Talk

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The rest of the Austen and Bronte novels, Dickens, Willie Collins, Trollope, Edith Wharton for a start?

Wilkie not Willie. Stupid autocorrect

When downloading these how do I know which to choose?

A lot of them are free as they're older but then I've found the free ones often have bits missing. Id rather pay than have bits missing.

There's abridged, unabridged, annotated.... i just want a normal book

I haven't come across any yet with missing bits. I have complete free copies of Austen on my kindle but you can still get cheap complete copies from some publishers. Delphi do complete works sets for ridiculously cheap prices.

Hardy, Gaskell. I love a bit of Catherine Cookson from time to time but obviously not in the same league as the others.

Foreign period novels, Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina.

I like Wilkie Collins too especially 'The Moonstone'. The main character in The Woman in White was too drippy for me, although it's a good story.

Philip Pullman's series set in Victorian England are good - I think the first one is The Ruby in the Smoke.

Or maybe I Capture the Castle?

(I'm guessing you like period with feisty women).

Wilkie Collins is a must - No Name has the best heroine imho.

Yes to Pullman's Sally Lockhart series - excellent.

Tess of the d'urbevilles, Jayne eyre, these are my favourites along with pride and prejudice and withering heights. Am very as I don't have time to read these days!

Wuthering even bloody autocorrect!!

Can't go wrong with a bit of Moll Flanders. Ignore the fact she appears to be about 80 and still devastatingly attractive to men, and it's a cracking read.

The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Best books ever.

I also like Sarah Waters - Fingersmith is very similar to period novels. Lost by DJ Taylor. And Kate Morton - modern authors but all with that vibe.

phiney - Laura is drippy but Marion is just ace!

If you want books set in past periods, Jude Morgan is pretty good. He tends to pick specific periods and/ historical figures to build them around.

A taste of sorrow is his version of teh Bronte sisters' lives, although Lynne REid banks also did a good one.

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather is amazing, and beautifully written.

Edith Wharton is also a big favourite of mine; maybe start with The Age of Innocence?

I also love Thomas Hardy. My favourite is Tess, probably, but I also love A Laodicean.

Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina are also great.

And some Turgenev - maybe First Love?

If you want period-esque, The American Boy by Andrew Taylor is pretty good. You might also like Ian Pears, but I must admit I found him very wearing and rather too try-hard.

Has anybody said Vanity Fair yet?

Lady Audley's Secret? It annoyed me a bit but is v popular on here and isn't bad.

I had to read Lady Audley's secret for one of my degree courses, a long long time ago. I can't remember if it was because it was gothic or because it was an early mystery or because of somethign else.

Or all of the above?

It's a fun story but I found the presence of the author rather invasive. She keeps interrupting her own story to give a lecture and it really irritated me.

I'd say not Hardy. Jude is possibly the most depressing novel in the English language, "because we are too menny." Return of the Native is better.

(I am biased - grew in in the middle of Hardy country, so got forcefed him at school, and local dignatories who had once met him tended to get rolled out to give a speech at prizegiving and stuff.)

Unabridged will be the normal book, just means nothing's cut out to shorten it. But not every unabridged version will state that it's unabridged.

Ooh, YY to The American Boy

Ah, may have been because it was written by Woman in a Man's World. It was over ten years ago and I have been supping fizzy wine this evening. I can only remember it vaguely, mainly for the title!