Hello Everyone!
Today I am going to share all of the books I read this Victober. Victober has been an incredible opportunity to read Victorian classics for me and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
The first Victober book I read was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It was a very long read but well worth it. Once I had got used to the language it was a total joy to read and I loved it. The words are charming and the storyline very emotional at times. The characters were so well crafted and so interesting I didn't want to leave them. Overall, this was a successful Victober read!
I then had to read a Book Club book as we only get them for two weeks each and so I paused Victober to read that. There will be a post about all of my Book Club reads coming out when I have read them all.
Next I read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. I have this book in the Penguin English Library editions and in that edition there is also The Bottle Imp By Robert Louis Stevenson.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was such a great read. Very short so I read it quickly but that also gave me the motivation to read it and I am so glad I did. Mr Utterson is friends with Dr Jekyll and also the executer of his will. He reads the will and finds out that if the doctor was to disappear, all of his possessions would come down to Mr Hyde. But Mr Utterson has never heard of a Mr Hyde and does some research. He finds Mr Hyde but thinks he looks a bit dodgy. He goes to talk to Dr Jekyll but he isn't home...The ending is so blood chilling and although I had it partly spoilt by the blurb it was still a fantastic read!
The Bottle Imp was a more relaxed tale and one which was VERY short! It talks about a bottle which houses an Imp and you have to sell it on before you die or you go to hell. It can grant wishes but at what price?
Then I read Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The Wordsworth Classics edition I have (it was my mum's), also features more Lewis Carroll tales but to be honest I just wanted to read the original. So I did...in one morning! It was again quite short but also very gripping and such a fun novel! You all probably know the story but it was great to see the original characters in the way they were made and to read another Victober book!
Lastly, I read North and South By Elizabeth Gaskell. This was SO, SO good! It featured romance, friendship, bereavement and industrialization. The characters are so well-rounded and I again didn't want to leave them! It is definitely one of the best books I have ever read! It was a bit challenging at times but it pushed me and got me thinking.
I tells the wonderful story of Margaret Hale who moves from a quiet village called Helstone in the south of England to an industrial town called Milton in the north. She has spent a lot of her childhood in the care of her Aunt Shaw, living in London with fancy dresses and posh dinner parties. In Milton, she meets Mr Thornton, a mill owner, with whom she has a turbulent relationship. She also is very close to the Higgins family who are poor factory workers and she helps them out a lot. Margaret develops a friendship with Mr Lennox too.
Elizabeth Gaskell had such a talent- one minute I was grinning away and the next I was on the verge of tears. She also used so many different characters, most of which I loved! I recommend this book if you want to know more in general about Victorian life and how this differed from the north to the south.
I also read lots of Emily Brontë poetry. If you haven't yet seen my 'About Me' section then go and check that out but if you have, you will know that my favorite poem is Love and Friendship by Emily Brontë and I recently bought The Complete Poems of Emily Brontë in the Penguin Classics edition. I fell absolutely in love with lots more of her poetry, a highlight being Sympathy.
Please leave a comment if you have read any of these or would like too! Thank you!
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