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Original poster

If I love a period novel...

43 replies

ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts · 19/08/2013 18:42

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

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Mhw02 · 11/09/2013 17:13

I had to read Thomas Hardy for CSYS English. (Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Far From the Madding Crowd). I'm not a fan. The general consensus in our class of 16 year olds was that the characters were all a bit dull and pathetic and needed a good shake.

craftycottontail · 09/09/2013 10:04

sorry I'm replying a few days late but no one has mentioned Howards End by EM Forster and I think you'd love it Smile

NotjustaMummy · 04/09/2013 19:47

Lady Audleys Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddock. Tip top.

Tiredemma · 04/09/2013 16:58

I loved Sarah Walters Fingersmith and Affinity

SilkStalkings · 04/09/2013 16:55

This is a cozy Victorian murder with almost pastiche parody of various period novels. Might enjoy?

paperlantern · 30/08/2013 18:19

second lady Audleys secret, wilkie Collins (moonstone, woman in white), austin, Jane Eyre. maybe some sherlock Holmes.

going down the more gothic route dracula and frankenstien

Charles dickens I think is a little less accessible and requires more concentration

ZaraW · 27/08/2013 11:16

D H Lawrence is one of my favourite authors.

JeanPaget · 26/08/2013 22:31

I love Gaskell. North and South is fantastic - good strong female lead. Wives and daughters is also great, although Mrs Gaskell died before finishing it (which came as a bit of a shock when I first read it!)

YY to Georgette Heyer if you're after something slightly lighter - Venetia and Frederica are the ones I'd recommend to start out with.

Anna Karenina is one of my favourite books.

Original poster
ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts · 26/08/2013 22:19

And it's so nice to come to this thread to take my mind off Pet Sematary that I am 90% of the way through and have foolishly read at bedtime Grin

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Original poster
ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts · 26/08/2013 22:17

Oh wow some fab suggestions here, thank you all Smile

I suppose what I love the most is just the way of life back then. How simple and easy it was. Well, not easy but ykwim. No mobile phones, cars, central heating. I love the vocabulary and just the general way of life. How jovial the children are playing mindless games that teenagers these days wouldn't be seen dead playing.

I do love a strong female lead. P&P is my all time fave - so far anyway. Grin And i love Mr Darcy. The arrogance, the pride. So misunderstood!

OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 26/08/2013 22:16

:)

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 26/08/2013 22:16

I WISH I'd known about The Bell Jar when I was 14 - I'd have bloomin' loved it.

MarianForrester · 26/08/2013 22:15

Maybe I just want to recapture my 14 year old self Smile

sarahtigh · 26/08/2013 22:01

Georgette heyer there are some threads here last one was sylvester

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 26/08/2013 21:55

Especially Susan.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 26/08/2013 21:54

Sorry Marian. I loved him as a teen but he just annoys me now. I do feel sad that I'll never get that intensity of emotion from him again that I did when first reading him, but I just want to slap everybody in his books whenever I try to re-read them now.

MarianForrester · 26/08/2013 21:50

That's me told.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 26/08/2013 21:46

Hardy is perfect for bookish 14 year olds, and appalling for grown women.

birdybear · 26/08/2013 21:45

Anything by georgette heyer!

Astr0naut · 26/08/2013 21:44

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!

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 26/08/2013 21:43

Ooh, YY to The American Boy

EBearhug · 26/08/2013 21:42

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.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 26/08/2013 21:42

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.

Astr0naut · 26/08/2013 21:37

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 · 26/08/2013 21:31

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