British Author Challenge June 2021: The Victorian Era (1837-1901)

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British Author Challenge June 2021: The Victorian Era (1837-1901)

1amanda4242
Editado: Maio 29, 2021, 4:12 pm


Left: Queen Victoria's coronation portrait by George Hayter
Right: Her official Diamond Jubilee photograph by W. & D. Downey

Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent became queen on 20 June 1837. She married Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel in 1840, by whom she had nine children. When Prince Albert died in 1861 she became something of a professional widow. During her 63 year reign British colonial expansion covered the globe, making the British empire the largest in history. At her death on 22 January 1901 her full style was "Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India."

The era saw a massive technological revolution: steam power, electricity, railways, automobiles, telegraphs, and telephones all rose during Victoria's rule. Improvements in paper making and printing, combined with educational reform and cheaper means of lighting homes, helped lead to an explosion in literacy rates and an increased demand for newspapers, magazines, and books.

2amanda4242
Editado: Maio 27, 2021, 4:48 pm


The British Empire in 1898

This is the month for reading works written during the Victorian Era, not about it. You don't have to match her exact reign, and there's wiggle room for serialized works, but we're looking at stuff written between 1837 and 1901. That being said, I see no reason not to include authors from across the empire. As the map above shows, Britain's empire was so vast during Victoria's reign that the sun *literally* never set upon it; if an author who wrote during the era was subject to British rule, then I think they can be a part of this challenge.

Suggestions

Authors
Charles Dickens
Elizabeth Gaskell
George Eliot
Charlotte Brontë
Emily Brontë
Anne Brontë
John Ruskin
Oscar Wilde
Thomas Hardy
Anthony Trollope
George Gissing
Wilkie Collins
Christina Rossetti
Richard Francis Burton

Works
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin
Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Liza of Lambeth by Somerset Maugham
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole
The River War by Winston Churchill
The Devil's Disciple by George Bernard Shaw
Varney the Vampire
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

3laytonwoman3rd
Maio 27, 2021, 8:09 pm

Great choices for this month on my shelves. I hope to pick something new, but there's a chance I'll revisit an old Victorian friend.

4fuzzi
Maio 27, 2021, 8:41 pm

Now, this is a challenge that I should be able to meet...I have lots of unread "classics" from that era.

5amanda4242
Maio 27, 2021, 11:50 pm

>3 laytonwoman3rd: & >4 fuzzi: With so many choices for this theme, I think the trouble will be in deciding with what to begin.

6m.belljackson
Maio 28, 2021, 10:17 am

Jane Eyre wins the day, even with the challenge of getting through her early childhood again.

7PaulCranswick
Maio 28, 2021, 10:39 am

As you know Amanda I am doing a Queen Vic challenge this year and so this coincides perfectly.

Plenty of possibles:

Our Mutual Friend by Chuckles
New Grub Street by George Gissing (from my hometown of Wakefield)
The Egoist by George Meredith
Vice Versa by F Anstey

Kipling, Hardy, Stevenson, Kingsley, Eliot, Bronte, Ainsworth and Ellen Wood are also possibles.

8amanda4242
Maio 28, 2021, 11:42 am

>6 m.belljackson: I liked Jane Eyre, but for my money Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has her sisters' works beat by miles.

And that reminds me of a Kate Beaton comic.
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=202

9amanda4242
Maio 28, 2021, 11:44 am

>7 PaulCranswick: You know, I don't think I've read any Dickens outside of A Christmas Carol and The Signalman? Perhaps that will change soon.

10laytonwoman3rd
Maio 29, 2021, 12:47 pm

I started Our Mutual Friend several years ago, and was quite enjoying it, but set it aside for whatever reason, and never got back to it. I may try that one again.

11m.belljackson
Maio 29, 2021, 2:59 pm

>8 amanda4242: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has a promising title! - I will look for it.

12amanda4242
Maio 29, 2021, 3:34 pm

>10 laytonwoman3rd: The description certainly makes it sound intriguing!

13amanda4242
Maio 29, 2021, 3:39 pm

>11 m.belljackson: If you don't mind ebooks it's available on Project Gutenberg.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/969

It was also made into a decent miniseries with Tara Fitzgerald, Toby Stephens, Rupert Graves, and James Purefoy.

