19th century literature that you enjoy

[Emmanuel Dabney]

To boost this forum and to see what people may find interesting...

One of the frequently mentioned topics of the middle and upper classes is what they were reading. Generally I have found that the topics were very broad but generally do not include the current well-known 19th century authors like Edgar Poe, Jane Austen, and Nathaniel Hawthorne just for examples. However, that does not mean there is NO mention of these well-known authors.

A paging through just glancing back at Mary Chesnut's diary reveal some of the following texts and authors:

Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope (1861)
Charleston Mercury
New York Herald
Evan Harrington; or, He Would Be a Gentleman by George Meredith (1860)
Basil: A Story of Modern Life then reprinted as The Crossed Path or Basil, A Story of Modern Life by William Wilkie Collins (1852, 1853, 1860 dependent on where printed)
The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) by John Lothrop Motley
The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale (1813) Lord Byron
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) edited by Thomas Percy

So what are some of your favorite stories, newspaper articles, or poems of the period?

I'll start: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Mrs. Bullfrog (which can be found online http://tinyurl.com/38kmhw). And while he may not have been all that popular in his life, I like Poe's work particularly The Black Cat, Masque of the Red Death, and the Fall of the House of Usher.

[Bushrod Carter]

Ok, here is one of my absolute favorites! A book entitled:

“PLU-RI-BUS-TAH: a song that’s-by-no-author. A deed without a Name” by Q.K. Philander Doesticks. New York: Livermore & Rudd, 1856.

Seriously! If you haven’t seen a copy of this book GET ONE! Philander Doesticks is the pseudonym of Mortimer Neal Thompson. Thompson was a satirical humorist of the 1850 and 1860s. He wrote several books, but I have only had the great experience of reading the above mentioned.

PLU-RI-BUS-TAH is a satirical history of the United States from the earliest times to the time of printing.

To tease everyone’s literary taste buds, here is how the books opens:

"Non-committal applause by the curious reader, who don’t know what to expect. Enter, to slow music, the author, solus and seedy. In the distance are seen the nine muses, smoking short pipes, and eating peanuts. They encourage the bashful poet by telling him to “Go in, Lemons!” (The good-natured public will also imagine the lemons.) Thus encouraged, he speaks as fallows:…”



Has anyone else out there read this?

[DJCasey]

I have finally gotten around to reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Being such a historically significant book, both to US hitory and the history of literature, I figured it was my duty to read it. I am about half way through and cannot put it down. I did not expect to enjoy it this much. I highly recomend it to anyone. It is a great first person knowledge for a living historian. It was the most popular book of the day and insighted much controversy. It is something mid-19th century Americans would talk about, weither north or south.

[Bushrod Carter]

Here is a source that I founding interesting as to what the (more educated) soldiers were reading WHILE IN THE FIELD with the Army of Tennessee. The following list is taken from the “Confederate Diary of Robert D. Smith” Jill K. Garrett, ed. Columbia, TN

April 22, 1862 “Reading Dumas’ Three Guardsmen.”

April 29, 1862 “reading Hallet’s military arts & science” [sic]

May 5, 1862 “reading ‘Alone’ by Harland”4

May 8, 1862 “reading Hot Corn Life Scenes in N.Y.” [sic]

May 26, 1862 “reading ‘Three Beauties’”

June 1, 1862 “ready ‘Pictures in Italy’”

June 13, 1862 “reading Dickens’ ‘Pickwick Club’”

June 27. 1862 “Reading Tom Burk of Onrs by Charlie Lever.” [sic]

July 15, 1862 “Reading ‘Love me little love me long’ by _____ Reade”

Aug. 4, 1862 “Reading ‘Sam Slick’s nature & human nature’” [sic]

Feb. 14, 1863 “Reading Knowledge is Power by Knight” [sic]

Feb. 15, 1863 ”Reading the works of Josephus”

March 25, 1864”reading Jean Valjean by Victor Hugo.” [sic]

April 6, 1864 “Reading ‘Auro Floyd.”

April 8, 1864 “Reading ‘Misrepresentation.”

