Bookish quotes (1789 - 1914) @ thelongvictorian.com

I am currently reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. A writer of thumping good reads. I don’t expect Great Literature from him, but I do expect to thoroughly enjoy myself between the pages…

Wilkie Collins (1824 – 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He is best known for two books – The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). I recommend them…

That beside the futility of attempting to change somebody, if it is not in their nature to change in that way.

Don’t look yet, have a try first! Answers: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1845) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) Dracula …

Can you identify these famous opening lines? [Answers below] Answers: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850) Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (…

At some point most of us take stock of our life, and maybe draw up a life list to get us where we want to go. I’ve written a few myself! Here is such a list from one of the greatest writers i…

Poor Jude. Life somehow got in the way. Jude was the first adult book I ever read. Bromley Public Library. A strange choice really, especially given the ending! Even so, I could tell there was some…

Favourite quotes from Middlemarch by George Eliot “Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.” “One can begin so many things with a new person! – …

Henry David Thoreau died 154 years ago today, aged 44 (b. 12 July 1817 – d. 6 May 1862). Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, surveyor, historian ̵…

Ralph Waldo Emerson died 134 years ago today (b. 25 May 1803 – d. 27 April 1882). Emerson was an American poet, essayist and lecturer. If you’ve become cynical and dejected about life,…

Mark Twain died 106 years ago todayHere are 10 of my favourite quotes attributed to the great man. 10. “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete i…

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” ― Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Good advice. I’m doin’ my best, Henry o…

It’s odd that while most people recognise the truth in this sentence, it changes nothing and we keep chasing. If only we could always be happy in the present. But perhaps that insatiable impu…

Keep calm, it’s not the end of the world. Oh, it is?! Keep calm anyway.

The End of the World! And you thought you’d had a bad day. That quote is from The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. My review for the book here. You will learn why one of my favourite genres i…