Victorian Challenge Nov/Dec and Wrap-Up

I have been very neglectful of the Victorian Challenge. What I didn’t anticipate when I started the challenge was that I would be going back to work full time in May and developing a brand new environmental engineering technology degree at our local technical college. Between my new job and my family, I haven’t been able to devote myself to this challenge as I originally intended too. That is why you will note that I lost steam and the ability to keep up after May for the challenge. I had some great guest blogs the first half of the year that died off the second half. I sincerely apologize for all of those that signed up for this challenge.

I will not be hosting this challenge for 2013. What I will most likely do is either host a summer challenge in 2014 (my first summer off) or will focus on Victorian authors in summer months. What would sound best to you? Would you be interested in the future?

November was Lewis Carroll month and December is Louisa May Alcott month. I am thoroughly enjoying listening to Little Women, a digital audiobook with Christina Ricci as the narrator. I will post my review hopefully in the next week or two. What are your favorite novels by Carroll and Alcott? I myself was obsessed with Louisa May Alcott as a youth. I loved reading her biographies and especially her novels Little Women and An Old Fashioned Girl. I’ve read Rose in Bloom, Eight Cousins, etc., but strangely, I have never read Little Men or Jo’s Boys, even though I bought myself a copy of each as a youth with hard earned dollars. I have them both on my night stand and hope to get to them soon.

What was your favorite Victorian read this year? Who is your favorite Victorian author? Does Alcott’s Little Women or Dickens’s A Christmas Carol make it on your yearly Christmas reading list? Please share your thoughts.

Thank-you for being a part of this challenge. Please post any last entries or wrap-up posts below. If you don’t finish up this month, you can continue to add to this post in the future.

Post your  reviews below in the following format Laura’s Reviews (Little Women).

The Brontes in Brief - A Guest Post Biography by BronteBlog

January is a very Brontë month of the year. Not only does it include Anne Brontë's birthday - she was born on January 17th, 1820 - and her death sentence - on January 5th, 1849 a doctor visited the Haworth Parsonage, not long after the deaths of Branwell and Emily Brontë, and told Patrick Brontë that his youngest daughter hadn't long to live due to tuberculosis - but it's also the first full month of the winter, where there can be very few nicer things than curling up with a good book. The Brontës' verbosity - at least in comparison with today's widespread style - as well as their dexterity at telling a few good stories make for very cosy reading. If you have been made to read the Brontës for school, forget that experience and pick up their novels anew and let them set the pace as well as the atmosphere. You won't regret it.

The Brontës lived most of their lives in Yorkshire. Out of the six siblings - the two eldest girls died early on - the four known today, were all born in the village of Thornton between the years 1816 and 1820: Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne. Within a year they would move to the parsonage at Haworth, where their father had been appointed perpetual curate and where they would spend most of their lives. The Parsonage is now a museum well worth a visit and boasting the largest collection of Brontë objects in the world. All sorts of Brontë treasures - from the mundane clothes to the stories they wrote as children and young adults - can be found there, documenting lifetimes of dreams, hopes, and lots and lots of writing.

As children they lost themselves in their imaginary worlds of Angria and Gondal. Angria was mostly Charlotte and Branwell's domain, full of exotic, African-inspired landscapes peopled with their real-life heroes turned into imaginary characters such as the Duke of Wellington and his sons. Gondal was Emily and Anne's and despite being an imaginary island in the South Pacific, the place was pure Yorkshire. Recently an (unpublished) Angria booklet was auctioned for £690,850. There are many tiny booklets telling Angrian stories but from Gondal only the poetry remains.

