Top Ten Tuesday used to be a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” This is definitely something I can understand and want to participate in.
This week’s topic is books that were written before I was born, but I decided to put my own twist on this prompt. As part of my efforts to read more genres than just fantasy in 2021, I also wanted to include some classics into my TBR for this year. And while I read two of these in the past, it’s been long enough that it’s time to give them a reread. So my own spin on this week’s topic is a top ten list of books that were written in the 1800s that I’d like to read.
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (1848)
- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857)
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
- Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (1862)
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877)
- Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
What are some books that are older than you that you’ve got on your TBR? Bonus points if they’re more than 100 years old!
Categories: Top Ten Tuesday
Leah's Books 
I have quite a few on my list that are over 100 years old. I hope you can stop by:
https://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2021/02/top-ten-books-written-before-1978-222021.html
Colletta
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Nice twist! I’ve read half of these, but I still need to read Vanity Fair and Madame Bovary. 🙂
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Thank you! I’ve sadly slacked on the majority of these – I’ve only read A Tale of Two Cities and Crime and Punishment, but it was so incredibly long ago that I barely remember either. And I don’t know how I managed to get through high school without having to read anything by a Brontë or Jane Austen!
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I love all the Jane Austen books and have read them all several times. My TTT list
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I’ve really got to give at least one a try at some point!
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Skip A Tale of Two Cities xD i have never read anything more boring and drawn out in my life. But Jane Eyre! One of my all time favorites.
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I don’t remember hating it in high school! It wasn’t that bad back then, so I figured I wouldn’t mind it as an adult either.
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Maybe it’s just me XD I’ve tried countless books by Dickens and he is just legit the worst author ever for me xD at some point i ended up hating his books with a passion. I tried too! Like at least 3 books!
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That’s how I felt about The Picture of Dorian Grey!
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Ihope you can read all of these some day!
(www.evelynreads.com)
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Me too!
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I’d like to read Anna Karenina someday as well.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
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What a great list, I recently picked up a nice copy of Jane Eyre and I have every intention of rereading it to annotate! Jennifer L. Armentrout
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Jane Eyre is such a good story.
My post.
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Great list! I keep meaning to try Dracula, too.
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Oh so many of these are also on my TBR and I feel like at the rate I read classics I might never get to them 😂🙈 Jokes… Well, sort of! I’m really looking forward to Anna K, Crime and Punishment and Dracula though! I also recently added A Tale of Two Cities to my physical shelf when I found a copy for sale and… I’m SO intimidated by the language 🤣 I hope you enjoy all of these, Leah! Especially Pride and Prejudice!
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I’ve read A Tale of Two Cities and Crime and Punishment in my teen years, so don’t get too intimidated by them. They’re completely manageable! It’s all part of the neverending TBR list, but I’m making an effort to read at least a couple of these this year.
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I’ve not read any of these, I had to read Jane Eyre for school but I got bored halfway through and never finished it. I’m not really a big classics person, I find most of them quite dull!
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I never had to read Jane Eyre for school, but I figured I should at least give it a try. My reading taste has certainly changed since then, so who knows? I might like it!
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I hope you do!
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I plan on rereading Jane Eyre this month for a classic reading club. I also need to reread Dracula. Its been years since I read it.
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All classics I wanna read! Except for Pride and Prejudice and Madame Bovary because I’ve read those and enjoyed them🙂
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Oooh I’m glad to hear that, now I’m looking forward to them even more!
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I enjoyed Dracula but I have to say, the experience of reading it was strange. It honestly was one of the most draining books I have read. lol
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Now I’m even more curious about it!
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Great picks.
http://www.rsrue.blogspot.com
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Thanks.
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A lot of books I read were published before I was born- it does help that I love the old classics
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I’ve read all these but Vanity Fair (I’m 74). I’d suggest Tolstoy’s War and Peace. “The old man wrote it well” is what he said in his elder years, on leafing through it, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s long, and it’s got some slow parts, but so rewarding! The best characters, a great story, many great stories. I love his handling of crowds, and you’ll get a goodly chunk of history, too. His *theory* of history, however, is very dry and likely to provoke yawns–it’s permissible to skip that part (some editions include it as an appendix, though in the original it’s in the middle of the novel).
Cheers!
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I’ve absolutely got War and Peace on my TBR! Long books don’t scare me, and I do love Russian literature. I promise I’ll get to it!
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