If I like Wilkie Collins and the Brontes

[reikizen]

what else will I like? I seem to only enjoy the classics these days and have run out of inspiration, I do like the Sherlock Holmes stories and a bit of Dickens now and again.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 'Wyvern Mystery', 'The Rose and the Key'; Charles Reade 'Hard Cash'; Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Love a Victorian sensation novel!

A bit trashier than Brontes. Victorian girls were warned against reading them for fear they would stop their periods. Be afraid.

I came on to say Sherlock Holmes!

How about 'Northanger Abbey' and also things like 'The Monk' and 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' for silly gothic fun? :)

And dare I suggest a bit of Georgette Heyer?

And you must read, 'Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day.'

And maybe some children's classics like 'The Secret Garden' and 'A Little Princess' or some E Nesbit?

Oh yes, Lady Audley's Secret! I'd also add East Lynne (Ellen Wood) if you like that sort of thing.

The Monk is also ace, but sinister.

Also, by the author of East Lynne, Danesbury House. Not sure if you can still get hold of a copy but, if you can, it's unintentionally hilarious. All about the evils of drinking gin and taking laudanum and what can befall you if you do.

brilliant! I am in for some Victorian fun, thanks

I love Wilkie so i'm really happy to read the suggestions for other Victorian Sensation Novels given to the OP, will benefit too so thanks. For other Wilkie fans out there, I just got a kindle recently and there are a lot of obscure Wilkie short stories available for free on kindle that i'd never heard of before :)

And a little earlier in similar genre, there's Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho (I read this after Northanger Abbey many years ago). Or for truly surreal, similar to the, already mentioned, Monk, is Castle of Otranto.

Just downloaded Charles Reade 'Hard Cash' & Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, both for free on kindle at the moment if anyone else is interested.

Elizabeth Gaskell maybe?

Kate Morton - not vicotiran obviously but quite good yarns.

What about Anne Perry. Ahe started off mainly with crime novels but I think she has expanded her range now. She really does go into detail about Victorian society. Her main two series are the Inspector Monk and Inspector Pitt.

Her own history is very interesting as well as she was one of the child murderers featured in the film Heavenly Creatures

Trollope -they aren't as wacky as things like Lady Audley's Secret/East Lynne but they have some really wonderful characters. I'd start with The Warden followed by the Barchester Chronicles then there are various other Barchester books finishing with The Last Chronicles of Barset. There are also all his political novels, which start with Can You Forgive Her.

What about George Eliot? Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda are two of the great books of Victorian literature.

Definitely Mrs Gaskell - Wives and Daughters is just lovely and North and South is deeply romantic.

The Crimson Petal and the White is a great read, obviously it's a modern novel but really encaptures the historical feel.

Vanity Fair? Arch and clever plus good story.