14m.belljackson
Maio 29, 2021, 9:10 pm

>13 amanda4242: The Tenant on Gutenberg is a fine idea - the Pandemic Years have inspired more donating than buying more material things, even books...

15kac522
Editado: Maio 29, 2021, 10:38 pm

I've been thinking about this month's BAC for weeks. I have narrowed it down to these possibilities:

--Our Mutual Friend, Dickens, a re-read on audiobook (have started)
--Salem Chapel, by Mrs Margaret Oliphant, the next book in her Carlingford series that we started with Liz (lyzard) in April & May as a group read
--The Belton Estate, Trollope, the next book in my quest to read all of his novels
--Reuben Sachs or The Romance of the Shop by Amy Levy (1861-1889)
--Shirley, Charlotte Bronte, the only Bronte novel still to read

and two re-read possibilities:
--Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
--The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot

I'm hoping to get to at least 5 of these.

16amanda4242
Maio 30, 2021, 6:25 pm

>15 kac522: I've just started reading my first Trollope, The Way We Live Now, which PaulCranswick picked for me in the Christmas swap. I'm about fifty pages in and finding his style not difficult, but a bit demanding.

17kac522
Maio 30, 2021, 7:19 pm

>16 amanda4242: That's one I haven't tackled yet; probably the most demanding of the novels. There are quite a few that are a bit more accessible.

18amanda4242
Jun 2, 2021, 4:53 pm

>17 kac522: Nothing like starting out in the deep end! I'm now about 250 pages in and finding it slow, but enjoyable.

19Caroline_McElwee
Jun 2, 2021, 5:07 pm

Torn between a revisit, or reading something for the first time.

20kac522
Jun 3, 2021, 12:22 pm

I've got a couple of nonfiction books about the Victorian era that I'm going to try to squeeze in:

--Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale, about a famous divorce case
--The Artful Dickens by John Mullan; subtitled "the tricks and ploys of the great novelist"--says it all.

21amanda4242
Jun 9, 2021, 5:22 pm

>19 Caroline_McElwee: Deciding what to read is probably the greatest challenge of this month's theme!

>20 kac522: Mrs Robinson's Disgrace looks fascinating. I look forward to your thoughts on it.

22kac522
Jun 10, 2021, 2:26 pm

>21 amanda4242: Well, Mrs Robinson's Disgrace doesn't really fit the challenge, as it's about the Victorian era, not written during the Victorian era. There are excerpts from the diary, but mostly it's a nonfiction look at a specific divorce. But I think it will give a very good look at marriage, divorce and gender during the 1850s and 1860s in England. And the other nonfiction possibility is a new book about Dickens, but it will give some insight into his writing.

23kac522
Jun 10, 2021, 2:35 pm

I've finished The Belton Estate (1866). It's relatively short for Anthony Trollope and is the story of Clara Amedroz, in her mid-twenties, who must choose between two suitors. Interestingly there is a will and inheritance involved, but Clara is in the position of the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice: when her father dies, because of the entail the estate will go to a distant cousin, and Clara will be left homeless and penniless. But Clara is a bit proud and wants no part of "charity", and several times complains that if she were a man, she would be allowed to earn her own living.

It's typical Trollope, and although completely predictable, I did love it. But I'm a sucker for Trollope, especially Trollope without hunting or horse-racing. There's even a decent lawyer in this one, which is rare. And only a smidgen of politics.

24amanda4242
Jun 10, 2021, 5:36 pm

>22 kac522: It still looks very interesting even if doesn't fit the challenge. Looking at a real world marriage/divorce in the era would probably be very beneficial to novel reading as so many Victorian novels have marriages playing a significant role in the story.

25amanda4242
Editado: Jun 10, 2021, 5:41 pm

I've finished The Way We Live Now, and while I didn't love it, there was much that I admired. The financial shenanigans were horrifyingly dull reading, but the fractious Longstaffe clan earned the book an extra half star. I'll probably pick up a (metaphorically and literally) lighter Trollope in the future.

26amanda4242
Jun 12, 2021, 12:33 pm

The Sins of the Cities of the Plain

What does one read after a well-regarded Victorian classic? Victorian porn, of course!

Purporting to be the memoirs of Jack Saul, a real-life rent boy who was involved in the Cleveland Street scandal, The Sins of the Cities of the Plain gives us a look at the seedy underbelly of Victorian London. Its literary value is negligible, and it gives the impression that one could hardly open a door in the era without risking viewing any sex act from anilingus to zoophilia.

