VICTOBER 2025 discussion

Lucy’s challenge is to: read a Victorian diary or collection of letters

What are you planning on reading for this challenge? And if you need recommendations, ask here :)

This will be the most difficult challenge for me ... does anyone have any good recommendations, please?

Ideas for ‘letters or diaries prompt’. I haven’t read any of these in their entirety – rather looked through then now and again, but I’ve enjoyed the parts I’ve read and recommend them.
1. The diaries of Maud Berkeley
Her diaries are beautifully illustrated.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/37661...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

2. Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879: Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert by Francis Kilvert, William Plomer (Editor) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

3. Perhaps it might be fun to have a leaf through the Facsimile edition of an 1863 Bradshaw. (Bradshaw’s Handbook by George Bradshaw) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... The characters in Victorian novels are always consulting their Bradshaw’s.

Angie wrote: "This will be the most difficult challenge for me ... does anyone have any good recommendations, please?"
I meant to link my post above to you, but I forgot to click the reply bit when I was posting.

I was looking at West Indies and the Spanish Main by Anthony Trollope. It’s hard to tell but it looks like a travel journal of a trip he took. Does anyone know if that’s true? Has anyone read it?

Sobriquet wrote: "Ideas for ‘letters or diaries prompt’. I haven’t read any of these in their entirety – rather looked through then now and again, but I’ve enjoyed the parts I’ve read and recommend them.
1. The dia..."

Thank you, Sobriquet! I will have a look at them.

Going to go with Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879 for this one since it's been on my TBR for a while

Angie wrote: "This will be the most difficult challenge for me ... does anyone have any good recommendations, please?"

Same!

I love this prompt!

My choices are:
Selections from George Eliot's Letters
The Letters of Christina Rossetti: 1887-1894
Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale: Selected Letters

And I recommend:
The Journals of George Eliot
Jane Carlyle: Newly Selected Letters
(I have reviewed these two on my blog)

:)

I'll probably read The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister because they're gay.

I’m not sure if this is considered a diary or letters, but this was given to me as gift a couple of years ago and I’d like to read it. It’s different people’s response to the illness and death of Queen Victoria, in chronological order. I think it will work.

I plan to read My Reminiscences vol. 1 1883 by Lord Ronald Gower an aristocrat, politician, and artist whose diaries are a who’s who of aristocrats, politicians, artists, etc. of Victorian society. He edited his own journals and published them with detailed indices at the end. The diaries are filled with descriptions, anecdotes, and quotes from letters, etc.. Lord Gower never married, was part of the LGBTQ set, and is reportedly Oscar Wilde’s model for the character Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray. All three diaries are scanned to pdf and are available on Google Books. The final diary, titled Old Diaries 1881-1901, ends with the death of Queen Victoria and was published in 1902.

I'd really like to read The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant but can't find a digital copy anywhere :(

If anyone can help me with this, I'd truly appreciate it!

I don't know any famous Victorian diarists. I am going to read for Oscar Wilde's prison writings, which someone suggested on one of the other threads. The book I ordered includes De Profundis, which is a long, personal letter I understand. Don't know how I will get on with that. Also included is The Soul of Man, which is an essay, and not prison related, I don't think. In addition, the Ballad of Reading Gaol, and two open letters to the Chronicle about the terrible prison conditions. I think I read one of them was reproduced in a book by Jack London called People of the Abyss. I have lived in Reading for twenty-six years and have never read the more famous prison writings. In case you are interested, there are several online petitions on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere to redevelop the prison as an arts centre. Otherwise it will be redeveloped into flats.

This one has me stumped a bit... I'm tempted to twist the challenge a little and read (part of) Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor which started out as a letter to the editor so kind of counts?

I'm also looking at The Englishwoman in Egypt: Letters from Cairo, Diary of a Victorian Lady, and The Epic Voyages of Maud Berridge: The Seafaring Diaries of a Victorian Lady... if anyone has any opinions on these or knows of any other good diaries written by women, I will be following this thread for sure!

Would an autobiography count? I’ve had Trollope’s autobiography on my shelf for a while.

Haven't fully decided yet, see what I'm in the mood for at the time, hoping to read either Queen Victoria's letters, Florence Nightingale's letters, Lucie Duff-Gordon Letters from Egypt, The Diary of a Nobody, and I have a collection of Vincent Van Gogh's letters including some he wrote when he was in London.

I was going to read Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879: Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert but may have to re-think as I thought my library would be re-opened in time, but it's not opening until halfway through October and even then it's not clear if I would get books in time. I could just buy the book but I'd rather save my money for something I can't get at the library later on.

Digging around I found The Diary of Hen: A Victorian Singer's 1887 European Tour by Henrietta St. Felix which looks interesting and I could get on Kindle so I might now go for that.

I have some.of Robert Louis Stevenson's travel writing. I wonder if that would work. it's diary-ish.

