reacting to YOUR worst victorian novels

For Victober this year, I thought it would be so much fun to hear what your favorite and least favorite Victorian novels are. Y’all certainly delivered!

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[Old_Scot]

"Making people suffer for the sake of it" is a terrific description of Hardy's treatment of his characters.

[bobbiesuedavis]

"I don't enjoy writing moral pap for the young. I do it because it pays well"- Louisa May Alcott 🤣📚

[yolandasilverio]

Give Jude the Obscure. Hardy was going through such pain when he wrote this book. Persevere in suffering.

[nicolaknight]

Jude the Obscure is one of my favourite ever books lol! I named my kitten after it. X

[katehowereads]

This video was so fun! I loved you saying that there's a sense of shame with not loving a classic.
I'm one of those rarities that came to Little Women in adulthood and completely loved it 🤷‍♀️
I enjoyed Dracula but have been scared to reread it in fear that the pacing would bother me the second time around.
Loved this video!

[Lokster]

Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester make me worry that the Bronte sisters had a type. I surprised myself by actually liking Little Women when I read it. I was expecting to hate it. But I actually cried twice on public transport reading it. I wasn't entirely convinced by the ending. Oh, Dickens is emotionally manipulative as hell, but then aren't all writers? He's just incredibly unsubtle about it sometimes. See Oscar Wilde's comment on the death of Little Nell.

[kalee.miller]

This is why I hate Hollywood’s portrayal of both Wuthering Heights and Anna Karenina! I don’t think Emily Bronte or Tolstoy meant for those relationships to be put on a pedestal like that. We shouldn’t desire their relationships. Hollywood has missed the point of Cathy & Heathcliff and Anna & Vronsky!

[Lu.G.]

I feel seen (isn't that what the kids say?!) 😆 Thank you for the shout-out! ❤ So, yes...growing up in Arkansas in the 60s and 70s, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving...etc. were considered "Victorian" authors and sometimes, my post-menopausal brain forgets that that's not the case on BookTube! 🤓 I love that you even posed the question because the responses are fantastic! Some make me feel like I'm not alone in how I think about some of the Classics (most of which I have come to adore) and some _might_ have convinced me to steer clear of a few that I have yet to read. 📚

[ArtBookshelfOdyssey]

I love Little Women but I didn’t read it until I was an adult. I did see the movie as a teenager though so maybe that is what makes me like it still lol! But I also really like the sugary sweet sentimentality. Maybe it’s a guilty pleasure ha!

[richfarmer]

I approached Wuthering Heights expecting some kind of Harlequin Romance. Wow, it was so NOT that. Sick, twisted, toxic characters-lots of fun.

[noopy]

😊 you are getting so popular ....I'm so happy to see so many compliments and comments on your channel cuz you are spectacular ✨

[deblawrence]

I read "Villette" for the first time in college for a Victorian Lit class and hated it! Then went to England (many years later) and learned more behind the person of Charlotte Bronte, reread it and loved it! Part of the connection was also finding out that Charlotte suffered with depression in her life (as do I), and her depiction of Lucy Snowe as a character dealing with a mental condition was both relatable and monumental for that time period.

[anjakuemski]

I agree with every single mention in the video. 😄 I read them all as a teenager or at uni and disliked every single one of them. In retrospect it might have been because I read them as contemporary not as historical works of fiction. Now that I am revisiting them all 30 years later I can appreciate some of them a lot more as milestones in literature. (I don't think I will ever get over my Hardy trauma though.) And even if I still dislike them I love hearing what others see in them that I don't.

[nat]

Villette is one my favorites, mostly for personal reasons because I was going through a lonely time having just moved to a new place like Lucy. So it was more of comfort for me.

And I’m scared to try Jude the Obscure. I loved far from the madding crowd and Tess, but I can’t imagine something more dismal than Tess 😟

[RaineyDayReads]

The dog scene really killed that book for me… I need to reread it but I just remember that and can’t.

[AmalijaKomar]

Those books are mostly importent classics and should be read no matter likening them or not. Its just for a personal culture. Of course it is just my opinion. I am basically intrested in the spirit of time (zeitgeist) when they were written

[ginnynelson]

Jane Eyre is one of favorites! I understand about the back end of it. It drags on. I don’t care about the Cousins. I just want Rochester and Jane together!😂 I think she could have shaved about a hundred and fifty pages off and it would be better. Dracula is ok. I agree with you. The first one hundred pages grab you. Then it fell off. Wuthering Heights just depressed me!! Though I loved the atmosphere.

[Ashlizrenn]

It’s funny you say that about Dracula! I can definitely see why people don’t like it, but I personally went into it having never seen any adaptations and ended up really loving it! (I think also listening to the Bloodborne soundtrack while reading it elevated the reading experience like LOL)

[librarian_laura]

Yay, no Trollope or Wilkie Collins mentioned 😂

[mrsmarfaasmr]

I enjoyed reading Jude the obscure as well as The well-beloved. Yes the main character of The well-beloved was creepy but I wasn’t bored reading it. I wish you read Jude the obscure. I would really like to hear your opinion on it. I read every single book from Thomas Hardy and Jude is the character I got the most emotionally attached to from all of his books. It’s a very uncomfortable book to read though but I’d still recommend it. I think I’d still prefer weird or depressing books rather than syrupy-sweet than The Little women.