Katherine at November’s Autumn is hosting the Turn of the Century Salon, a year long event focusing on novels written during the late 1880s and early 1930s. To participate you simply have to post on a novel published in said time frame.
This is a period of literature I have read very little of as I typically steer towards the Romantics or Victorian literature. Therefore this should be an interesting learning experience for me.
As I stated above my classic reading usually leans towards the romantics and Victorian era, mainly due to an adoration of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell and the Bronte sisters. (as you can see I also have an affinity towards women authors) Because of this I fear I have pigeon-holed myself instead of tasting all that is out there.
So what to read? I scanned my bookshelf and came up with one title, The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, well that won’t do, so I started paroosing lists of turn of the century authors and tentatively put a list together of what I might read.
- Gertrude Stein
- Ernest Hemingway
- The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
- Edith Wharton
- Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford
- The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- Cheri by Colette
I'll be tackling The Forsyte Saga this year too. Hopefully we'll both like it 🙂 I loved Mrs Dalloway but I read it such a long time ago. I'll definitely stop by to know how you liked it.
Ooh, I just love Edith Wharton, so I'll be eager to see if you end up reviewing any of her works for the challenge.
My daughter just told me she wanted to read Mrs. Dalloway, so perhaps I will join her (and you) in that endeavor.
I loved Parade's End, it's such a stimulating series of novels in some ways it reminds me of The Forsyte Saga– haven't read it yet so I can't be certain of this but I've seen the adaptation. I've been meaning to read the Saga since last year and hope to at least read the first book this year!
So glad to have you joining in the Salon, Whitney! 🙂 I'm not too familiar with this period either and created this challenge to help branch out. So I'm happy you feel the same.
I read Mrs Dalloway last year and liked it far better than I thought I would. So many books to choose from for this era it's hard to know where to begin.
I want to read The Beautiful and the Damned for this, too! I love Fitzgerald. I also put down Gertrude Stein. Haven't read her yet.
I forgot about Colette! Erin Blakemore included Colette's Claudine novels in her wonderful book The Heroine's Bookshelf, and I've been meaning to read them ever since I read about them. Maybe this year?
Looking forward to your posts as you get to know the post-Victorian crowd.
There are tons of great female authors from this time period (although I think they sometimes get short shrift on PG). Baroness Emmuska Orczy and Mary Roberts Rinehart spring immediately to mind.