Not really recommended, but it's available on Project Gutenberg if you want to take a peek.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53964

27kac522
Editado: Jun 12, 2021, 7:41 pm

I've finished the novel The Romance of a Shop (1888) from The Complete Novels and Selected Writings of Amy Levy.

Amy Levy (1861-1889) was born in London to a Reform Jewish family. She was the first Jewish woman at Cambridge and one of the first women to attend Newnham College, Cambridge. She wrote 3 short novels, many poems and published essays in various periodicals, including Oscar Wilde's magazine "The Woman's World." Levy suffered from depression and increasing deafness, and died by suicide just before her 28th birthday.

The Romance of a Shop centers around 4 sisters, ages 17-30, who are left with next to nothing to live on after their father's death. Two of the sisters have experience in the new technology of photography, and the sisters decide to open a photography shop in London to support themselves. The eldest sister keeps house and cares for the frail and sickly youngest sister, while the 2 middle sisters run the business. The novel, mostly told from middle sister Gertrude's point of view, explores the very practical struggles and prejudices they face as young women pursuing an independent living. The sisters lose many friends as they "lower" their social status to become shop owners and flaunt conventions for young women. Along the way they keep a few loyal friends, acquire new supporters and meet various men, both good and not-so-good, who enter their lives.

I enjoyed this book until about the last quarter of the novel, when Levy rather melodramatically ties up the ends of the 4 sisters' lives. Overall I am very glad I read this novel, which gives a glimpse of the very real challenges young women faced in the Victorian era to support themselves and be free from dependence on men.

If I have time this month, I may fit in some of the essays and Reuben Sachs (1889), her other longer novel, which takes a hard look at Jewish life and "assimilation" in the Victorian era.



28kac522
Jun 16, 2021, 1:54 am

Finished Charlotte Bronte's Shirley (1849). It was good, but it will never, ever be as good as Jane Eyre for me. It's set in 1811-12 Yorkshire, and there's a fair amount of discussion of Napoleonic era politics, war and religion--certainly more than any other Bronte novel I've read.

With this book, I've read all of the Bronte sisters' major novels. I think my other favorite besides Jane Eyre is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. And these are probably the only 2 Brontes I'll ever take the time to re-read.

29amanda4242
Jun 16, 2021, 4:48 pm

>27 kac522: Adding another one to the tbr list.

>28 kac522: Have you read any of the Brontës' juvenilia? Some of Charlotte's early stories are entertaining and Anne wrote some pretty good poetry; Emily is far too emo for me.

30kac522
Jun 16, 2021, 4:52 pm

>29 amanda4242: I tried, but couldn't get into the juvenilia and I just don't get on with poetry. I agree about Emily; Wuthering Heights is just eye-rolling, IMHO.

31Caroline_McElwee
Jun 16, 2021, 9:48 pm

I'm going to go with George Gissing's The Odd Woman, acquired recently. Will start it next week.

32amanda4242
Jun 16, 2021, 10:40 pm

>30 kac522: Couldn't agree more about Wuthering Heights. I only tolerate its existence because it provided fodder for an excellent scene in one of the Thursday Next books.

33amanda4242
Jun 16, 2021, 10:40 pm

>31 Caroline_McElwee: I haven't read any Gissing, but I've had his New Grub Street on my radar for a while.

34Kristelh
Jun 20, 2021, 7:00 am

I read Born in Exile by George Gissing last year and I rated it 4.5 stars.

35kac522
Editado: Jun 23, 2021, 4:59 pm

I finished Salem Chapel by Mrs Oliphant. Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) was born in Scotland, but lived most of her life in England. She was one of the most popular and prolific Victorian writers, and wrote nearly a hundred novels, as well as many articles, literary reviews, biographies, and histories, most of which were published in popular periodicals of the day.

Salem Chapel is the 4th installment (after 3 stories) in her Carlingford Chronicles, which has been compared to Trollope's Barsetshire series. It focuses on small town life in the city of Carlingford, loosely based on the real town of Birkenhead. In Salem Chapel we follow Arthur Vincent, recently graduated from theological school, who has come to Carlingford to be minister at Salem Chapel, a Dissenter congregation. We meet the many middle-class congregants, mostly shopkeepers, and how their realistic expectations of a minister differ from Mr Vincent's idealistic expectations of his role. Unfortunately for me, Oliphant sneaks in a "sensation" plot, complete with abduction, attempted murder, and mad dashes on trains across England. I became exasperated with Arthur, but I loved Arthur's mother, Mrs Vincent, who seems to have the most sense and good nature of anyone in the book.