April 16, 1864 “Reading ‘Dante’”

April 22, 1864 “Reading ‘Henry Esmond’ by Thackeray.”

June 13, 1864 “reading ‘Memoirs of Napoleon’”



I’m curious about the “Jean Valjean” entry. Is that a book entitled “Jean Valjean” or is he referring to “Les Miserable”?

[redleggeddevil]

My two favorite period books (aside from "A Christmas Carol", my very favorite of all time) are "Cape Cod" by Thoreau and "Moby Dick".

Thoreau's book is both informative and evocative, and you can almost smell the salt air as he describes walking the beach. As for "Moby Dick", I feel like I am getting a quick educational refresher along with my entertainment-- biblical allusions, whaling lore, travelog and vocabulary enhancement all wrapped in some of the most beautiful prose of the era.

On the side, and considerably easier to transport in a breast pocket for living history events, I like to carry odd little tracts and monographs. My current favorites are "The Westminster Short Catechism", printed in Richmond in 1861 and "Spiritual Milk For New-Born Babes".

Just the things to review before going into battle.

[pipthelimey]

I'm pretty lucky in that my dad used to be an English teacher in England so he's always had plenty of older books around. I've got an original copy of a Tennyson compilation, as well as a very old set of Dickens. As for original good reads, I'm fond of Lever's "Charles O'Malley: The Irish Dragoon."

Andrew Jerram

[Miss Elodie]

Hello,

This really doesn't qualify as "literature," but it represents a genre of humor rampant in the antebellum South that likely inspired Samuel Clemens and really must be shared:

Odd leaves from the life of a Louisiana "swamp doctor" In The swamp doctor's adventures in the South-west containing the whole of the Louisiana swamp doctor, Streaks of squatter life, and Far-western scenes, in a series of forty-two humorous southern and western sketches, descriptive of incidents and character (Library of Southern Civilization) by Henry Clay Lewis (ISBN 0807121851)
http://worldcat.org/isbn/0807121851

This 1846 account of the author's travels through Tensas and Concordia Parishes in Louisiana will leave you laughing as he describes the mire, muck, and mischief of the people who have settled about 30 miles north of Natchez on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River. It so happens my mother grew up there and, to this day, it is the most rural parish (county) in the state.

Persons who want a feel for the dialect of the western South should take a gander at this work of artifice.

This isn't Jane Austen and, as was often the case of books written at the time, the language doesn't conform to today's standards of political correctness; but anyone reading from this forum will expect this.

The Louisiana State Univ. Press reprinted this a few years ago and it is still available for under $6 at Amazon. I hope you get the chance to read this gem of a book!

Jennifer

[ElizabethClark]

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell has one of the best scenes involving a cat, a dish of milk, and a lace collar. The whole book is very good--involving the lives of a village full of women (most of the men being either dead or off at sea).

Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope; another social satirist, but I really like Rachel, and the book was censored in the US in 1863, which was my first fascination with it. The unexpurgated version is very mild... but the censored bit was a meeting or two, unchaperoned, between the heroine and a main male character.

Jane Austen is still a favorite, notably Pride and Prejudice... and I like quite a lot of Dickens. And Shakespeare, if read out properly, is very funny.

On Uncle Tom's Cabin, I was researching something else entirely the other day and came across mention of the theatrical piece being performed to great applause in California... so it seems to have been popular nation-wide.

[Anna Allen]

Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope; another social satirist, but I really like Rachel, and the book was censored in the US in 1863, which was my first fascination with it. The unexpurgated version is very mild... but the censored bit was a meeting or two, unchaperoned, between the heroine and a main male character.

Of course that was the best part in the book...

Also, don't forget the many stories included in popular magazines of the day, like Godey's, Peterson's, Harper's New Monthly etc.

Great topic, Em!

[Jubilo]

Dear Sir ,
I remember reading an account of either Pelham's or Alexander's artillerymen reading out loud to one another "The History of the War in the Peninsula ," by Napier . We must also remember that according to Mark Twain , the works of Sir Walter Scott helped defeat the Confederacy .
all for the old flag,
David Corbett