VICTOBER 2025 discussion

A new board for 2019 to discussion what we're currently reading during Victober!

I've started Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope. I'm not very far into it, but I'm really enjoying it.

Love Doctor Thorne!

I started Victober a little early with Wives and Daughters

Wsqrd wrote: "I started Victober a little early with Wives and Daughters"

I've also already started Wives and Daugthers, can't wait for Victober to begin!

Lana,
I'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of it!

Chapter 6 of David Copperfield 😬❤️

I have started with my reread of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I am listening to a free audio on Librivox at the same time. Even though the pace of the reader is a little slow, I am still enjoying reading with the audio. Also listening to The Macdermotts of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope, on Librivox. I want to read more or his work.

I have just completed Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters. It is delightful and tons better than North and South. Fantastic characters. Mrs. Gibson is one you will not soon forget, nor her daughter Cynthia, nor Mrs, Cunmor, not the Browning sisters either!

Hello fellow Victoberians :-) Hope nobody minds me calling ourselves that :) I started North And South by E. Gaskell a few days ago. It isn't part of my Victober TBR but really glad I found the book in my community library (a small library with an extremely limited collection of English Classic) and now I am sucked into it.

I have started Phineas Finn by Trollope.

I decided to start off Victober with some humor and so I am reading a graphic novel called Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read But Probably Didn't. It is short so I am going to try to get through it tonight. Tomorrow I will start Oscar Wilde group read.

I've reserved The Turn of the Screw at the library for pick up tomorrow. I've never read HJ before.

I have Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories which I've started but not finished yet, and while that doesn't count as Victorian (with Melville being American...), it at least fits the time frame. XD Gonna read some more of that today and start on A Tale of Two Cities after midnight / tomorrow.

Natàsya wrote: "Hello fellow Victoberians :-) Hope nobody minds me calling ourselves that :) I started North And South by E. Gaskell a few days ago. It isn't part of my Victober TBR but really glad I found the boo..."

North and South is AMAZING. Enjoy :)

My friend has begged me to read Jane Eyre for years. My daughter read it last year, and piled on. A Victober miracle, I started it today!

Shirley I started this in August, I think. I’m about 40% in. I am trying to read/reread all of the Bronte novels this year except for Jane Eyre, which I’ve read 3 times already.

Lady Audley's Secret Started this on audiobook today.

The Moonstone This is my third reading of this wonderful novel.

I am now reading the very short work Mr Harrison’s Confessions by Elizabeth Gaskell. After I attend bookclub, this morning, at my library I will start the Oscar Wilde group read. So fun!

Victober starts in 2 hours for me! If I don’t fall asleep before then I’m going to start reading Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell!

I started North and South last night and reading The Importance of Being Ernest too x

Which book do you guys think I should start with? Elizabeth Gaskell's "Mr Harrison's confessions" (The prequel to Cranford) or Anthony Trollope's "The Warden"?

Mary Barton audiobook, which I already started a few days ago whoop!

I've started The Picture of Dorian Gray, my first Oscar Wilde book and oh boy I already know I'm in for a Wilde ride....

:)

I have read eight chapters of Lady Audley’s Secret and am really enjoying it.

Sandybeth wrote: "I have read eight chapters of Lady Audley’s Secret and am really enjoying it."

Good to hear!

Just started North & South this morning. Only 3 chapters in and loving it already. Going to make a start on The Importance of Being Earnest tonight.

I started reading Wuthering Heights. It's a re-read, but honestly, I read it as a child and don't remember anything. How lucky, because I'm falling in love with it all over again 😊 Also, will start The Importance Of Being Earnest today.

I started Olive by Dinah Craik. I like it so far, but I have to say...the nurse is a little bit difficult to understand with her scottish slang/accent. Normally I don't find it too difficult to LISTEN to people with a strong scottish accent (I like how it sounds), but to read it written out...is quite different.

I read that many people claim this book is "too Victorian" for them, which makes me want to read it even more. :-D

I started Agnes Grey this morning. I loved The Tenant of Wildfell Hall so I'm curious to see how this novel compares to that.

I had a cursory glance of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope & I am already intrigued. Can't wait to start on it cause that will be for my under 250 pages challenge. I have completed The Importance of being Earnest just a min ago:d It's a fast read cause I have read it before. But my TBR for re-read is actually The Picture of Dorian Gray. I must read the it again ...I must ;-)

I'm planning on reading Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell, and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte! Haven't started yet, but I'll get there.

