Category Archives: Reading England 2015

Reading England 2015 Book List

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For a general and very handy reference, I’ve included O’s list of books by English county, copied from her blog.

Bedfordshire
•                The Two Sisters by H. E. Bates
•                My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates
•                Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan
Berkshire
•                The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
•                Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 
•                Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
•                Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
•                The Merry Wives of Winsor by William Shakespeare
•                The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
Bristol
•                Evelina by Fanny Burney
Buckinghamshire
•                Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
Cambridgeshire
•                The Longest Journey by E. M. Forster
•                Maurice by E. M. Forster
•                Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
•                Glory by Vladimir Nabakov
Cheshire
•                Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cornwall
•                Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
•                Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
•                Basil & Rambles Beyond Railways by Wilkie Collins
•                Basil & Rambles Beyond Railways by Wilkie Collins
Cumbria
•                The Tennant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
•                The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices by Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins
•                The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
•                Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
•                Lady Anna by Anthony Trollope
•                The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth
Derbyshire
•                Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë [uncertain]
•                Adam Bede by George Eliot
•                Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
•                The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
Devon
•                Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
•                Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
•                The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
•                Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley
•                He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
•                Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope
Dorset
•                The Worm Forgives the Plow by John Stewart Collis
•                Moonfleet by J. Meade Faulkner
•                Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
•                The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
•                The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
•                Tess of the D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
•                Two on a Tower by Thomas Hardy
•                Thank you, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
Durham
•                  (see Tyne & Wear)
Essex
•                Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
•                Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
•                Nightingale Woods by Stella Gibbons
•                The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Gloucestershire
•                Cider With Rose by Laurie Lee
•                The Tailor of Gloucestershire by Beatrix Potter
Hampshire
•                Watership Down by Richard Adams
•                The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Herefordshire 
•                On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
•                The Diaries of Francis Kilvert by Rev. Francis Kilvert
Hertfordshire
•                Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
•                Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
Huntingdonshire
•                To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Kent
•                The Darling Buds of May by H. E. Bates
•                The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
•                Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot
•                Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
•                The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
•                Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
•                Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Lancashire
•                Hard Times by Charles Dickens
•                Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
•                North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
•                Redburn by Herman Melville
•                The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
•                Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Leicestershire
•                The Right to an Answer by Anthony Burgess
Lincolnshire
•                John Marchmount’s Legacy by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
•                The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
•                Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson
London
•                Emma by Jane Austen
•                Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
•                A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
•                The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Buttler
•                The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
•                Fanny Hill by John Cleland
•                No Name by Wilkie Collins
•                Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
•                A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
•                Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
•                Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
•                The Nether World by George Gissing
•                New Grub Street by George Gissing
•                The Diary of a Nobody by George and Wheedon Grossmith
•                Hanover Square by Patrick Hamilton
•                Esther Waters by George Moore
•                The Diary of Samuel Pepys
•                Vanity Fairy by William Makepeace Thackerary
•                Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
•                Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Norfolk
•                The Big Six by Arthur Ransome
Northamptonshire
•                Mansfield Park by Jane Austen [uncertain]
•                Mistress Masham’s Repose by T. H. White
Northumberland
•                Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
•                Ruined City by Nevil Shute
Nottinghamshire
•                Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
•                The Rainbow by D. . Lawrence
•                Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
•                The White Peacock by D. H. Lawrence
Oxfordshire
•                The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
•                Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Shropshire
•                Howards End by E. M. Forster
•                A Shopshire Lad by A.E. Housman
Somerset
•                Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
•                Persuasion by Jane Austen
•                No Name by Wilkie Collins
•                The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
•                Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
•                The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope
•                Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen by P. G. Wodehouse
Staffordshire
•                Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett
•                The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett
•                Adam Bede by George Eliot
Suffolk
•                Celia by Fanny Burney
•                No Name by Wilkie Collins
•                We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome
Surrey
•                The Watsons by Jane Austen
•                A Room With a View by E. M. Forster
•                The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Sussex
•                Sanditon by Jane Austen
•                The Worm Forgives the Plow by John Stewart Collis
•                The Last Post by Lord Maddox Ford
•                The Collector by John Fowles
•                Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
•                Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
•                The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
•                The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells
•                The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
Tyne & Wear (formerly Durham)
•                Afternoon Off by Alan Bennett
•                The novels of Catherine Cookson
•                The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin
•                Rokeby by Walter Scott
Warwickshire
•                The Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden
•                Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
•                Kenilworth by Walter Scott
•                As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Wiltshire
•                The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
•                The Chronicles of Barset by Anthony Trollope
•                Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Worcestershire
•                Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
•                The Well of Loneliness by Radcyffe Hall
Yorkshire
•                Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë [uncertain]
•                Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
•                Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
•                The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
•                No Name by Wilkie Collins
•                Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
•                The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
•                A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines
•                The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
•                Dracula by Bram Stoker

For those who would like to learn where the counties are situated in England, some handy references are: this link to a map of the counties; as well as this quiz; and this quiz; and this jigsaw puzzle.

Picture me rubbing my hands together gleefully.  I just can’t wait!

Reading England 2015

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Ah, my first commitment to a challenge for 2015!  O at Behold the Stars is hosting a Reading England Challenge for this coming year and how could I not participate?  Not only should this challenge be particularly easy because of my love for English literature, it will also give me an education in learning the counties of England.  While I’ve had exposure to various English counties through reading, I have no idea on a map where each is located (except I know that Surrey is in the south!) so what a chance to further my knowledge of the country!

The Rules:
  • This challenge begins on the 1st January 2015 and ends on 31st December 2015, but of course if you really get into it then keep it going 🙂
  • You can sign up any time between now and the end of 2015. Only books read after 1st January 2015 count, though.
  • Choose a level (below), but do not feel obliged to pick your books or even your counties beforehand. 
  • Because this is a classics blog, I’d encourage people to read classic novels, but how you define classics is up to you.
  • You are not limited to English authors. Henry James, for example, is American but his novel The Turn of the Screw is set in Essex, and so he counts for the challenge
  • It would be grand if you blogged about the books you read for each county but you don’t have to. If you do, you don’t have to feel obliged to give any information about the county in general other than, maybe, “This is my review of x which is set in the county of x“. You could also include a description of the landscape in your posts, but again you don’t have to.
  • You do not have to read the books in their original language, translations are accepted (I only read in English so I would never dream of making other people read in their second language!)
  • Audio books, Kindles, and whatnot are accepted too.
  • Poetry, plays, biographies, and autobiographies count as well as novels. 


The Levels:
  • Level one: 1 – 3 counties
  • Level two: 4 – 6 counties
  • Level three: 7 – 12 counties
  • Level four: 12 + counties

The English books I have on my slate for 2015 are:

Orlando – Virginia Woolf
Framley Parsonage – Anthony Trollope
The Cantebury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners – John Bunyan

I’m notoriously bad at making lists and sticking to them so while my list is short, I’m certain I’ll be able to add many more books to it.  Level Two is my goal but I’ll probably be able to get to Level Three easily.

O added a wonderful list of English books sorted by county, so I’m planning to do another post just on this excellent reference.  I’m going to need it!