far...

What books for this challenge have you read (or reviewed) recently?

✔ 6. A book with illustrations
Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens. 1838/1839. 608 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 9. A book published between 1850-1860
Doctor Thorne. Anthony Trollope. 1858. 639 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 12. A book published between 1881-1890
Portrait of a Lady. Henry James. 1881. 656 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 33. A book with a number in the title
The Three Clerks. Anthony Trollope. 1858. 648 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 34. A book with a place in the title 
Washington Square. Henry James. 1880. 288 pages. [Source: Bought]

 What are you currently reading?

The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope

 Are there any quotes you'd like to share?

• Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. ~ Henry James
• There are as many points of view in the world as there are people of sense to take them.  ~ Henry James
• You must save what you can of your life; you mustn’t lose it all simply because you’ve lost a part. ~ Henry James
• A mistake’s made before one knows it. ~ Henry James
• “I’m rather ashamed of my plans; I make a new one every day." ~ Henry James
• Don’t mind anything any one tells you about any one else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.” “That’s what I try to do,” said Isabel “but when you do that people call you conceited.” “You’re not to mind them — that’s precisely my argument; not to mind what they say about yourself any more than what they say about your friend or your enemy.” Isabel considered. “I think you’re right; but there are some things I can’t help minding: for instance when my friend’s attacked or when I myself am praised.” “Of course you’re always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics, however,” Ralph added, “and you’ll condemn them all!” ~ Henry James
• You must be prepared on many occasions in life to please no one at all — not even yourself. ~ Henry James
• When you’ve lived as long as I you’ll see that every human being has his shell and that you must take the shell into account. By the shell I mean the whole envelope of circumstances. There’s no such thing as an isolated man or woman; we’re each of us made up of some cluster of appurtenances. ~ Henry James
• Wherever there are two men, there will be two opinions. ~ Anthony Trollope
• All persons who have a propensity to lecture others have a strong constitutional dislike to being lectured themselves. ~ Anthony Trollope
• “it doesn’t take long to like a person — when once you begin.” Henry James
• “The alphabet of common sense is something you will never learn,” the Doctor permitted himself to respond. ~ Henry James
•  It is so much easier to preach than to practise. ~ Anthony Trollope
• How is one to have an opinion if one does not get it by looking at the things which happen around us?  ~ Anthony Trollope
• Our sheep have to put up with our spiritual doses whether they like them or not.  ~ Anthony Trollope
• “You haven’t got another cup of tea, have you?” “Oh, uncle! you have had five.” “No, my dear! not five; only four — only four, I assure you; I have been very particular to count. I had one while I was—” “Five uncle; indeed and indeed.” “Well, then, as I hate the prejudice which attaches luck to an odd number, I’ll have a sixth to show that I am not superstitious.”  ~ Anthony Trollope
• When one is impatient, five minutes is as the duration of all time, and a quarter of an hour is eternity.  ~ Anthony Trollope
• We strain at our gnats with a vengeance, but we swallow our camels with ease. ~ Anthony Trollope
• Wounds sometimes must be opened in order that they may be healed.  ~ Anthony Trollope
• Love can only be paid in its own coin: it knows of no other legal tender.   ~ Anthony Trollope

Who would you recommend? Anyone you would NOT recommend?

I'm reading a lot of Henry James and Anthony Trollope this year!

Favorite book you've read so far...

The Karamazov Brothers. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Ignat Avsey. 1880/2008. 1054 pages. [Source: Library] 

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Victorian Quarterly Check-In

• What books for this challenge have you read (or reviewed) recently?
• What are you currently reading?
• Are there any quotes you'd like to share?
• Who would you recommend? Anyone you would NOT recommend?
• Favorite book you've read so far...