Oliphant is at her best when describing all the members of the community, their homes, their shops, their manners, their speech, their dress and how they fit into this middle-class society. I plan to continue with the series and I'm hoping the rest of the books (3 more) will be more focused on the people and their relationships, and less on wild sensational plot twists.

36kac522
Editado: Jun 23, 2021, 5:05 pm

I plan to read two short works by George Eliot (The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob) and one short novella (Cousin Phillis) by Elizabeth Gaskell. I still have Mrs Robinson's Disgrace which I haven't started yet.

And I'm about 3/4 through Our Mutual Friend on audiobook, and that should round up my Victorian reading for the month.

37amanda4242
Jun 23, 2021, 5:15 pm

My current read is Victorian, but it doesn't count for the BAC since it's not British...actually it may count against me since it's French.

38kac522
Jun 23, 2021, 9:08 pm

>37 amanda4242: tsk, tsk....

39amanda4242
Jun 23, 2021, 11:32 pm

>38 kac522: I know, I know. I shall have to escape to the continent in the middle of the night and live the rest of my shameful life under an assumed name.

40kac522
Jun 24, 2021, 2:13 am

>39 amanda4242: And wouldn't you know, I just started Gaskell's Cousin Phillis, and on page 4 the narrator is talking with his new landlord Miss Hannah about going to the county fair and
Miss Hannah caught me up, and spoke of the sinfulness of such sights, and something about wallowing in the mire, and then vaulted into France, and spoke evil of the nation, and all who had ever set foot therein....

You're doomed.

41AnneDC
Jun 24, 2021, 6:55 pm

For this challenge I read Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I first read for a course in college on 19th century British fiction. I presume that I read it, because I can see the underlining and margin notes from when I was a student--but I really don't remember anything about it. I had actually thought North and South was the first Gaskell I read. So this felt like a new read. I expected to enjoy it and I did. I always appreciate Gaskell's social justice themes underpinning the storyline, and the class and labor issues in Victorian Manchester struck me as depressingly relevant.

42amanda4242
Jun 24, 2021, 6:59 pm

>40 kac522: Maybe I'm still salvageable since I've never been to France?

43amanda4242
Jun 24, 2021, 7:01 pm

>41 AnneDC: I loved Cranford and have owned North and South forever but still haven't gotten around to reading it. I really must read more Gaskell.

44kac522
Jun 24, 2021, 7:34 pm

>41 AnneDC: I need to re-read Mary Barton--thanks for reminding me.

>43 amanda4242: Oh, you MUST read North and South, followed by watching the movie with Richard Armitage. Outstanding. Hey--you could do that for next month's book/movie theme.

Also, if you like audiobooks, Juliet Stevenson reads North and South, and she does an amazing job with the dialects, which are hard to read, but easy to listen to.

45amanda4242
Jun 24, 2021, 10:15 pm

>44 kac522: Well, I do own the movie (which I've owned for years without watching)...

46AnneDC
Jun 24, 2021, 10:23 pm

>44 kac522: Juliet Stevenson read Mary Barton, too, and her narration definitely enhanced the read (I read this half from a tattered print copy and half on Audible, because for some reason it was included in my subscription and I didn't have to pay.) I eventually succumbed to audio-only because I was enjoying the narrator.

47kac522
Editado: Jun 25, 2021, 12:16 am

>46 AnneDC: Thanks for that! I'll definitely check that out.

Stevenson has spoiled me, she is so good. She does a wonderful job of reading Persuasion, with just a hint of melancholy, and reads Northanger Abbey so that you can hear Austen having a bit of fun with all things Gothic. She's convinced me that Jane Austen is meant to be read aloud.

48ChrisG1
Jun 25, 2021, 6:49 pm

Just stumbled upon this challenge - this month I've read

1. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (published in 1901, so barely made it)
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Both fantastic reads.

49amanda4242
Jun 25, 2021, 7:05 pm

>48 ChrisG1: Welcome! Kipling is yet another author I keep meaning to read more of.

