1857
6 books
- You settle into Barchester Towers for its sly, patient comedy, watching Mrs Proudie and Mr Slope turn church politics into open warfare while Eleanor Bold tries to keep her judgment. It takes its time, but Trollope’s social observation is so precise that even a drawing-room pause can feel like a small battle.
- Slow and long, yes, but the Circumlocution Office satire is Dickens at his angriest and funniest, and Amy Dorrit, born in a debtors' prison and quietly holding her vain father together, will get under your skin in a way his showier heroines don't.
- Emma wants the life her novels promised and Yonville keeps handing her Charles instead, and you watch her chase that feeling straight over a cliff. Flaubert never flinches or pities.
- Early Collins, so the machinery creaks a bit and you'll likely guess the secret before Rosamond does, but that's not really the point. You read it for poor trembling Sarah Leeson, for Uncle Joseph and his little Mozart music box, and for that sealed-up Myrtle Room pulling everyone toward it.
- You get Dumas in a darker, stranger mood here: Thibault, a resentful peasant, accepts a wolf’s bargain and discovers that every wish feeds the bitterness that made him wish in the first place. It’s uneven and gloriously melodramatic, but the folklore, curses, and moral rot make it a fine rainy-night read.
- You get muddy Rugby matches, cruel schoolboy hierarchies, and Tom’s uneasy attempts to become braver without becoming hard. Hughes can sermonize, but Dr Arnold’s moral seriousness and the friendship with East give the book real warmth, especially if you like old-fashioned school stories with rough edges.