Victorians! discussion

For December 2015, we propose to read short stories and, as the Victorians loved a good ghost story at the festive time, we are looking for nominations with a supernatural, creepy or unsettling element. There is, however, one embargo: simply due to the large number of groups reading Dickens' Christmas stories at this time of year, we have decided to exclude the following from the nominations:

- A Christmas Carol
- The Chimes
- The Cricket on the Hearth
- The Battle for Life
- The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain

We hope this will not unduly upset people; they are all stories well worth reading, but GoodReads does tend to get overloaded with Scrooges, Trotties, Jeddlers, Peerybingles and Redlaws at this time of year.

As always, tell us a little bit about your choice, and if you are happy to lead the discussion should your book win, please let us know when you nominate.

Nominations for collections of short stories will be open until Sunday 11th October.

Happy nominating!

I nominate Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories by J. Sheridan LeFanu

Deborah wrote: "I nominate Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories by J. Sheridan LeFanu"

Here is a second nomination for LeFanu.

Nice! I'd definitely be up for some LeFanu in December.

How about a Victorian and Contemporary favorite... Sherlock Holmes? We could cherry pick some of the spookier tales like "The Hound of the Baskerville's" and the "Speckled Band". The first story a "Study in Scarlet" was published at Christmas so it fits. :)

Victoria wrote: "How about a Victorian and Contemporary favorite... Sherlock Holmes? We could cherry pick some of the spookier tales like "The Hound of the Baskerville's" and the "Speckled Band". The first story a..."

While I have already voted for LeFanu for December I think we should definitely consider some Shelock Holmes for the new year.

I am up for some Sherlock Holmes, and I would prefer specific stories as suggested. Any are fine with me. I just like the more focused discussion.

Victoria wrote: "How about a Victorian and Contemporary favorite... Sherlock Holmes? We could cherry pick some of the spookier tales like "The Hound of the Baskerville's" and the "Speckled Band". The first story a..."

Victoria, can you nominate some specific titles? Bear in mind that Baskervilles (256 pages) and Scarlet (108 pages) are generally considered novellas rather than short stories.

Thanks!

Deborah wrote: "I nominate Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories by J. Sheridan LeFanu"

Just adding the magic links for this: Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

I don't know if it has a creep factor but how about...

Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope

Renee wrote: "I don't know if it has a creep factor but how about...

Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope"

Well, the GR blurb says "heartwarming" rather than "spine-chilling", but we'll let that pass simply due to the Christmassy factor!

Christmas at Thompson Hall: And Other Christmas Stories

The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker. It's pretty creepy.

Victoria wrote: "How about a Victorian and Contemporary favorite... Sherlock Holmes? We could cherry pick some of the spookier tales like "The Hound of the Baskerville's" and the "Speckled Band". The first story a..."

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is a sort of Christmas story.

Lariela wrote: "The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker. It's pretty creepy."

I think this is a novel which might work better for November. December is short stories.

Deborah wrote: "Lariela wrote: "The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker. It's pretty creepy."

I think this is a novel which might work better for November. December is short stories."

I agree. Good nomination, Lariela, but could you bring it forward and post it in the November nominations? Thanks!

Here are my suggestions. I have taken them only from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to make it easier as opposed to hopping about the canon.
"A Scandal in Bohemia" It is the only story with "The Woman", Irene Adler and I think people new to Holmes will want to read one with her in it.
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" mainly bc it takes place during Xmas.
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" bc it is somewhat spooky and considered one of the best of the collection.
"The Adventure of the Engineer's thumb" bc it is also a bit spookier and more suspenseful than the usual lot.
As mentioned "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is the most popular and spooky of all the tales. In my edition it is 130 pages so a novella but still possibly worth considering.

I nominate: The Haunted House compiled by Charles Dickens.

This compilation of short stories contains the following:
The Mortals in the House, by Charles Dickens
The Ghost in the Clock Room, by Hesba Stretton
The Ghost in the Double Room, by George Augustus Sala
The Ghost in the Picture Room, by Adelaide Anne Procter
The Ghost in the Cupboard Room, by Wilkie Collins
The Ghost in Master B's Room, by Charles Dickens
The Ghost in the Garden Room, by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Ghost in the Corner Room, by Charles Dickens

This book is available to read on Goodreads, but that version only contains The Mortals in the House and The Ghost in Master B's Room. A full version of the book is available to read and download at: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dick...

Victoria wrote: "Here are my suggestions. I have taken them only from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to make it easier as opposed to hopping about the canon.
"A Scandal in Bohemia" It is the only story with "Th..."

Thanks, Victoria! I'll go through my copies and do a page count; if we can fit in the Hound, we will.

Janice wrote: "I nominate: The Haunted House compiled by Charles Dickens.

This compilation of short stories contains the following:
The Mortals in the House, by Charles Dickens
The Ghost in the Clo..."

This is an interesting collection, Janice. And thanks for the digital link.