50fuzzi
Jun 25, 2021, 7:16 pm

>48 ChrisG1: I keep meaning to read Kim. I loved The Jungle Book and Just So Stories.

51amanda4242
Jun 26, 2021, 6:36 pm

52AnneDC
Jun 27, 2021, 7:26 pm

It's interesting you say that, >47 kac522:! It had never occurred to me to read Austen via audiobook (kind of a stickler, I guess, or maybe I thought I would miss something) but then I listened to Emma (Juliet Stevenson, of course) before seeing the film, right before the pandemic shut everything down, and found myself laughing out loud at some humorous parts, which I'm not sure previously struck me in print. So I can 100% agree she's meant to be read aloud. And I listened to Persuasion recently as well, and appreciated Stevenson's narration.

53kac522
Jun 27, 2021, 9:57 pm

>52 AnneDC: Well, we know Austen read large portions of her books aloud to her family as she was writing. Plus I think it was pretty common during that time for one person to read aloud while the rest of the female folk did their work--sewing, embroidery, etc., so it seems logical that she would write stories with that in mind.

54kac522
Editado: Jun 28, 2021, 5:24 pm

I finished the novella "Cousin Phillis" by Elizabeth Gaskell (1864), contained in Cousin Phillis and Other Tales.

This is a lovely bittersweet tale, set in pastoral 1840s. Paul Manning, the narrator, begins his first job away from home building new railroads and visits his farming relations, the Holmans, who live in the area. Phillis, 16, and Paul become good friends; Phillis is a book-reader in contrast to Paul's engineering expertise, but she is unusual because she, like her father, shows great interest in the railroads as well. Paul brings his world-savvy co-worker Mr Holdsworth to visit the family and Phillis is smitten. The story is a coming of age for Paul, for Phillis and for her parents. It is about a simple life that will be forever changed--by railroads, by technology and by relationships. This is the last full work Gaskell wrote before her final novel Wives and Daughters. A lot packed into 90 pages.

55kac522
Jun 28, 2021, 5:20 pm

Not counting for this challenge but about the Victorian era, I also completed Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale (2012). This is a nonfiction look at one of the first divorce cases in Britain after the passing of the Divorce Act in 1857. There is a LOT of detail in this book--in some ways, it felt "padded" with people and events only marginally concerned with the case. Most disappointing is that the author did not provide any analysis or context for the case, and what it meant for marriage, women and society in general. It was just a re-telling of the facts, like an overlong research paper.

56kac522
Editado: Jun 29, 2021, 1:19 am

And to wrap-up my Victorian reading:

The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob, two stories by George Eliot. Both stories are about truth. In "The Lifted Veil" (1859), a man has the ability to read most people's minds and has visions of events in the future. This ability drives him almost to insanity. In the light-hearted "Brother Jacob" (1864) a man fakes his disappearance, but eventually the "truth" is revealed and he pays the consequences. These were re-reads.

And lastly, I re-read A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885). My copy is a facsimile of the 1905 edition illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, with two of my favorite illustrations:


"Picture-books in Winter"

and


The Cover--"Looking-Glass River"

57fuzzi
Jun 29, 2021, 7:03 am

>56 kac522: lovely!

58PaulCranswick
Jun 29, 2021, 7:22 am

>7 PaulCranswick: Surprisingly because I am doing my Queen Vic challenge this year I am only just finishing my first book for the challenge this month, but it is delightful. I cannot remember chuckling as much whilst reading during the last decade.

Vice Versa by F Anstey from 1882 is both a great premise and very well written. It has fallen a little out of popularity these days but, if you can find a copy, do read it.

I did read The Count of Monte Cristo this month but since he was a Frenchie...........

59amanda4242
Jun 29, 2021, 3:16 pm

>55 kac522: Oh, what a disappointment! I was hoping that one could provide some insight into marriage and divorce in the Victorian era. Thanks for the warning!

60amanda4242
Jun 29, 2021, 3:17 pm

>58 PaulCranswick: We were just discussing the scandalous reading of French novels upthread...

61kac522
Jun 29, 2021, 6:46 pm

>59 amanda4242: There were LOTS of facts and examples, but I felt that she didn't bring it all together with any insight or long-term analysis.