I have thought of this, and I think I could go for this one, since I own a copy: Ma la vita è una battaglia: Lettere di libertà e determinazione. It's a selection of letters by Charlotte Brontë. The dust jacket is very pretty, too, it makes it look like an envelope or a postcard. It is in Italian, though. The collections of Queen Victoria's letters that have been mentioned here also sound incredibly interesting.

I'm looking into reading the correspondence of Charles Darwin while he was traveling on the Beagle or his letters after the publication of The origin of the species; perhaps both! I really like this challenge.
If you have a liking for science nonfiction you can find online the correspondence and more of Darwin's writing here : * https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/
* http://darwin-online.org.uk/

I have the Collected Letters of Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle - I know I want to read one of them but I can't decide which to go for. I'll probably end up dipping into both.

I truly can`t decide between
Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure and
Looking-Glass Letters

I will be reading my copy of The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick and entries in Henry Mayhew’s four volume collection of London Labour and the London Poor. ↟↟

I found a used copy of The Brontes: a life in letters by Juliet Barker. I may dip into these. Not sure I will read it cover to cover this time around....

I will be reading The Epic Voyages of Maud Berridge: The Seafaring Diaries Of A Victorian Lady. My book is ordered, looking forward:)

Gillian wrote: "I was going to read Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879: Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert but may have to re-think as I thought my library would be re-opened in time, but ..."

Gillian wrote: "I was going to read Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879: Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert but may have to re-think as I thought my library would be re-opened in time, but ..."

Gillian wrote: "I was going to read Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879: Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert but may have to re-think as I thought my library would be re-opened in time, but ..."

Gillian wrote: "I was going to read Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879: Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert but may have to re-think as I thought my library would be re-opened in time, but ..."

Thanks for recommending The Diary of Hen about the singing sisters touring Europe! Sounds great & available on Kindle!

For the diary challenge I choose, De Profundis by Oscar Wilde.

I would like to read diaries or letters of Queen Victoria but not sure how to find them!??

Sheila wrote: "I would like to read diaries or letters of Queen Victoria but not sure how to find them!??"

The Letters of Queen Victoria are freely available from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

If you live in the UK you can read them for free at http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org

Katie wrote: "Lucy’s challenge is to: read a Victorian diary or collection of letters

What are you planning on reading for this challenge? And if you need recommendations, ask here :)"

Just yesterday, I received from England, "The Brontes: A Life in Letters" by Juliet Barker. I found it for less than $15 :)

Agnieszka wrote: "Sheila wrote: "I would like to read diaries or letters of Queen Victoria but not sure how to find them!??"

The Letters of Queen Victoria are freely available from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gut..."

Thanks for info!

I hope to read an anthology of Pre-Raphaelite writing, including letters and poetry....

I've been meaning to read The Journal of Beatrix Potter from 1881-1897 so this is the right time i guess

hello can anyone help me to find some historical letter collection please any recommendations?

I have the two-volume set of the letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, and will be hopefully finishing up Volume 2.

Hi everyone
Wishing you all a great Victober 2020.
I'm lucky enough to have a beautiful hardback copy of Kilvert's Diary 1870-1879: Life in the English Countryside in Mid-Victorian Times . I bought it in a charity shop about 2 years ago.
Lucy's challenge is just the inspiration I need to read it this year. Sorry, Gillian, that you haven't managed to get a copy. Maybe you'll be able to get one for Victober next year. It has some beautiful illustrations.

thank you Nicole

While I realize this is a bit of a cheat, for Lucy’s challenge I will be reading Letters and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln 1859-1865. With the turmoil my country is in at the moment, I am desperate for a reminder of calm leadership and common sense. He’s my hero, and at least the years are correct!

I think that's a great idea for these unsettling times!!!

Juliet Barker, The Brontës: A Life in Letters :)

So many that people have mentioned sound great but my library didn't have them and I don't have a reader of any kind so I finally found, in my library, George Eliot's Family Life and Letters by Arthur Paterson.

Yesterday I finished Lord Ronald Gower's My Reminiscences vol. 1. My responses varied from tedium to fascination. I should read vol. 2 (360 pages) and Old Diaries (404 pages) to more fully contextualize Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, but I will read them at another time and then reread Wilde. Here is a link to a 2020 article on Lord Gower: https://victoriancommons.wordpress.co...

Nada wrote: "I'd really like to read The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant but can't find a digital copy anywhere :(

If anyone can help me with this, I'd truly appreciate it!"

Have you checked your local library's inter-library loan service? I requested a copy of this earlier this week, and it says "in transit" now, so fingers crossed it gets here soon!

Ich erwarte die Ankunft des Teufels by Mary MacLane
Loved this! I know, this is not a Victorian book, because she is American, but like Mary MacLane, I'm stretching the rules. ;)

I read MacLane's diary recently too thought it was really fascinating,

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

For this challenge though I chose William Morris's Iceland journals

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

which coincidentally fit with the Sarah Moss novel Cold Earth I'm reading now as turns out the central character's researching around Morris, Pre-Raphaelites and Norse sagas.

I listened to the Letters of Chartotte Brontë on Scribd and the audiobook is probably one of my favorites. Such a heartbreaking read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...