Victober 2020 ~ In Memory of Vivianne ~

[MissAutumn]

Victober is almost here again!


What's Victober you ask?
Well, Victober means "Victorian October". It was originally a month readathon of Victorian Literature. However, to make things a bit more fun - the Windlyn Victober version includes TV and movie adaptations of the books. But you could read a historical fiction set in the Victorian era or play a video game that feels Victorian.

The Victoria era was during Queen Victoria's reign (1837 - 1901).

Victober 2020

For Victober 2020, I wanted to do something for Vivianne.
For those new to Windlyn: Vivianne was a well known and loved member of Windlyn. She was only here for a short amount of time. She was one of the loveliest people on here. Sadly, she suffered a lot with health issues and she sadly passed away earlier this year. Despite all the problems in her life she kept going. We miss her greatly.

Vivianne was very active on this thread last year and was new to Victorian literature. She discovered Elizabeth Barrett Browning and loved her work. I thought for this year's Victober we could have a challenge to read something by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

To access Elizabeth Barrett Browning's works for free you can find them on Project Gutenberg and Archive.org. Her work is out of copyright so this is all legal.

I hope some of you will join me this year.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I love the Victorian area books/movies!

Which book are you choosing to read?

[MissAutumn]

You should take part, Lemon. Audio books count too. What's your favourite books/movies?

I'm going to attempt the challenges:

[+] SPOILER

1. Read a book by Victorian female author (bonus: one that’s new to you).

Silas Marner, George Eliot. I haven't read any of her books before.

2. Re-read a Victorian book.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte or Wuthering Heights by her sister Emily. I've only AG once, whereas, I've read WH about 3-4 times. I should probably re-read AG.

3. Read a Victorian book under 250 pages and/or over 500 pages.

Nonsense by Edward Lear (56 pages); a collection of poetry.

I don't think I'd have time to read a 500 page. If I do have time then I'll read the Wordsworth Classics edition of Cranford & Other Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell (528 pages).

4. Read an underrated Victorian book from the same year your favorite Victorian classic.

My favourite Victorian classic is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847). I will be reading Anthony Trollope's The Macdermots of Ballycloran. Although Trollope is famous, this book (his 1st) wasn't a hit. So I'm counting it.

[Mouse]

I don't have any Victorian books unfortunately! But I can do the read by candlelight and partake a little

[Lemon Cheesecake]

My books have been packed away in boxes to make room for other things...I couldn't part with them just yet. I did have a friend give me some audio books of Sherlock Holmes that I never finished...similar time period...I could give them another try. But I prefer watching the movies...takes less time and is visually appealing...there are like 3 renditions of Pride & Prejudice out there.

I just watched the First season of Carnival Row which has clothes similar to the Victorian era time period. Something about the style is very attractive... not that I could wear all those layers and the weight I think would be very cumbersome.

[MissAutumn]

Mouse if you wanted to read any Victorian Literature you can find free ebooks on Project Gutenberg:

Project Gutenburg

Because the copyrights have expired it's legal to use.

Also you can listen to audiobooks - they count! Or you could watch an adaptation.

Lemon Cheesecake the earlier Sherlock Holmes count as they where published during Victoria's reign. I think Adventures and Memoirs short stories. I find them

I think for the Windlyn edition of Victober we should count movie/TV adaptations. I'm seeing a play of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the middle of next month and might rewatch North and South (the Elizabeth Gaskell one - not the ones by John Jakes one).

[galled]

I guess the TV show VICTORIA would count? Too bad they still haven't announced when Season 4 will air...

[Mouse]

Oh! Ill give that a shot!!!
And I loved that show

[MissAutumn]

I'm going to count it. :3 I still haven't seen that show.

Happy Victober everyone. I've started Victober with Silas Marner by George Eliot for challenge one. (GE real name is Mary Ann Evans btw - in case anyone was wondering why I picked them for the female author challenge).

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I watched Anastasia since it was brought up!

[MissAutumn]

Anastasia is such a good movie.

This evening I was reading Edward's Lear poetry, in a collection called Nonsense. They are very silly. Definitely poems I want to read to my niece.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

It looks like there are 6 different movie or cartoon's of "Anastasia", I may try to watch them all! I wonder which one is more true to life? I've seen the Ingrid Bergman one before but not for a long time.

[Vivianne]

This sounds interesting! I’ll try to participate!

I’m a bit new to the Victorian era - any book/poetry recommendations?

[Lemon Cheesecake]

check out the top of the thread for some suggestions by MissAutumn.

Anyone watched/watching the "Dickensian" series? It's set using the characters by Charles Dickens and the first episode centers around the murder of Jacob Marley the partner of none other then Ebinizer Scrooge.
I have only watched the first two episodes and I found there are some characters I recognize from books/movies ...re: Fagan and Nancy and Bill ...Miss Haversham etc and some I do not know the story behind. Some very entertaining characters in it.

This is copied from their imdb : "A drama series inspired by the writings of Charles Dickens, where the author's fictional characters are reworked into another storyline that fuses them together in 19th-century London."

[MissAutumn]

Vivianne thanks for visiting. What type of books do you read? Out of my list I would say Edward Lear's Nonsense poems and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte are a good place for those new to Victorian literature.

Other books:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Romance - with a bit of mystery thrown in there)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (Tragedy Gothic).

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the Sherlock Holmes books are collection of short detective stories).

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (gothic thriller) and Treasure Island (adventure) by Robert Louis Stevenson.

If you would like TV/movie recommendations let me know and I'll list a few.

Lemon Cheesecake I love that show. I did find some of the ages of the characters to be a bit off. For example Inspector Bucket (he's middle aged in Bleak House which is set 20 years later) and Tiny Tim (I think a Christmas Carol takes place 7 years later so shouldn't he be a baby in this?). I wish they made a 2nd season.

I've finished Nonsense and Silas Marner. So that's two of the challenges crossed off my list. I really enjoyed both. I also read The Importance of Being Earnest as a Goodreads readalong. It is a really funny play. I want to see it performed now.

I'm now reading The Macdermots of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope. I like the prose but because the characters are Irish he's written what they say in a dialect so it's slowing me down a bit.