19th Century Epic Romances discussion

I am archiving the Nov & Dec 2013 Book Nominations because all the detailed descriptions of the books may still be of interest to some people.

Oct 30, 2013 10:01AM


Carol (goodreadscomcarolann) | 93 comments November 2013 nominations--

1. The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne-- 228 pages
Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, this tale of an adulterous entanglement that results in an illegitimate birth reveals Nathaniel Hawthorne's concerns with the tension between the public and the private selves. Publicly disgraced and ostracized, Hester Prynne draws on her inner strength and certainty of spirit to emerge as the first true heroine of American fiction. Arthur Dimmesdale, trapped by the rules of society, stands as a classic study of a self divided.

2. Wives and Daughters Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell-- 679 pages
Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centres on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new step-sister enters Molly's quiet life – loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford. Wives and Daughters is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life; it offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society.

3. The Mayor of Casterbridge The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy-- 448 pages
In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled ‘A Story of a Man of Character’, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.

4. Middlemarch Middlemarch by George Eliot-- 904 pages
Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life," the novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period 1830–32. It has multiple plots with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative),and the canvas is very broad.

5. Cranford (The Cranford Chronicles #1) Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell-- 257 pages
Gaskell's witty and poignant comedy of country-town life, a gently comic picture of life in an English country town in the mid-nineteenth century, Cranford describes the small adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances.

6. Villette Villette by Charlotte Brontë--573 pages
Arguably Brontë's most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of Villette,flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new life as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy's struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her friendship with a worldly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Brontë's strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free.

7. Great Expectations Great Expectations by Charles Dickens -- 505 pages
Pip is headed for an apprenticeship at the blacksmith's forge. Then an anonymous donor appears, and sends Pip to London to live as a gentleman. Pip is sure he knows the identity of his secret benefactor. He couldn't be more surprised when he finds that he's been mistaken all along.

8. Jane Eyre Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- 507 pages
Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed.

9. Persuasion Persuasion by Jane Austen -- 201 pages
Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?

10. The Woman in White The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins -- 672 pages
The Woman in White is Wilkie Collins' fifth published novel, written in 1859. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first in the genre of "sensation novels".

message 3: by Mary


Nov 01, 2013 03:59AM
1. The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne-- 228 pages
Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, this tale of an adulterous entanglement that results in an illegitimate birth reveals Nathaniel Hawthorne's concerns with the tension between the public and the private selves. Publicly disgraced and ostracized, Hester Prynne draws on her inner strength and certainty of spirit to emerge as the first true heroine of American fiction. Arthur Dimmesdale, trapped by the rules of society, stands as a classic study of a self divided.

2. Wives and Daughters Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell-- 679 pages
Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centres on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new step-sister enters Molly's quiet life – loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford. Wives and Daughters is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life; it offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society.

3. The Mayor of Casterbridge The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy-- 448 pages
In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled ‘A Story of a Man of Character’, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.

4. Middlemarch Middlemarch by George Eliot-- 904 pages
Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life," the novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period 1830–32. It has multiple plots with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative),and the canvas is very broad.

5. Cranford (The Cranford Chronicles #1) Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell-- 257 pages
Gaskell's witty and poignant comedy of country-town life, a gently comic picture of life in an English country town in the mid-nineteenth century, Cranford describes the small adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances.

6. Villette Villette by Charlotte Brontë--573 pages
Arguably Brontë's most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of Villette,flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new life as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy's struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her friendship with a worldly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Brontë's strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free.

7. Great Expectations Great Expectations by Charles Dickens -- 505 pages
Pip is headed for an apprenticeship at the blacksmith's forge. Then an anonymous donor appears, and sends Pip to London to live as a gentleman. Pip is sure he knows the identity of his secret benefactor. He couldn't be more surprised when he finds that he's been mistaken all along.

8. Jane Eyre Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- 507 pages
Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed.

9. Persuasion Persuasion by Jane Austen -- 201 pages
Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?

10. The Woman in White The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins -- 672 pages
The Woman in White is Wilkie Collins' fifth published novel, written in 1859. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first in the genre of "sensation novels".

message 2: by Carol

(last edited Nov 01, 2013 07:48AM)
Nov 01, 2013 07:28AM


Carol (goodreadscomcarolann) | 90 comments Villette Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Summary --

With her final novel, Villette , Charlotte Bronte reached the height of her artistic power. First published in 1853, Villette is Bronte's most accomplished and deeply felt work, eclipsing even Jane Eyre in critical acclaim.

Bronte's narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. There, she unexpectedly confronts her feelings of love and longing as she witnesses the fitful romance between Dr. John, a handsome young Englishman, and Ginerva Fanshawe, a beautiful coquetter.

This first pain brings others, and with them comes the heartache Lucy has tried so long to escape. Yet in spite of adversity and disappointment, Lucy Snowe survives to recount the unstinting vision of a turbulent life's journey—a journey that is one of the most insightful fictional studies of a woman's consciousness in English literature.



