70 ‘Must-Read’ Victorian Novels
Over on BookTube, I have a two-part video series talking about 70 must-read Victorian novels, and I wanted to share the list here in full!
I tried to make this list as ‘objective’ as possible – I’m sure it’s still influenced by my own biases, and I’ve only included novels I’ve already read, but this is a list not of my 70 favourite Victorian novels but of 70 Victorian novels that wound give you a good grounding in Victorian literature and a sense of the variety within it. There is a mix of ‘important’ novels (i.e. very famous ones or ones of great significance to a genre or to popular culture) and lesser-known books that are fascinating and very much worth your time.
1. The Notting Hill Mystery, Charles Warren Adams (1865)
2. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore (1869)
3. Lady Audley’s Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)
4. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë (1848)
5. Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë (1847)
6. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (1847)
7. Shirley, Charlotte Brontë (1849)
8. Villette, Charlotte Brontë (1853)
9. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (1847)
10. Night and Morning, Edward Bulwer Lytton (1845)
11. Erewhon, Samuel Butler (1872)
12. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (1865)
13. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins (1860)
14. Armadale, Wilkie Collins (1866)
15. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins (1868)
16. Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins (1870)
17. A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle (1887)
18. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (1899)
19. Olive, Dinah Mulock Craik (1850)
20. John Halifax, Gentleman, Dinah Mulock Craik (1856)
21. Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens (1841)
22. Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853)
23. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (1859)
24. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (1861)
25. Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens (1865)
26. The Rebecca Rioter, Amy Dillwyn (1880)
27. Jill, Amy Dillwyn (1884)
28. Sybil, Benjamin Disraeli (1845)
29. Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900, Florence Dixie (1890)
30. Middlemarch, George Eliot (1872)
31. Daniel Deronda, George Eliot (1876)
32. Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell (1853)
33. Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell (1853)
34. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)
35. Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell (1866)
36. The Nether World, George Gissing (1889)
37. The Odd Women, George Gissing (1893)
38. The Beth Book, Sarah Grand (1897)
39. Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy (1874)
40. The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy (1887)
41. Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy (1891)
42. After London, or Wild England, Richard Jefferies (1885)
43. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome (1889)
44. The Half Sisters, Geraldine Jewsbury (1848)
45. Kim, Rudyard Kipling (1901)
46. Uncle Silas, J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1864)
47. Carmilla, J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
48. The Romance of a Shop, Amy Levy (1888)
49. Reuben Sachs, Amy Levy (1888)
50. The Beetle, Richard Marsh (1897)
51. Deerbrook, Harriet Martineau (1839)
52. The Egoist, George Meredith (1879)
53. A Drama in Muslin, George Moore (1886)
54. Esther Waters, George Moore (1894)
55. News From Nowhere, William Morris (1890)
56. Hester, Margaret Oliphant (1883)
57. A Struggle for Fame, Charlotte Riddell (1883)
58. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
59. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
60. Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)
61. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray (1848)
62. He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope (1869)
63. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1875)
64. Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy, Frances Trollope (1840)
65. The Island of Doctor Moreau, H.G. Wells (1896)
66. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells (1898)
67. Love and Mr Lewisham, H.G. Wells (1900)
68. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (1891)
69. East Lynne, Ellen Wood (1861)
70. The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1853)
