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What are your favorite 19C books?

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rockygirl
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Post by rockygirl » Fri September 10th, 2010, 1:50 pm

Jane Eyre--definitely my number one. Read it as a kid and still love it.

In no particular order:

Wuthering Heights
Emma
The Scarlet Pimpernal (glad to see it on other lists)
The Awakening

And while it's not a book--the Sherlock Holmes stories

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Michy
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Post by Michy » Fri September 10th, 2010, 2:30 pm

I really like The Scarlet Pimpernel, also. He reminds me of the "original" masked superhero. :D So handsome, so rich, so intelligent, so brave..... *sigh*

Sherlock Holmes was one of my favorites growing up. I loved mysteries, and when I outgrew Nancy Drew I graduated to Sherlock Holmes, and read nearly every novel and short story, I believe. A few years ago I picked one up and decided to give it a try. It was the first time I read one as an adult, and it ended up being the only time, as Sherlock just didn't hold up for me as an adult reader. I was so disappointed -- it's a little sad when a much-loved book/character from the past just doesn't cut it, anymore.... :(

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Post by SGM » Fri September 10th, 2010, 6:46 pm

I found Jude the Obscure one of the most wrist-slashing experiences of all time.

However, I still find the opening pages of Return of the Native some of the most stunning prose of all time.

Therese Raquin gave me nightmares but found I Earth fascinating and strangely useful in later years when trying to understand and write about The Common Agricultural Policy - hmmm. There's sense in their somewhere.
Last edited by SGM on Fri September 10th, 2010, 6:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Currently reading - Emergence of a Nation State by Alan Smith

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The Czar
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19th Century

Post by The Czar » Sun May 22nd, 2011, 5:06 pm

I don't really care for the Victorian era much. Too much bodice ripping, not enough meat for my taste. That said, my favorites...

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (This is a smart, well written Victorian novel with a dark side.)

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I am about 300 pages in and can hardly put it down. Immense in scope already, and very well written.)

Anything by Dostoyevsky - (Oddly, I haven't read brothers Karamozov yet, it will be next when I finish War and Peace. But I have read most of his others, and Crime and Punishment and The House of the Dead in particular I love).

The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - (has anybody read his "new" one? http://www.amazon.com/Last-Cavalier-Adv ... 613&sr=1-1

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Treasure Island - Robert Lewis Stevenson

Here is some of my favorites that are set in the 19th C, but not actually written there.

The Flashman Series - George Macdonald Frasier (These are hilarious, and contain more history than you think).

The Sharpe Series - Bernard Cornwell

The Aubery-Maturin Novels - Patrick O'brien (All you ever wanted to know and then some about the Napoleonic Era Royal Navy.)
Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
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Madeleine
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Post by Madeleine » Mon May 23rd, 2011, 12:59 pm

[quote=""SGM""]I found Jude the Obscure one of the most wrist-slashing experiences of all time.

However, I still find the opening pages of Return of the Native some of the most stunning prose of all time.

Therese Raquin gave me nightmares but found I Earth fascinating and strangely useful in later years when trying to understand and write about The Common Agricultural Policy - hmmm. There's sense in their somewhere.[/quote]

I've always thought this was one of Hardy's best books, it's often overlooked but worth a mention. Jude, I have to agree, whilst a worthy tome, is not for the easily depressed.... :eek:
Currently reading "The Whitstable Pearl Mystery" by Julie Wassmer

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Post by SGM » Mon May 23rd, 2011, 7:57 pm

[quote=""The Czar""]War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I am about 300 pages in and can hardly put it down. Immense in scope already, and very well written.)

Anything by Dostoyevsky - (Oddly, I haven't read brothers Karamozov yet, it will be next when I finish War and Peace. But I have read most of his others, and Crime and Punishment and The House of the Dead in particular I love).[/quote]

I, too, enjoyed War and Peace, having read Anna Karenina a few years before which I admit I preferred but I also enjoyed Resurrrection (this is all so many years ago). I have a copy of Cossacks now which I just don't seem to get round to reading.

I really never could get on with Dostoyevski and live in hope that one day I will. I also went through a phase of Turgenev when I was in my teens which I enjoyed at the time but I wonder if I would now.
Currently reading - Emergence of a Nation State by Alan Smith

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The Czar
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Post by The Czar » Tue May 24th, 2011, 8:59 pm

[quote=""SGM""]I, too, enjoyed War and Peace, having read Anna Karenina a few years before which I admit I preferred but I also enjoyed Resurrrection (this is all so many years ago). I have a copy of Cossacks now which I just don't seem to get round to reading.

I really never could get on with Dostoyevski and live in hope that one day I will. I also went through a phase of Turgenev when I was in my teens which I enjoyed at the time but I wonder if I would now.[/quote]

I think I'm gonna try August 1914 by Solzhenitsyn next. Either that or Brothers Karamazov.
Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
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SGM
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Post by SGM » Tue May 24th, 2011, 10:11 pm

[quote=""The Czar""]I think I'm gonna try August 1914 by Solzhenitsyn next. Either that or Brothers Karamazov.[/quote]

I've only done First Circe and One Day in the Life of....

But again so long ago. I wonder if I should go back to some of these writers and finish them off....May be. So many books, so little time, particularly as I am not really reading much fiction at the moment.
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The Czar
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Post by The Czar » Thu June 2nd, 2011, 5:43 am

[quote=""SGM""]I also went through a phase of Turgenev when I was in my teens which I enjoyed at the time but I wonder if I would now.[/quote]

That always upsets me, when I re-read a book that really blew my mind at one point, and it just doesn't resonate anymore. The two examples that come to mind are...

The Catcher in the Rye - This book just floored me as a 16 year old boy. I read it over and over. Read it again when I was 28 or so... it had lost its charm.

Atlas Shrugged - I read this when I was 24, and basically skipped several days of classes and read constantly. Thought I had everything figured out, and that I had finally found the "truth." Well, read it again not long ago, and while I still like the book, a good deal of the philosophy doesn't ring to me anymore.

I guess books, being encapsulated ideas, are like anything else. You outgrow them. That's why I'm interested as I continue this classics kick I'm on to see if maybe I "grew into" some stuff I didn't like when I was forced to read it as a student.
Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Thu June 2nd, 2011, 11:09 am

I'm not that keen on 19thC books, but I did enjoy Jane Eyre when I was younger. Is Little Women 19thC? That was good. I also like 19thC ghost stories but couldn't name any one author. In fact such anthologies are a secret vice of mine!
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

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