Victorian Literature – All My 5-Star Reads
My 5-Star Victorian Reads
Confession: I don’t remember which Victorian novel I read first. This question often comes up during Victober, and I never know how to answer it. I was always that precocious kid trying to read all the books that people said would be “too hard” for me, just to prove them wrong. What can I say, I’ve always loved a challenge!
So I’d read (or at least tried to read) a lot of Victorian literature before I realized that I should be keeping track of what I was reading and what I thought about it. However, I’ve read and re-read a ton in the 15 years that I’ve had a Goodreads account, so the following should be a pretty comprehensive list of all the Victorian literature I’ve ever rated 5 stars.
Disclaimer: I’m not saying that these books are perfect masterpieces and all others are not. My 5-star ratings are based on that satisfied feeling I get during and after reading a book that says, “I loved every minute of that reading experience.” Any less than 5 stars, and there was something about it that I didn’t fully connect with. Your opinion will probably differ, but these are the Victorian books I absolutely loved, in alphabetical order by author.
Charlotte Bronte
Today I learned that I’ve only given one 5-star rating in all of the Bronte sisters’ collective body of work, and it goes to Jane Eyre, one of my top 5 favourite books of all time. I know it’s controversial now because of Rochester, but I don’t interpret him as harshly as most do. I think he was doing the best he could in a very difficult situation. Nowadays, he would have been able to make different choices, so I don’t think it’s fair to judge him based on today’s standards. But mostly it’s Jane that I love anyway. I’ve always admired the way she stands by her principles, even when it hurts.
Lewis Carroll
This was another surprise to me when I looked at my Goodreads ratings, because I didn’t think I enjoyed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland the last time I read it. But I gave it 5 stars, so I guess I remembered wrong! I also gave 5 stars to the sequel, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, which I haven’t read in a very long time and don’t remember much about. What I do know is that Lewis Carroll had one of the wildest imaginations of all time, and his work has inspired unabashed whimsy in countless writers and artists for over one and a half centuries. You have to respect that.
Wilkie Collins
I’ve read several of Collins’ works, but the only one I’ve awarded 5 stars is The Moonstone. I read this one fairly early in my Victorian journey, and I remember being blown away by the writing and also by the twists and turns in the mystery plot. There are a couple of scenes that still live in my mind rent-free after at least 25 years. Why have I never reread it? I should fix that.
Joseph Conrad
Yes, my beloved Joseph Conrad qualifies as a Victorian writer, at least for his first few works. And it just so happens that I’ve awarded 5 stars to 4 of those 1901-or-earlier publications: Almayer’s Folly, Heart of Darkness, An Outpost of Progress, and Tales of Unrest. These are all short story collections or novellas, but they all pack a significant punch and reveal the dark side of colonialism. Your brain has to be hungry for a hearty, full-course meal to enjoy Conrad, but enjoy him I very much do.
Charles Dickens
And now we come to my favourite author of all time. Make no mistake, I hang on every single beautifully-long-winded sentence this man ever wrote, and I’ve read all of his novels, most of his short stories, and a good chunk of his nonfiction, but I’ve only given a full 5 stars to 7 of his novels. (The rest aren’t far behind, though, I promise you! Even my least favourite Dickens doesn’t rank lower than 3 stars for me.) Those 7 practically-perfect-in-every-way Dickens novels are: Barnaby Rudge, Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished, but SO GOOD, I’ll be mourning the lost ending forever), Nicholas Nickleby, Our Mutual Friend, and my absolute favourite, A Tale of Two Cities. I’ll say no more.
Elizabeth Gaskell
I watched the 1999 Wives and Daughters miniseries on TV when it came out, and immediately had to read the book. I’ve reread it a couple of times since, and I love it more every time. There’s something so comforting to me about this book and its characters. Molly Gibson might actually be my favourite literary heroine. None of Gaskell’s other works have quite managed to squeeze 5 stars out of me, but this one earned them effortlessly.
Thomas Hardy
Hardy and I have a turbulent relationship. Sometimes his addiction to misery drives me nuts and I’ll wonder why I bother reading him, but every now and then I’ll really connect with one of his books and feel what he wanted me to feel. For me, the 5-star Hardys are Far from the Madding Crowd and Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Tess, especially, was brilliantly done and didn’t fall into the sorrow-for-sorrow’s-sake trap that many of his works did. He was earnestly trying to point out the injustice in the way “fallen women” were treated, and his message is still relevant in many ways today.
Jerome K. Jerome
Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) is a comic masterpiece. The sequel doesn’t quite live up to the first, but that’s okay. It didn’t really need a sequel. Montmorency forever!
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
I’ve just recently been dipping my toe into Le Fanu’s work, but so far I’ve only given 5 stars to Uncle Silas. I think I enjoyed it so much because I hadn’t known what to expect going into it. All I knew was that it’s about an orphaned teenage girl who’s sent to live with her creepy uncle, and I think I expected it to be melodramatic and full of cliches. I mean, yes, in some ways it is… but it’s also bone-chillingly creepy.
George MacDonald
MacDonald is mostly known for his children’s fantasy books, but Phantastes was written for grown-ups, and (pardon the pun) it’s fantastic. I love me a well-executed allegory. You can see while reading this where C.S. Lewis got his Narnia inspiration from.
George Meredith
If you’ve heard people say that George Meredith is one of the most inaccessible Victorian writers, well… yeah, kinda. But he’s well worth the effort, especially when it comes to The Egoist. This is a book about a man who believes women only exist to be possessed by men, a woman who has no interest in being possessed by anyone, and the fireworks that so desperately want to be released when these two find themselves engaged to each other. Once you get used to the dense writing style, it’s a snarky good time.
Bram Stoker
Yes, I’m one of those people who adore Dracula. The REAL Dracula, which isn’t so much a story about a sexy vampire as it’s a story about a group of besties who decide to go vanquish evil together. I love that merry little band so much!
William Makepeace Thackeray
My mother can’t comprehend why, but I gave 5 stars to Vanity Fair, and I stand by it. Was this maybe one of the first unhinged-woman novels? In my opinion, yes it was, and it’s still one of the best.
H.G. Wells
Wells is another writer whose first few works were published during the Victorian era, even though most came afterwards. Out of the few that qualify as Victorian, I’ve given 5 stars to three: The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Time Machine, and The First Men in the Moon. I love Wells’ futuristic sci-fi, but his works vary widely from the horror elements in Dr. Moreau to the comedic moments in Men in the Moon.
And those are all of my 5-star Victorian reads! I’m always discovering new ones and changing how I feel about others on re-reading them, so this list will probably change over time. It might be interesting for me to look back on it in a few years and see how I feel then.
For now, I’ve created a page on my Bookshop.org shop where you can view all 26 of these titles and maybe buy yourself a little something-something if you’re in the mood. As an affiliate, I’ll receive a small commission from any purchase made through that link, which I’ll put towards keeping this blog going. No pressure at all to do so.
Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!