What are your favorite 19C books?

[Julianne Douglas]

Anything by George Eliot--one of my all-time favorite authors!

Stendhal--The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma

Zola--Germinal

Flaubert--Madame Bovary, Salammbo

Anything by Thomas Hardy, especially Tess and The Mayor of Castorbridge

Thackeray--Vanity Fair

Henry James--The Ambassadors, Portrait of a Lady

Walter Scott--Ivanhoe

I shouldn't admit it, but I never really could get into Jane Austen.

[Cuchulainn]

I won't try to list all my favourites, but for certain Dostoevsky's Brother's Karamazov and Crime and Punishment are in the top five: two of the finest novels ever written, any time, any place.

[Catherine Delors]

Persuasion: second chances do happen, even in love.
Mansfield Park: an understated, intellectual heroine, the ultimate outsider, both at MP and in her birth family. She sees through all the fancy appearances, and can say nothing. A frightening situation for someone so young. Oh, yes, I am a fan of Fanny Price and the wonderfully diverse cast of characters.

Julianne: how could I forget Stendhal?

[Julianne Douglas]

Shame on you, Catherine!

And seeing how much you love Austen, I'll have to give her another try.

[Margaret]

Jane Eyre. I've reread that so many times.

The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment have been mentioned, for good reason. But I think my favorite Dostoyevsky is The Idiot.

I wish Dickens weren't still so relevant, but I fear he is. Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities are my favorites.

I don't think anyone's mentioned Thomas Hardy yet. He and Jane Austen were both masters of plot and pacing.

The antique language in these novels tends to slow down modern readers, but all these novels are literary novels of ideas and character and well-plotted, briskly paced page-turners: a good thing for today's authors and (especially) publishers to consider. There seems to be a pre-conception floating around that novels are either literary (and therefore kind of boring) or genre (and therefore not worth the attention of intelligent people), but never both. All my favorite novels are both literary novels full of important ideas and well-plotted, exciting stories.

[sweetpotatoboy]

My favourite 19th century author is Anthony Trollope and I've read many of his 40-odd novels. He was just a natural born storyteller, creating memorable characters and believable dialogue. One always knows that the novel is going to end happily but how we get there and what the characters learn about life and themselves in the process is what keeps us engaged.

I've also very much enjoyed the Thackeray novels I've read and his 'History of Henry Esmond' (set in the reign of Queen Anne) is one of the best historical novels of all time and is now thankfully back in print, though its sequel 'The Virginians' shamefully isn't.

[Vanessa]

Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are a couple of my favourite books. I really like the Brontes' style of writing. And Wuthering Heights is very atmospheric, very dark, too.

[Catherine Delors]

I am a fan of Henry Esmond too...

[Telynor]

Oh goodness, where do I start?

Elizabeth Gaskell -- Wives and Daughters and Cranford Chronicles.

Jane Austen (of course)

Henry James -- The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl. Didn't much care for Portrait of a Lady, but I might give it a second try.

Charlotte Bronte -- Jane Eyre

Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina

Pushkin and Lermontov

[Juniper]

Jane Eyre (I much prefered Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights).

I'm a huge Austen fan. Persuasion is my favourite, closely followed by Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park. I do love Northanger Abbey, though. Oh I just love them all!