Fun facts about Charles Darwin and some myths and misconceptions about his writing 1. He was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln. On 12 February 1809, Charles Darwin was born to the doctor, Robert Darwin, and Susannah Darwin (whose maiden name was Wedgwood – she was the daughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood). … Read more
In yesterday’s advent calendar post, we shared a little fact related to an enduring Christmas carol. Today, another carol-related fact – though this time, involving one of the Victorian era’s leading poets. Christina Rossetti (1830-94), the prolific Victorian poet, is perhaps most famous for writing ‘Goblin Market’. Except that that isn’t her most famous poem. … Read more
Yesterday we considered that gastronomic phenomenon that is the Christmas dinner, and revealed Dickens’s early piece of journalism about Christmas time, written some eight years before A Christmas Carol. Today, on to pudding – yes, today’s literature fact might be considered the dessert course in our feast of festive literary morsels. According to the Oxford English … Read more
As the nights are beginning to draw in and Halloween approaches, how about something to make the flesh creep and send a shiver down the spine? Charles Dickens was a master of the macabre, whether it’s in his Christmas ghost stories such as A Christmas Carol, in the chilling Gothic emptiness of Satis House in Great … Read more
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Here is our list of the 10 Victorian novels we at Interesting Literature think everyone should read – whether because they’re great novels, because they tell us something important about Victorian society, because they stand as classics of the period, or (in most cases) all three. They’re not arranged in any particular order (that would be too difficult and controversial a task!).