Best 19th-century fiction?

[merithyn]

I'm looking for good books to read published on or before 1910.

Suggestions?

[Eddie Teach]

Hugo, Dostoevsky, Verne, Wells, Twain...

[fhdz]

Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.

Melville's Pierre.

[Barrister]

I'm looking for good books to read published on or before 1910.

Suggestions?

What about the Good Book itself?

[Brazen]

Anything by Dickens and the Sherlock Holmes novels are an easy way in. Start reading A Christmas Carol now for a little seasonal cheer

[Ed Anger]

I'm looking for good books to read published on or before 1910.

Suggestions?

What about the Good Book itself?

Good fiction choice there. 

[Admiral Yi]

Kipling.  Kim I found boring but his short stories are great.

[garbon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tenant_of_Wildfell_Hall

[Razgovory]

Kipling.  Kim I found boring but his short stories are great.

I like his jingoist poems.  His just-so stories are pretty fun.  Or at least when I read them.  That was a quite a bit ago.

[merithyn]

I've already read my way through most of Jane Austen's books, multiple Sherlock Holmes novels, Kipling's The Jungle Book, and am now on The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.

I love Jane Austen and Sherlock Holmes (though I cringe at the constant mention of Holmes' drug addiction). The Jungle Book was cute and light, which I expected. Are most of Kipling's like that? I am entirely bored with Verne. He seems to love to get into the scientific specifics far more than I'm interested in, with entire chapters being about some scientific way to figure something out. I'll plod through the rest of this book, but I'm not thinking I'll dive into anything else of his soon.

Dickens is definitely on my list. I've read Great Expectations several times and A Christmas Carol, too. I'd like to try something different of his.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall sounds interesting. May put that high on my list.

[Barrister]

You might enjoy Dracula and Frankenstein.

Moby Dick was rather dense, but still a good read as well.

Would you consider some Russian authors?

[Richard Hakluyt]

George Eliot is good, Middlemarch is probably the one to start with.

Have you considered Thomas Hardy? He can be heavy going but is usually rewarding.

For lighter stuff there are Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles, the CofE in the 1860s.........lots of fun 

[merithyn]

You might enjoy Dracula and Frankenstein.

I've read both, and enjoyed them both.

Moby Dick was rather dense, but still a good read as well.

Would you consider some Russian authors?

Read Moby Dick in college. Not something I'd do again by choice, though it wasn't really awful, just, as you say, incredibly dense.

Russian authors would be lovely if I can find the translations.

George Eliot is good, Middlemarch is probably the one to start with.

Have you considered Thomas Hardy? He can be heavy going but is usually rewarding.

For lighter stuff there are Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles, the CofE in the 1860s.........lots of fun 

Add these to my list. I did read the Vicker of Wakefield a couple of weeks ago, which I thought was fun, especially since I've watched the modern TV show of that title.

[Valmy]

Russian authors would be lovely if I can find the translations.

I loved this book:



So wonderfully absurd.

[The Brain]

Moby Dick. Nostromo if you don't mind a crappy ending.