Pick a victorian age novel

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Sandman
I read The Moonstone recently, it was fantastic. Then again, I am a bit of a crime fan and it was a buzz reading one of the earliest and best detective novels.

I had not heard of that book until you mentioned it. Wikipedia has nice things to say about it.

[Dauphin]

Jekyll and Hyde. Sums up the two-faced Victorianism very well.

[Krill]

Actually Zkrib, I don;t watch much TV anymore. There are a couple of DVDs that I want to watch again, but most of all I want to get on with my revision.

[Solver]

Jeckyll & Hyde or Jane Eyre. But the plot of the latter is certainly more complex and I suppose a school assignment about it could be difficult. Jeckyll & Hyde is a classic good-evil story with a detective element to it.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Fron that list? The Picture of Dorian Gray, absolutely. Very hard to go wrong with Wilde, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" notwithstanding.

I actually liked the Hardy novel I read in high school, but Return of the Native isn't one of your choices and I haven't read anything else by him. FWIW, my daughter, who's quite bright, hated Tess.

[Heraclitus]

The Picture of Dorian Gray

[Barnabas]

Heart of darkness! Heart of darkness!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Also, your teacher wants you to read a Victorian novel, gave you a restricted list of 10, and 4 of them are Hardy? WTF?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Barnabas
Heart of darkness! Heart of darkness!

Exactly. If the point is exposure to "Great Books," where's Conrad? If the point is exposure to Victorian culture, where are H.G. Wells and H. Rider Haggard? And in any event where the heck is Dickens (though I can understand if the teacher decided Dicken's novels were too long for the time allotted)? Odd, odd list.

[snoopy369]

Conrad

My initial guess would be this teacher loves Hardy and the Brontes, and included Stevenson as a book for the boys to read... literature profs/teachers are often known for having 'favorites' and pushing their classes to read those.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Also, your teacher wants you to read a Victorian novel, gave you a restricted list of 10, and 4 of them are Hardy? WTF?

Hardy was probably the subject of her thesis or something.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Conrad

My initial guess would be this teacher loves Hardy and the Brontes, and included Stevenson as a book for the boys to read... literature profs/teachers are often known for having 'favorites' and pushing their classes to read those.

True. If I were an English teacher, my kids would be reading Walter Mosley and Terry Prachett.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
True. If I were an English teacher, my kids would be reading Walter Mosley and Terry Prachett.

If I were the english teacher, this list would be:

Dracula - Bram Stoker
King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard
The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


True. If I were an English teacher, my kids would be reading Walter Mosley and Terry Prachett.

Syllabus for Snoopyschool (in roughly chronological order):

HG Wells - TM, WOTW
Jules Verne - 20000L, JCE
Robert Heinlein - Double Star, SISL, Friday, several shorts
Isaac Asimov - F/FE/2F, Nightfall, TGT
Phillip K. Dick - MitHC
Samual Delany - Dhalgren (if private school), Neveryon if not
Phillip Jose Farmer - Riverworld
Arthur C. Clark - RWR, 2001
Larry Niven - Ringworld, Mote in God's Eye
Joe Haldemen - TFW, TFP
Ursula K LeGuin - The Dispossessed
Mike Resnick - several shorts
Douglas Adams - THHGTtG
Charles Sheffield - BtSoN
William Gibson - NM
Orson Scott Card - EG
David Brin - Uplift 3
Lois McMaster Bujold - Vor Game
Kim Stanley Robinson - RM,GM,BM
Greg Bear - Forge of God
Gregory Benford - Timescape
Iain M Banks - Consider Phlebas
Terry Pratchett - CoM, ER, GG, Mort
Ken Macleod - Cosmonaut Keep
Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere, American Gods
China Mieville - PSS
Charles Stross - Accelerando
Alistair Reynolds - Revelation Space

They'd be expected to read these 46 books (make it 50 because i'm certain I forgot some) two per week (most schools have around 30 weeks of classes). As they're actually interesting literature, i'm sure this won't be a problem

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, we need ten books Dino.

1. Dracula - Bram Stoker

2. King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard

3. The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells (over War of the Worlds?)

4. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson(Over treasure Island?)

5. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

6. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

4 more then.

I'll pick, if we aren't allowed Americans,

7. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)

8. Heart of Darkness (Conrad)

9. Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

10. Return of the Native (Hardy) (we should have one of Hardy)

If we ARE allowed americans then:

9. Moby Dick (Melville)

10. Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)

Honourable mentions.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Twain)
Jane Eyre (one of the Bronte's books)
Vanity Fair (Thackeray)