62kac522
Editado: Jun 30, 2021, 9:07 pm

One last book: I finished listening to Simon Vance read Our Mutual Friend by Dickens (1865). It took 6 weeks, but I was hooked. I read the physical book 8 years ago and was a bit confused with all the characters and sub-plots. With the basic story in my mind, I had a much clearer understanding of where Dickens was going with this listening. I've come to the conclusion that I need a minimum of two readings of a Dickens' novel to pull all the pieces together and appreciate what he's trying to do.

63amanda4242
Jun 30, 2021, 9:27 pm

>62 kac522: Congratulations on making it through! I managed about three pages of Great Expectations and decided life is too short.

64kac522
Editado: Jun 30, 2021, 9:51 pm

>63 amanda4242: No surprise here. GE is in my bottom tier of Dickens, and I've read it twice.

65Caroline_McElwee
Jul 1, 2021, 7:29 am

>31 Caroline_McElwee: About a third through the Gissing, but got distracted. Will get back to it soon.

66kac522
Jul 1, 2021, 9:42 am

>65 Caroline_McElwee: Have not read any Gissing, so I'll be interested to know how it goes for you.

67amanda4242
Ago 2, 2021, 10:31 pm

Rebecca and Rowena by William Makepeace Thackery

Pretty much everyone who has read Ivanhoe is unhappy with the ending, believing that it would have been much better if Ivanhoe had married Rebecca instead of Rowena.* Thackery apparently shared this sentiment and wrote a "sequel" in which we see what became of the characters in later years. Rebecca and Rowena does have some amusing bits, but it earned my everlasting enmity because Thackery converted Rebecca to Christianity! Her steadfast refusal to give up her own faith is one of the strongest parts of the original and the rat bastard just tossed it out the window!

*I agree Ivanhoe would have been better off with Rebecca, but I also think Rebecca was better off without Ivanhoe.

69kac522
Editado: Set 8, 2021, 12:36 pm

Victober (Victorian October) is coming up on BookTube and Goodreads, and I've got my selections all lined up:
--The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens
--Reuben Sachs, Amy Levy
--Desperate Remedies, Thomas Hardy (his first published novel)
--The Claverings, Trollope
--The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot (a re-read)
--Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte (a re-read)

and a group read of Elizabeth Gaskell's Gothic Tales, perfect for October!

70amanda4242
Editado: Out 6, 2021, 1:01 am

I haven't listened to it yet, but the latest episode of In Our Time is about Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00100bw

71kac522
Editado: Out 6, 2021, 1:29 am

>70 amanda4242: Will check it out.

So far this month I have completed a re-read of Jane Eyre, finished several Elizabeth Gaskell stories, almost done with the audiobook of Cranford and am about half-way through Trollope's The Claverings.

I've also decided to do a book-and-movies for Jane Eyre--gonna watch 7 different adaptations over the month. I've seen a few and one is a favorite, but looking forward to comparing them all. I'm trying very hard to imagine George C. Scott as Rochester (1970), but all I see is Patton.

72amanda4242
Editado: Out 6, 2021, 3:19 pm

>71 kac522: Wow, you've been busy!

I did a Jane Eyre marathon a few years ago and still have some notes from it:

Jane Eyre {1934 film}--Worth watching to see just how jaw-droppingly awful it is.
Jane Eyre {1943 film}--Totally deserves its classic status.
Jane Eyre {1970 film}--Well acted, but I also kept seeing Scott as Patton.
Jane Eyre {1973 TV miniseries}--Sorcha Cusack plays Jane as a glassy-eyed ninny.
Jane Eyre {1983 TV Mini-Series}--A larger budget would have helped, but Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton are excellent as Jane and Rochester.
Jane Eyre {1996 film}--Whoever thought it was a good idea to cast William Hurt as Rochester needs to have their head examined.
Jane Eyre {1997 film}--I didn't much care for it, but I think I'm in the minority.
Jane Eyre {2006 TV mini series}--Ties with the 1943 version for my favorite Jane Eyre adaptation. Ruth Wilson is a superb Jane.
Jane Eyre {2011 film}--Bland and forgettable.

73kac522
Editado: Out 6, 2021, 11:34 pm

>72 amanda4242: Man, here I thought I had such an original idea! Will be fun to compare notes.

Anyway, I'm skipping the 1934 & 1996 films, but I've lined up all the rest you've mentioned. I loved Ciaran Hinds in Persuasion, so I have modest hopes for the 1997 film. I actually own the 1983 version and have watched it multiple times, so I guess that will be my standard to judge the rest.

74amanda4242
Editado: Out 7, 2021, 12:29 am

>73 kac522: I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of them.

And I just discovered there's a version with Charlton Heston! More or less improbable than George C. Scott?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX-jjMZN-Ho&list=PL646D715A932DC34C&inde...

75kac522
Out 7, 2021, 1:23 pm

OMG! I can't tell--was this a TV production or was it a feature film?

I'm determined to watch them in order, so Heston will need to come after I pick up Orson Welles from the library....will let you know!

76amanda4242
Out 8, 2021, 10:52 am

>75 kac522: It's an hour-long TV production. Not sure how they could possibly fit a coherent take on the novel into such a short time.

77kac522
Out 8, 2021, 4:07 pm

>76 amanda4242: For sure, particularly so soon (1950, I think) after the Fontaine/Welles version, which was such a classic. It still will be interesting to watch, so one more added to the list! I'm even making a checklist of sorts to compare the films--I'm such a nerd.

When I'm done (may take me all month) I'm going to post my thoughts on the book & movie thread.

78kac522
Editado: Out 8, 2021, 5:14 pm

Well, looks like somebody's already gone the distance on the filmed versions. There are detailed reviews of each film. Will be interesting to see how my reactions match to these:

http://www.janeeyre.net/index.html

79kac522
Out 10, 2021, 1:43 pm

An interesting close reading by Dr Octavia Cox of several passages of Jane Eyre often considered feminist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8dtLBUXXBY

Too many ads, but still very interesting.

80amanda4242
Out 10, 2021, 2:27 pm

>77 kac522: It's not really so surprising that it was so soon after the Fontaine/Welles version, since at the time movie studios thought TV was the evil and wouldn't licence anything for TV. I'm going to give it a watch when I get a free hour.

>78 kac522: & 79 Thanks for the links.

81kac522
Nov 4, 2021, 4:04 pm

I ended up reading the following BAC books from the Victorian era in October:

--Jane Eyre, Bronte (1847), a re-read
--The Claverings, Trollope (1867)
--Reuben Sachs, Amy Levy (1889)
--Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell (1851), a re-read via audiobook
--The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens (1870), his last novel, unfinished
--Desperate Remedies, Thomas Hardy (1871), his first published novel
--London Crimes, Charles Dickens (publ. 1849-1851), a selection of pieces about detectives from Dickens' publication Household Words
--Mr Harrison's Confessions (1851) and My Lady Ludlow (1859), two novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell
--Gothic Tales, Elizabeth Gaskell (publ. 1851-1861), collected gothic stories

82amanda4242
Nov 4, 2021, 6:32 pm

>81 kac522: Wow, you had a productive October! I mostly just read comics last month.

83kac522
Editado: Nov 4, 2021, 9:18 pm

>82 amanda4242: They were mostly good selections. Although Drood and Desperate Remedies were hard to get into, they picked up pace at the end. They were published one year apart, so it was interesting to compare Dickens' last novel (1870) and Hardy's first (1871): sort of dividing the Victorian era in half.

84kac522
Nov 5, 2021, 3:50 pm

>72 amanda4242: Ok, it's done! I've written up my impressions of 8 filmed versions of Jane Eyre. I did not watch the 1934 or 1996 (William Hurt) films, but did review all the rest, and it starts here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/328324#7646921

85amanda4242
Nov 5, 2021, 6:00 pm

>84 kac522: Bravo! I adore the 1943 version because of Wells's amazing performance, but, like you said, it really is a movie about Rochester rather than Jane.

86kac522
Nov 5, 2021, 6:40 pm

>85 amanda4242: I'm sure if I had watched the Welles version over my life-time, it would have a soft place in my heart. (If I ever watched it, it was way late at night with my mom, maybe in the 60s, so I have no remembrance of it.)

But coming to it now, after all these other versions with so much included, it just doesn't live up to Bronte. Still an amazing film in its own right, though. Those camera angles, especially at Lowood when Jane is standing all by herself, were so dramatic and scary. I also thought Agnes Moorehead was the perfect Mrs Reed (what little we see of her) and I loved Margaret O'Brien as Adele--so lively and genuine. I thought Elizabeth Taylor was a little too sweet for Helen Burns.