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
• 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!
Impressive list
This challenge looks like it will be more fun than hard work!
I'm happy that I'm taking time to think about the challenges I'm going to participate in this coming year, and this one seems especially fun! I already know the location of a number of counties in England that I didn't know before. Will you join? I hope so!
I'm very excited about this challenge and can't wait to get reading.
Have just had some fun with the quiz – I did get a couple right!
I know! I want to start reading right now!
Oh great! You tried my quiz. I've learned so much already but for the second quiz I can't get a couple of the counties to fill in. I think I'm spelling Durham right but it won't accept it. Oh well. At least now I know exactly where it is.
I'm so glad you're joining! I want to start now as well! Can't believe it's December tomorrow – time flies, so 2015 will no doubt come frighteningly quickly! 🙂
By the way – I made a mistake – I shouldn't have lost Durham from the list. If you add Durham, then take Afternoon Off by Alan Bennett and Rokeby by Walter Scott from Tyne and Wear and put it under Durham it'll be correct.
(I don't know what I was thinking!)
I was wavering when I saw Jane post about it and now I see you too going on and on about this!! How can I deny fate and I plunge in…though I am planning to limit myself to only 6 books…but something tells me there will be more…LOTS MORE!!
These counties are confusing. One quiz gets particular when I enter "Durham" instead of "County Durham", another splits up Sussex, etc. I now understand what a problem they've been to you! I'll make the necessary changes! For some reason, my editing function is picky with this ….. I have to copy it to Word and back again to make it uniform otherwise my fonts go wonky. :-Z I have another change to make so I'd better get on it!
Whenever I'm unsure, I choose the lowest level and then get really proud of myself when far exceed it. Just try saying "no" to these challenges! I didn't do a very good job last year, but this year I'm trying to be good ….. well, better, at least ….. 😉
I'm so happy to hear that you'll be joining. We can help keep each other on track!