I have started reading Deerbrook and I'm loving it so far :). Harriet Martineu seems a fascinating woman and I would like to know more about her in the future!

I'm reading Wuthering Heights (which...honestly, I started a couple days early, haha). I'm not loving it, but I will finish it! :-D

I’m 6 chapters into The Woman in White and it’s great. I’ve also read the first two chapters of Bleak House for a read along. The weather has been dark and gloomy but also humid and oppressive so it’s perfect for setting the mood.

I started David Copperfield by Charles Dickens early because it's such a long book (more than a thousand pages!), but I'm enjoying it so far. I loved Miss Betsey Trotwood in Chapter 1, and I eagerly await her return! I'm going to have to read more than one book at a time if I want to read more than one book this month.

I also started listening to The Poor Clare by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'm not very far, but it seems promising.

I'm going to start reading Callista by Blessed John Henry Newman right now. I'm excited to see what it will be like!

The temps are still in the 90s F in Phoenix area, but it’s dark around 6:30pm—getting me in the autumn mood. I started this evening both Wuthering Heights and The Importance of Being Earnest, quite a polar opposite experience! Lol

Exciting to see what everyone's reading!

I'm starting off the month with The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, The American Senator by Anthony Trollope and Flatland by Edwin Abbott.

I’m reading Tess of the D’Urbervilles, muy second Hardy. I also started Adina by Henry James. :)

I'm about to start Vanity Fair which will probably take me most of the month but I'm not a monogamous reader so I will also pick up Cranford in the next few days, once I've cleared my reading decks a bit.

I've started A Tale of Two Cities, but I'm also still reading my Melville that won't count - I feel bad putting this away completely for the month (because I know it will make it more likely that I never pick it back up). We'll see how I get on; I'm not usually someone who reads more than three or four books a month, but I have two 5-hour train rides ahead of me next week, that should help XD
Plus, I'm enjoying both books and it's nice to get a broader view of 19th century fiction.

Ophelia Lyra wrote: "I started Olive by Dinah Craik. I like it so far, but I have to say...the nurse is a little bit difficult to understand with her scottish slang/accent. Normally I don't find it too difficult to LIS..."

I solved my problem with listening to an audiobook while reading. Now it's much easier to understand the nurse.
So, whoever is also going to read Olive and has difficulties with the nurse's speech, I recommend to listen to an audiobook.

I've started Deerbrook. Good so far though maybe a bit slow to start. Its kind of reminiscent of Middlemarch in terms of the small-town mentality.

North And South (Elizabeth Gaskell)
Chapter V

Scene after Margaret broke the news of their leaving Helstone for Milton-North to her mom and waited for Mr Hale to come home. Upon arriving home:

'His face was gray and pale; he had a timid, fearful look in his eyes; something almost pitiful to see in a man's face; but that look of despondent uncertainty, of mental and bodily languor, touched his wife's heart. She went to him, and threw herself on his breast, crying out:-

"Oh! Richard, Richard, you should have told me sooner!"

And then, in tears, Margaret left her, as she rushed upstairs to throw herself on her bed, and hide her face in the pillows to stifle the hysteric sobs...'

These two women were not the only ones crying. So was I! And it is only into the fifth chapter. Am I going to be drowning in my own tears throughout my read?!? NOOOOOO!!!

And why can't I insert an emoji here? *sob*
Tell me there is a happy ending *sob*

Im trying to mix a few short things in with my longer books. I just finished The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde which was lots of fun.

I have finished my first Victober book - "The Diary of a Nobody" one of the books I hope to read for Katie's challenge.
What a fun read.
Have started re-reading "The Moonstone" for Kate's challenge.
I enjoyed it the first time many years ago and love it even more the second time around.

I'm reading The Turn of the Screw for the "read a novel under 250 pages" challenge

Besides David Copperfield, I am currently reading a new release thriller. I love that moment when you put the thriller down because the classic is the book that has “grabbed” you ❤️. Loving my Victorian pic right now!

Another Gaskell work has made it on to my reading pile. I found an audio recording of Cousin Phillis at my library. Listening to it and reading the text online. Enjoying this short work with its rural idyll and back drop of railway building.

I'm reading Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. I've spent many years avoiding Hardy after reading (and disliking) Tess at school. However, quite a few years have passed and I wanted to give him a second chance! I have to admit the first chapters were a bit of a struggle, but I'm very much absorbed by it now.

Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray. Taking a quick pause from Victober to read the The Secret Commonwealth and then back! Tempted to read some Elizabeth Gaskell after some of the comments above.