If I love a period novel...

[ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts]

such as Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights, what else will I enjoy? What are Tue must read ones?

[ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts]

the*

[DuchessofMalfi]

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

[DuchessofMalfi]

Wilkie not Willie. Stupid autocorrect

[ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts]

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.

[ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts]

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

[DuchessofMalfi]

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.

[CircassianLeyla]

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.

[Phineyj]

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).

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

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

Yes to Pullman's Sally Lockhart series - excellent.

[highlandbird]

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!

[highlandbird]

Wuthering even bloody autocorrect!!

[Astr0naut]

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.

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

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.

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

phiney - Laura is drippy but Marion is just ace!

[Astr0naut]

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.

[MarianForrester]

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?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

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.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Has anybody said Vanity Fair yet?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

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

[Astr0naut]

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.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

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.

[EBearhug]

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.

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

Ooh, YY to The American Boy

[Astr0naut]

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!

[birdybear]

Anything by georgette heyer!