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Original poster

What to read after Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre?

57 replies

MrsFogi · 26/01/2015 21:21

I'm half way through Jane Eyre (so don't post any spoilers!) and read WH before that. I could not bear/understand these at school but am gripped this time around. So….what am I going to enjoy next?

OP posts:
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CalicoBlue · 03/02/2015 22:49

I have hardly read any Bronte sisters, I decided a few months ago that I wanted to read all their books. Have done nothing about it, I am going to start soon.

My favourite books of all time, well there are two Rebecca and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Just found Tess amongst the books beside my bed. Might start reading it again tonight.

HappydaysArehere · 03/02/2015 22:39

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is great. Anne Bronte has always been unfairly overshadowed by her sisters.

Parker172 · 03/02/2015 05:57

Does it have to be a British author?

If you're just after a good 'classic' Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is wonderful & a surprisingly accessible read!

Rhubarbgarden · 03/02/2015 05:49

I didn't like Villette either. I found the heroine irritating. It was the only Bronte novel I didn't enjoy.

ArabellaStrange · 02/02/2015 23:48

I am currently reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and enjoying it greatly.
I don't get the Villette love though, I found it really dragged!

michelleblane · 02/02/2015 23:01

Any Thomas Hardy. I loved them all.

LadyGlen · 02/02/2015 20:49

Antony Trollope - The Palliser Novels

Yes, indeed. How could I forget those Grin

33goingon64 · 02/02/2015 19:39

Another vote for Persuasion and Middlemarch (along with Jane Eyre my favourite three novels). I also like a bit of tragedy (you could argue Middlemarch is pretty tragic for many of the characters) so Hardy and Zola. I'm reading Therese Raquin for the first time at the moment - had forgotten how graphic Zola is (read Germinal 20 years ago and was quite disturbed for a while).

Tisiphone · 02/02/2015 19:38

Lucysnowe Grin. OP, read Charlotte Bronte's best novel, Villette, next - it is astonishing.

Rhubarbgarden · 02/02/2015 19:30

Another vote for Wide Sargasso Sea. I read it in one go because I just couldn't put it down - it puts Jane Eyre in a whole new light (and I love Jane Eyre). One of the best books I've ever read.

MotherBluestocking · 02/02/2015 19:30

Moby Dick is a fabulous book that no one reads any more. It contains a similar wild gothicism as the Brontes plus a sense of the universe in microcosm. Utterly compelling.

stickybeaksyd · 02/02/2015 19:08

How about the Poldark novels? Fabulous evocation of Cornwall in the 18th century and might be interesting to read at the same time as the new BBC adaptation later this year.

agoodbook · 02/02/2015 16:03

Daphne du Maurier - My Cousin Rachel
Antony Trollope - The Palliser Novels
Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy
Not a Charles Dickens fan

StillNoFuckingEyeDeer · 02/02/2015 15:55

I second Vilette.

MyIronLung · 02/02/2015 15:49

Another one to recommend Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Jane Eyre is my go to book when I have nothing else to read or I want something comforting Smile

HappydaysArehere · 02/02/2015 10:41

Ps to above. Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind - same sort of hero as Mr Rochester. Really macho"!

HappydaysArehere · 02/02/2015 00:10

Gone with the Wind. It's a must if you have never read it.

HappydaysArehere · 02/02/2015 00:09

The gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng. A fascinating,wonderful book. A real classic.

fizzycolagurlie · 01/02/2015 03:51

I second Middlemarch and Tess of the D'urbevilles.

Middlemarch was written to be serialized in a weekly journal. Given that its huge, you get a real sense of that in the reading of it.

AnneOfAramis · 31/01/2015 22:47

Nothing new to add really.

Persuasion definitely the best Austen.

The Tenant if Wildfell Hall is really insightful.

Dracula and Frankenstein just brilliant.

Madame Bovary I loved but disliked that I loved Emma, much like Wutherjng Heights for me in that I don't feel like I should love it.

Recently discovered actually read some Dumas and Zola and I am hooked. The Count of Monte Christo - brilliant.

YoungBritishPissArtist · 31/01/2015 16:08

Agnes Grey
Vanity Fair
Madame Bovary
Therese Raquin

lucysnowe · 31/01/2015 16:00

Can't believe no one has mentioned Villette narrated by yours truly :) It is just as good as Jane Eyre IMHO.

Original poster
MrsFogi · 28/01/2015 22:26

Thanks so much for all these ideas - I'm not going to be short of a book or three for a long time! Also I'm rather chuffed that for the most part they are free to download on my Kindle Smile.

OP posts:
IntellectualLlama · 28/01/2015 20:43

Far From the Madding Crowd - I am not a big Hardy fan but I love this one.

Dickens is my favourite author so it is hard to choose one to recommend, but Great Expectations or David Copperfield would be a good place to start if you haven't read any of his.

George Eliot is my favourite author on the days when it isn't Dickens. Middlemarch is my favourite, but I also love Adam Bede and Felix Holt. Scenes of Clerical Life is great too - the title doesn't sound promising but it comprises three really lovely stories.

I love Trollope too - can you tell I am a Victorian fiction nut yet?

For modern novels with a Victorian or Gothic theme (not set in England though) maybe Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood or I just finished The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates, which was definitely very Gothic.

dotty2 · 28/01/2015 15:11

I was just about to recommend Elizabeth Gaskell too - Cranford's my favourite (and the BBC TV adaptation which was on a few years ago was lovely too).

Can I also recommend John Sutherland's series of books about literature (kind of popular literary criticism) - Where was Rebecca Shot? Can Jane Eyre be Happy? Is Heathcliff a murderer? They're divided into essays on one book at a time and are easy reads and great for getting you to think again about books you know and tempting you to try ones you don't.

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