With that creative upbringing, it was no wonder when the three sisters, disappointed in their jobs as governesses, decided to publish a volume of poetry. The volume gathered a few good reviews but sold but two copies. Undefeated, they decided to try their hand at novels and thus Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were first accepted for publication while Charlotte's The Professor was turned down and continued doing the rounds of publishing houses until it reached one where the reader, though unimpressed by the actual, novel, saw the writer's potential and ask to see any other writings. Charlotte, which by now had been busy at work on Jane Eyre - trying to prove to her sisters that a novel could have a plain main character, much like its author - submitted that novel and the rest is history. 1847 saw the publication of three novels that are still widely read today. Not just read but also written about, discussed, adapted, played, etc. No need to look far for that: new film adaptations of both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were released in 2011, not to mention the amount of books published inspired one way or another by the novels.

Wuthering Heights would be Emily's only novel, though her poetry is still extant and also stunning. But Anne would go on to write The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Charlotte, who lived unil 1855 (only nine months into a very happy marriage - the only sister not to have died a 'spinster'), went on to write Shirley and Villette. The Professor would be eventually published posthumously. Her last novel, Emma (not to be confused with Jane Austen's novel of the same name!), was only just started.

All this to say that though The Brontës' month is only a stop within Laura's Victorian Challenge, the Brontës - much like the Victorians themselves - are alive and well as we constantly see on our blog. We first started in 2005, curious as to what the Brontës' afterlife in the 21st century would be. All these years later we are still surprised by their far-reaching shadows. Enjoy January! (And thanks to Laura for having us here and for keeping the Brontës alive too).

Best wishes with your challenge,

BrontëBlog Team.

Victorian Challenge 2012 Sign-up

I’m trying something new this year on Laura’s Reviews, a Victorian Challenge. I hosted the All About the Brontes Challenge in 2010 and greatly enjoyed it. Last year I had a newborn baby girl, and with her I had three children ages four and under so I took a year off! In October I opened up a survey to readers of this blog to determine whether I should bring back All About the Brontes or a new challenge. It was determined from the poll and the comments that most people were looking for a new challenge in which the Brontes were included, but other authors could also be explored. A Victorian Challenge won the poll by a slim margin, and I look forward to a new challenge.


For the Victorian Challenge, we will focus on the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. We will count books that were written by Victorian authors during this time period, books set during the Victorian age, or books about a Victorian author, history, manners, architecture, Queen Victoria etc. Also besides reading books, short stories, audiobooks and movies will also be accepted. The sky is the limit; I would love to make this a true celebration of all things Victorian.

I would also like to challenge myself to have one Victorian author to focus on for each month of 2012. I will post something about that author each month and will read, listen, or watch something related to that author as well. Fellow challenge goers can join me if they would like, or can take the challenge in any direction that they choose. I had a poll in November to help pick the twelve Victorian authors readers of this blog were most interested in focusing on and the following authors were picked:

January: The Bronte Sisters

February: Charles Dickens

March: Robert Louis Stevenson

April: Emily Dickinson

May: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

June: George Eliot

July: Oscar Wilde

August: Anthony Trollope

September: Elizabeth Gaskell

October: Mark Twain

November: Lewis Carroll

December: Louisa May Alcott

I was part of a great Victorian Challenge in 2009. If you need ideas for books you would like to explore, take a look at this site.

Challenge Details

1. The Victorian Challenge 2012 will run from January 1st to December 31st, 2012. You can post a review before this date if you wish.

2. You can read a book, watch a movie, or listen to an audiobook, anything Victorian related that you would like. Reading, watching, or listening to a favorite Victorian related item again for the second, third, or more time is also allowed. You can also share items with other challenges.

3. The goal will be to read, watch, listen, to 2 to 6 (or beyond) anything Victorian items.

4. Please sign-up by posting your blog entry on the number of items and what items you would like to do for this challenge below in Mr. Linky (Don't just post your blog's URL). Don't worry, you can do different things than you have listed. I myself am not always good at sticking to lists! 

5.  You can still join even if you do not have a blog.  Just post the title of the book you read (movie you watched, etc.) in the comments along with your thoughts on the item to promote discussion.

6. I will put up a post each month with Mr. Linky on it for posting your reviews. Look at the right sidebar for the latest link.

7. Enjoy!