1890s to 1940s favourite books

[drspouse]

I'm going to try a decades challenge for 2024 where I read one book from each decade (roughly) and the 1950s to 2010s will be from the Jubilee Big Read.
What are your favourite books published in each of the preceding decades? Could be fiction or non-fiction but not too heavy: Agatha Christie yes, Tolstoy no!

South Riding, Winifred Holtby, 1936
Another vote for Diary of a Nobody
Ditto anything by Evelyn Waugh and P. G. Wodehouse
Anything by Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh or Margery Allingham
Short stories: Saki, Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes - the short stories are far better than the full-length novels)
The entire Swallows and Amazons series - my favourite children's books - published 1930 to 1947
Ballet Shoes
Miss Pym Disposes, 1946 (or anything else by Josephine Tey, but some of them fall into the 1950s)

Miss Pym Disposes by the Josephine Tey, She was a wonderful writer, my favourite ever book is The Daughter of Time, but it was published in 1951 so too late for your challenge, read it anyway because it is a fabulous story.I also like I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1948)

Tess of the D'Urbervilles for 1890s
Jamaica Inn is good for 1930s if you've already read Rebecca, which is amazing.

And are exactly the kind of ‘loam and lovechild’ novels Stella Gibbons was satirising in Cold Comfort Farm! (I do also like them.)

DD has just got into this through the audio books. I bet I could read it to her at bedtime!

I forgot Raymond Chandler. Most of his books were written before 1950.

Willa Cather, A Lost Lady is 1923, so the Gatsby era but much more satisfying.

Perhaps Their Eyes Were Watching God for some diversity of voices?

Also I liked An American Tragedy but it's huge!

For 1890s, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Hound of the Baskervilles was published 1900s.
Unfortunately Three Men in a Boat is too early, but Three Men on the Bummel is 1900s and very funny.
One of my favourite comfort reads is The Enchanted April, 1922.

Monica Dickens “ The Fancy” published 1940s - my favourite book of all time

Oh I recently discovered Willa Cather, I do like her! I think I'm dithering between Diary of a Nobody or some Sherlock Holmes short stories for no 1.

The Good Companions by JB Priestly (1929) is a wonderful read.

Dracula for the 1890s
Decline and Fall for the 1920s

It's a fabulous idea , by the way OP!

I am also going to add Carson McCullers to your longlist. Member of the Wedding and The Heart is A Lonely Hunter are both 1950s, I think.

Oops, just checked - 1940s. Both books massively influential on the Southern Gothic. There's Faulkner , too, but he's less of an easy read.

1892- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Definitely The Yellow Wallpaper - it’s tiny but packs a huge punch into 25ish pages. Also Vera Brittain’s memoir, Testament of Youth published in the 1930s.

Excellent taste! I could have written this list myself.

The Forsyte saga - by John Galsworthy, covers the lot!

Also anything by Patrick Hamilton as a reminder that not everyone was upper/ middle class and had servants!

I got excited by this and started thinking of a list myself but don't really have time to do this atm, so I'm just going to put my first ideas here anyway so I can come back to the thread!

1890 People have suggested Dracula but it's heavy going in the middle... If you cheat a bit you could do King Solomon's Mines from 1885? Easy reading and an influential story! Otherwise I couldn't think of anything except Sherlock Holmes. Or War of the Worlds by HG Wells.

1900 Jerusalem Selma Lagerlöf if you want something a bit different - not as heavy-going as it sounds. But to be honest as a child I read Before Adam by Jack London and was so struck by it so I'd suggest that. Even though Jack London is terrible and a boring writer too, but this one was so exciting (I thought).

1910 Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber - available on Gutenberg and honestly a lovely, sweet read, worth it.

1920 hm apart from a slew of Golden Age mysteries I can't think of anything

1930 Murder Must Advertise Dorothy Sayers (LOVE this even though the plot premise is a leetle thin, but the advertising agency descriptions are amazing). Or The Hobbit by Tolkien.

1940 also only detective novels coming to mind

Heart of Darkness, 1899. Very short, if that's an incentive! Novella rather than novel.

Peter and Wendy 1911 - the original Peter Pan novel. Great read.

Diary of a Provincial Lady - EM Delafield
Rebecca or anything by Daphne Du Maurier
Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Rumer Godden - Black Narcissus
The last September - Elizabeth Bowen

Soooooo much excellent stuff and such a rich period of literature

The Forsyte Saga, books (1906 to 1921?)by John Galsworthy

Ford Maddox Ford
Parades End (1924)

EM Forster
Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905)
The Longest Journey (1907)
A Room with a View (1908)
Howards End (1910)
A Passage to India (1924)

Arnold Bennet's 5 towns novels
Anna of the Five Towns (1902)
Leonora (1903), Whom God Hath Joined (1906), The Old Wives' Tale (1908)

Winifred Holtby
Anderby Wold (1923)
The Land of Green Ginger (1927)
South Riding (1936)

Nancy Mitford
Elizabeth Bowen
DH Lawrence
Katherine Mansfield

is Graham Greene too late?

All the "Golden Age" crime writers ....