Oh no, this is going to be way too hard to choose! At least I'll be happy with pretty much everything.

Frances wrote: "Oh no, this is going to be way too hard to choose! At least I'll be happy with pretty much everything."

We always end up with a nice selection to choose from.

What about "A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire"? it was published by Hesperus Press some years ago and it contains some stories by Dickens, Martineau, Gaskell.... in fact, I think these stories had been published in Household Words. This anthology contains stories by 9 Victorian writers.

Laurochka wrote: "What about "A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire"? it was published by Hesperus Press some years ago and it contains some stories by Dickens, Martineau, Gaskell.... in fact, I think these stori..."

Is it this one?

A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire

I haven't checked its availability.

The December poll is up!

In the end, I came over all executive and went for the Hound of the Baskervilles because, in the end, most of the collections come to between 96 and 134 pages and we'd have time to read more than one. Hope this is OK.

The poll is here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/2...

Happy Voting!

In case you access the poll from the main page, click on more polls. But Pip is way ahead with the link ;-). Now she needs to teach her fellow moderator how to do that cool trick.

Whadiddido????

Pip wrote: "Whadiddido????"

the magic links my friend ;-0

I see that Trollope won. Does anybody have a list of the stories in the particular volume that was voted on? I have a complete collection of his short fiction, and need to know which ones to read!

Everyman wrote: "I see that Trollope won. Does anybody have a list of the stories in the particular volume that was voted on? I have a complete collection of his short fiction, and need to know which ones to read!"

Somebody please verify that these are the five Trollope stories to read:

"Christmas at Thompson Hall"
"Christmas Day at Kirby Cottage"
"The Mistletoe Bough"
"The Two Generals"
"Not If I Know It"

They are what I got by going to the Amazon sample pages.

Lily wrote: "Somebody please verify that these are the five Trollope stories to read:

"Christmas at Thompson Hall"
"Christmas Day at Kirby Cottage"
"The Mistletoe Bough"
"The Two Generals"
"Not If I Know It""

That is correct, Lily.

Pip wrote: "That is correct,..."

Thanks, Pip. I didn't want to send the whole group astray in case ....whatever mistake I might have made.

Trollope. Yum. It's going to be hard to wait until December.

But wait. We have Hardy inbetween. Double yum!

Hardy followed by Trollope.

I'm in Heaven!

Everyman wrote: "I'm in Heaven!"

Try Hanya Yanagihara. Or take a look at msg 31 here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'll be audacious entirely and question our right to speak to 21st century issues without attempting at least some of its literature. But then, probably your wife briefs you.

Lily wrote: "Everyman wrote: "I'm in Heaven!"

Try Hanya Yanagihara. Or take a look at msg 31 here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'll be audacious entirely and question our ri..."

Lily-is this an author you'd recommend?

Lily wrote: "
I'll be audacious entirely and question our right to speak to 21st century issues without attempting at least some of its literature."

Worth thinking about. But then, with so much being published ever day, it's incredibly hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. And if we try to look to prize lists or reviews in various papers and magazines or recommendations here on GR forums, we still would have to choose among hundreds of books. Given the limited amount of reading time my eye health allows me, I doubt I would have much ability to find the wheat (and there is SO much chaff).

And ... then there's this. Aren't the 21st century issues really the same issues humans have been dealing with for thousands of years? Oh, a few things have changed; the role of the church is changing, but it's being replaced by secular liberalism, which is coming to adopt the place in modern American society that the church held in the Medieval period. The details of what is and what is not acceptable socially are changing, but the basic concept that every society develops a mold into which it tries to fit every person, but in every society there are people who refuse to fit into the mold. That hasn't changed since the time of Socrates.

Technology may have changed the specific way in which people court each other, but not that they do. Or ways of finding out about other cultures may have improved, but I'm not sure the information itself has really improved that much; does literature really provide the average reader with a substantially better understanding of far Eastern thought than the journals of Marco Polo did? We are certainly better informed, but are we better educated?

On the other hand, there may be a benefit to distance, to a step back. Does any modern writer have the depth of understanding into human nature that Shakespeare did? I wonder.

I can ponder your post, but meanwhile I'm still going to look forward to delight with the next two months of Trollope and Hardy, and I think they are likely to tell me as much about the nature of the human condition, of love and life and power and how humans do or don't get along with each other than a Man Booker Prize nominee would.

Or course, I could be wrong.

But also, I could be right.

Lily wrote: Try Hanya Yanagihara. "

From her profile: "You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: ..."

But I don't have that many somedays to wait to understand.

OTOH, if Thomas Hardy had said the same thing, today are might be the future somedays it takes to understand what he means!

Can we mov this discussion to the chat area

Deborah wrote: "Can we mov this discussion to the chat area"

Good point. I'll be archiving this thread soon in the Nominations Archives, and it would be a shame for the more interesting aspects of this conversation to get buried amongst the cobwebs!