Author Biography

• Birth—April 21, 1816
• Where—Thornton, Yorkshire, England
• Death—March 31, 1855
• Where—Haworth, West Yorkshire, England
• Education—Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire; Miss Wooler's School at Roe Head; Pensionnat Heger (Belgium, to study French and German)



Bronte was born on April 21, 1816, in Thornton, Yorkshire, in the north of England, the third child of the Reverend Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. In 1820 the family moved to neighboring Haworth, where Reverend Brontë was offered a lifetime curacy. The following year Mrs. Brontë died of cancer, and her sister, Elizabeth Branwell, moved in to help raise the six children.


Haworth parsonage, the Brontës' home in Yorkshire, England

The four eldest sisters—Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth—attended Cowan Bridge School, until Maria and Elizabeth contracted what was probably tuberculosis and died within months of each other, at which point Charlotte and Emily returned home. The four remaining siblings—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne—played on the Yorkshire moors and dreamed up fanciful, fabled worlds, creating a constant stream of tales, such as the Young Men plays (1826) and Our Fellows (1827).

Reverend Bronte kept his children abreast of current events; among these were the 1829 parliamentary debates centering on the Catholic Question, in which the Duke of Wellington was a leading voice. Charlotte's awareness of politics filtered into her fictional creations, as in the siblings' saga The Islanders (1827), about an imaginary world peopled with the Brontë children's real-life heroes, in which Wellington plays a central role as Charlotte's chosen character.

Throughout her childhood, Charlotte had access to the circulating library at the nearby town of Keighley. She knew the Bible and read the works of Shakespeare, George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Sir Walter Scott, and she particularly admired William Wordsworth and Robert Southey. In 1831 and 1832, Charlotte attended Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head, and she returned there as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. After working for a couple of years as a governess, Charlotte, with her sister Emily, traveled to Brussels to study, with the goal of opening their own school, but this dream did not materialize once she returned to Haworth in 1844.

Midlife



In 1846 the sisters published their collected poems under the pen names Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily), and Acton (Anne) Bell. That same year Charlotte finished her first novel, The Professor, but it was not accepted for publication.

However, she began work on Jane Eyre, which was published in 1847 and met with instant success. Though some critics saw impropriety in the core of the story—the relationship between a middle-aged man and the young, naive governess who works for him—most reviewers praised the novel, helping to ensure its popularity. One of Charlotte's literary heroes, William Makepeace Thackeray, wrote her a letter to express his enjoyment of the novel and to praise her writing style, as did the influential literary critic G. H. Lewes.

Following the deaths of Branwell and Emily Bronte in 1848 and Anne in 1849, Charlotte made trips to London, where she began to move in literary circles that included such luminaries as Thackeray, whom she met for the first time in 1849; his daughter described Bronte as "a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady." In 1850 she met the noted British writer Elizabeth Gaskell, with whom she formed a lasting friendship and who, at the request of Reverend Bronte, later became her biographer. Charlotte's novel Villette was published in 1853.

In 1854 Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, a curate at Haworth who worked with her father. Sadly, less than a year later, Bronte died during her first pregnancy. While her death certificate lists the cause of death as "phthisis" (tuberculosis), there is a school of thought that believes she may have died from excessive vomiting caused by morning sickness. At the time of her death, Charlotte Brontë was a celebrated author. The 1857 publication of her first novel, The Professor, and of Gaskell's biography of her life only heightened her renown. (Bio from Barnes and Noble Classic Edition.)




If you don't have the book, go here for an online copy of Villette.
There are 42 chapters, click on the chapter on the left side of the page.


http://www.bronte.netfury.co.uk/ville...




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message 3: by Terry

(last edited Nov 01, 2013 08:50AM)
Nov 01, 2013 08:32AM



Terry Neff Ryan | 173 comments Mod
Thanks for posting, Carol! That was interesting to find out that Elizabeth Gaskell was friends with Charlotte Bronte and wrote her biography.


message 4: by Carol

(last edited Nov 01, 2013 10:41AM)
Nov 01, 2013 10:29AM

I own a copy of her biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell but I have not read it because the type is TINY! (like 8 point.) I would advice not to get this edition.




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message 5: by Carol

(last edited Nov 01, 2013 10:40AM)
Nov 01, 2013 10:34AM


Carol (goodreadscomcarolann) | 90 comments If anyone is interested in reading ONLINE any of the other books, they are here –

The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne-- 228 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/hawt...

Wives and Daughters Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell-- 679 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/eliz...

The Mayor of Casterbridge The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy-- 448 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/hard...

Middlemarch Middlemarch by George Eliot-- 904 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/geor...

Cranford (The Cranford Chronicles #1) Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell-- 257 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/eliz...

Great Expectations Great Expectations by Charles Dickens -- 505 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/dick...

Jane Eyre Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- 507 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/bron...

Persuasion Persuasion by Jane Austen -- 201 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/aust...

The Woman in White The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins -- 672 pages
http://www.online-literature.com/wilk...

I look forward to your reviews.