25 19th century novels people have read and want to read

[Anonymous]

Only survey I've seen anywhere like this, a British survey from about a decade ago. It looks like War and Peace and Les Miserables are the novels people most aspire to read.

https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/14435-war-and-peace-tops-britains-classic-fiction-wishli

How many of these have you read and does anything surprise you?

[Anonymous]

I've read

Moby Dick
The Picture of Dorian Grey
The Counte of Monte Cristo
Frankenstein
Oliver Twist
David Copperfield
Dracula

I think reading one Dickens' novel is sufficient. They are mostly the same.

I don't see anything from Jules Verne

[Anonymous]

I’ve read 18 of these novels. Probably because I borrowed them from my grandfather who was the only other book lover in my family when I was young, and I didn’t have good access to a public library since I lived on a farm in a rural area.

[Anonymous]

I've read 17 of them. What surprised me is that there is a book/author I've never heard of on there -- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. And I have a grad degree in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read

Moby Dick
The Picture of Dorian Grey
The Counte of Monte Cristo
Frankenstein
Oliver Twist
David Copperfield
Dracula

I think reading one Dickens' novel is sufficient. They are mostly the same.

I don't see anything from Jules Verne

No.

[Anonymous]

Dorian Grey seems to have gotten renewed interest lately. I've read Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest in AP English but I've never read Dorian Grey.

[Anonymous]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina, and War and Peace were such significant books for me. I guess I like high drama in bad times in cold places.

But it's kind of sad this generation of kids is not going to read, much less be moved, by 19th Century literature. I think Gen X is the end for when literature mattered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read 17 of them. What surprised me is that there is a book/author I've never heard of on there -- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. And I have a grad degree in English.

I've read The Moonstone but not Woman in White.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina, and War and Peace were such significant books for me. I guess I like high drama in bad times in cold places.

But it's kind of sad this generation of kids is not going to read, much less be moved, by 19th Century literature. I think Gen X is the end for when literature mattered.

Last generation whose reading habits were established before the social media era?

[Anonymous]

The only ones from that list I haven’t read are Frankenstein, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Brothers Karamazov (this one I started but haven’t finished).

My favorites from the list are probably War and Peace (seriously outstanding), Middlemarch, Vanity Fair, and Pride and Prejudice. I love 19th century fiction and would say that everything on the list is worth a read (plus some Trollope!).

[Anonymous]

Les Miserables and Moby Dick are both outstanding.

[Anonymous]

Demographic breakdown (age, gender etc.)

https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/InternalResults_160119_books_w.pdf

So men don't read Jane Austen and women don't read Moby Dick.

[Anonymous]

I’ve read 19 of these. I’m surprised Oliver Twist is the one the most people say they’ve read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina, and War and Peace were such significant books for me. I guess I like high drama in bad times in cold places.

But it's kind of sad this generation of kids is not going to read, much less be moved, by 19th Century literature. I think Gen X is the end for when literature mattered.

Bizarre take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only ones from that list I haven’t read are Frankenstein, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Brothers Karamazov (this one I started but haven’t finished).

My favorites from the list are probably War and Peace (seriously outstanding), Middlemarch, Vanity Fair, and Pride and Prejudice. I love 19th century fiction and would say that everything on the list is worth a read (plus some Trollope!).

I've started and failed to finish this one a couple of times. Have read most of the rest of the list. Vanity Fair is amazing; my mentor in grad school hated it and called it fluff, but I've read it twice.