My answers:

✔ 1. A book under 200 pages
The Europeans. Henry James. 1878. 192 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 2. A book over 400 pages
The Adolescent. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
✔ 4. A book you REALLY want to reread
Barchester Towers. Anthony Trollope. 1857. 418 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 5. A new-to-you book by a FAVORITE author
La Vendee. Anthony Trollope. 1850. 512 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 7. A book that was originally published serially
The American. Henry James. 1877. 400 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 8. A book published between 1837-1849
The Macdermots of Ballycloran. Anthony Trollope. 1847. 636 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 11. A book published between 1871-1880
Confidence. Henry James. 1879. 224 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 14. A book published between 1902-1999 with a Victorian setting

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser. 1990. 787 pages. [Source: Library]
✔ 21. A book by a new-to-you male author
Watch and Ward. Henry James. 1871. 128 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 23. A book translated into English
The Karamazov Brothers. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Ignat Avsey. 1880/2008. 1054 pages. [Source: Library]
✔ 24. A fiction or nonfiction book about Queen Victoria
Victoria. Daisy Goodwin. 2016. 404 pages. [Source: Library] 
✔ 25. A book that has been filmed as movie, miniseries, or television show
The Warden. Anthony Trollope. 1855. Oxford World's Classics. 294 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 26. A play OR a collection of short stories OR a collection of poems
The Best Short Stories. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by David Magarshack. 2001. 320 pages. [Source: Library]
✔ 28. Genre or Subgenre of your choice (mystery, suspense, romance, gothic, adventure, western, science fiction, fantasy)
The Time Machine. H.G. Wells. 1895. Penguin. 128 pages. [Source: Bought] 
✔ 29. Book with a name as the title
Roderick Hudson. Henry James. 1875. 398 pages. [Source: Bought]
✔ 30. Book You've Started but Never Finished
The Kellys and the O'Kellys. Anthony Trollope. 1848. 537 pages. [Source: Bought]

 Currently reading:

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope

Quotes to Share:

• “If pride is a source of information, you must be a prodigy of knowledge!”  Henry James
• What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee? Anthony Trollope
• "There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily." Anthony Trollope
• "There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel." Anthony Trollope
• "Let us suppose, gentlemen, that man is not stupid. But if he is not stupid, he is monstrously ungrateful." Fyodor Dostoyevesky
• "A great thought is most often a feeling that sometimes goes without a definition for too long." Fyodor Dostoyevesky
• "There are a thousand different ways of being good company." Henry James
• "She got tired of thinking aright; but there was no serious harm in it, as she got equally tired of thinking wrong." Henry James
• "You will experience much grief, and in grief you will find happiness. Here is my commandment to you: seek happiness in grief." Fyodor Dostoyevesky
• "I think that everyone should, above all else on this earth, love life." Fyodor Dostoyevesky
• "The curious thing is that the more the mind takes in, the more it has space for, and that all one’s ideas are like the Irish people at home who live in the different corners of a room, and take boarders." Henry James
• “But the great trial in this world is to behave well and becomingly in spite of oppressive thoughts: and it always takes a struggle to do that, and that struggle you’ve made. I hope it may lead you to feel that you may be contented and in comfort without having everything which you think necessary to your happiness. I’m sure I looked forward to this week as one of unmixed trouble and torment; but I was very wrong to do so. It has given me a great deal of unmixed satisfaction.” Anthony Trollope
• "Face this world. Learn its ways, watch it, be careful of too hasty guesses at its meaning. In the end you will find clues to it all. " H.G. Wells
• "When I read a novel my imagination starts off at a gallop and leaves the narrator hidden in a cloud of dust; I have to come jogging twenty miles back to the denouement." Henry James
• "When once the gate is opened to self-torture, the whole army of fiends files in." Henry James
• “Nonsense, man; — how can you say you are not going to lie, when you know you’ve a lie in your mouth at the moment.”  Anthony Trollope
•  “Nobody and everybody are always very kind, but unfortunately are generally very wrong.” Anthony Trollope
• The public is defrauded when it is purposely misled. Poor public! how often is it misled! against what a world of fraud has it to contend! Anthony Trollope

Recommendations...

I am really enjoying alternating Anthony Trollope and Henry James. Anthony Trollope has long been a favorite. Henry James is a new-to-me this year author. I haven't loved all of James' novels equally.
But I generally only read British classics. So it's been very interesting to read an American author too.

Another new-to-me author is Fyodor Dostoevsky. I've read three books so far!!!

 Favorite book I've read so far...

New to me:
The Karamazov Brothers. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Ignat Avsey. 1880/2008. 1054 pages. [Source: Library]

Favorite reread:
Barchester Towers. Anthony Trollope. 1857. 418 pages. [Source: Bought]

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews