Victober 2023: My Pile of Possibilities
Oct. 1st, 2023 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jupiter2932Hey, folks! I meant to select a proper tbr for Victober last month, but I've been so busy I've barely had a chance to think about it, and, heading into October, I'm not sure what this month is going to look like, reading time-wise: I may or may not be doing a readalong of the Rook & Rose series by M.A. Carrick (of which each book is a solid chonker) and I've got several other non-Victorian reads lined up as research for a story I'm working on, as well as reading-unrelated time-sucking obligations (because Halloween).
I'm dead set on joining in Victober, though, so I'm just going to pick up things as I can and see how much I get through and not worry about the challenges. I've really been trying, though, this year particularly, to focus on reading books I own physical copies of--since I keep buying them--so, a list of books I'm probably going to pick from this month:
-David Copperfield & Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens: I read my first Dickens when I was nine and have loved him since, but somehow I've never read the two books that are usually regarded as his best works*. I own both and have been meaning to get to them for years, so why not give one of them a go now?
-The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White was one of my favorite books in my late teens, but the two times I started The Moonstone previously I ended up setting it aside to pick up an exciting new release and sort of forgot I was reading it. But it's famous and Victorian and I'll probably enjoy it, so maybe I should give it another go?
-The Half-Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury: I started looking for this one on used book websites after seeing a review of it on Booktube. Unfortunately, by the time I did get it, I'd lost that first blush of enthusiasm. It sounds exactly like my jam: illegitimacy and the challenges of finding 'respectable' employment in earlier Victorian England. Plus, Jewsbury appears to have been some flavor of queer (having relationships with men and women, wearing men's clothes and smoking) while also being very much a moralist in her writings, which sounds fascinating.
-In the Cage by Henry James: Some people don't count James as a Victorian author because he was born American, but he spent plenty of time in England and In the Cage is set in London, so I'm counting it. I frankly don't know a lot about this novella; it follows a female telegraphist who gets invested or obsessed with a customer because of his messages, I think? And I think he wrote a sequel to it? But I've liked the other things by James that I've read before, quite a bit; also, and maybe more importantly, my copy clocks in at a sweet 128 pages, which makes it perfect for this busy month.
-Dearbrook by Harriet Martineau: I know practically nothing about this. It's about two sisters 'facing love and adversity' who move to a small village, Dearbrook. I saw it mentioned on one of the Victober booktube suggestion videos, though, and I have a weak spot for books set in small villages with nosy people.
-A Struggle for Fame by Charlotte Riddell: This was on my list before Victober, but seeing it mentioned in a tbr or two bumped it up. A story about a woman struggling to make a living or gain recognition as a writer in the late 1800s? Sounds like a banger.
-Mr. Harrison's Confessions by Elizabeth Gaskell: I've liked everything else I've read from Gaskell, so figures I'll probably enjoy this as well. Bonus: it's a teeny tiny novella!
-The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: I've been slowly working my way through this over the last couple of Octobers. I could try to finish it this year, or I could just pick another one or two stories and mosey through them. Time will tell!
*Probably along with Great Expectations, which has a legion of devotees. But I've already read that, so.
I'm dead set on joining in Victober, though, so I'm just going to pick up things as I can and see how much I get through and not worry about the challenges. I've really been trying, though, this year particularly, to focus on reading books I own physical copies of--since I keep buying them--so, a list of books I'm probably going to pick from this month:
-David Copperfield & Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens: I read my first Dickens when I was nine and have loved him since, but somehow I've never read the two books that are usually regarded as his best works*. I own both and have been meaning to get to them for years, so why not give one of them a go now?
-The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White was one of my favorite books in my late teens, but the two times I started The Moonstone previously I ended up setting it aside to pick up an exciting new release and sort of forgot I was reading it. But it's famous and Victorian and I'll probably enjoy it, so maybe I should give it another go?
-The Half-Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury: I started looking for this one on used book websites after seeing a review of it on Booktube. Unfortunately, by the time I did get it, I'd lost that first blush of enthusiasm. It sounds exactly like my jam: illegitimacy and the challenges of finding 'respectable' employment in earlier Victorian England. Plus, Jewsbury appears to have been some flavor of queer (having relationships with men and women, wearing men's clothes and smoking) while also being very much a moralist in her writings, which sounds fascinating.
-In the Cage by Henry James: Some people don't count James as a Victorian author because he was born American, but he spent plenty of time in England and In the Cage is set in London, so I'm counting it. I frankly don't know a lot about this novella; it follows a female telegraphist who gets invested or obsessed with a customer because of his messages, I think? And I think he wrote a sequel to it? But I've liked the other things by James that I've read before, quite a bit; also, and maybe more importantly, my copy clocks in at a sweet 128 pages, which makes it perfect for this busy month.
-Dearbrook by Harriet Martineau: I know practically nothing about this. It's about two sisters 'facing love and adversity' who move to a small village, Dearbrook. I saw it mentioned on one of the Victober booktube suggestion videos, though, and I have a weak spot for books set in small villages with nosy people.
-A Struggle for Fame by Charlotte Riddell: This was on my list before Victober, but seeing it mentioned in a tbr or two bumped it up. A story about a woman struggling to make a living or gain recognition as a writer in the late 1800s? Sounds like a banger.
-Mr. Harrison's Confessions by Elizabeth Gaskell: I've liked everything else I've read from Gaskell, so figures I'll probably enjoy this as well. Bonus: it's a teeny tiny novella!
-The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: I've been slowly working my way through this over the last couple of Octobers. I could try to finish it this year, or I could just pick another one or two stories and mosey through them. Time will tell!
*Probably along with Great Expectations, which has a legion of devotees. But I've already read that, so.
