Wednesday, June 19, 2019

BOOKS, WHAT WAS POPULAR

Post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines


I thought it might be fun to see what books were releasee and popular in the decades of the 1800s, from 1850-1890.  Do you recognize any of them? Have you read them? The below is just a sampling.

So here for your 'reading' pleasure is a selection of books from the past.

1850:
Fiction

Charles Dickens - "David Copperfield"
Nathanial Hawthorne - "The Scarlet Letter"
Caroline Lee Hentz - "Linda"
Susan Warner (as Susan Wetherwell) - "The Wide,Wide World"

Non-Fiction

Julia Kavanaugh - "Women in France During the Eighteenth Century"
Mary Anne Attwood - "A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery"

1860

Fiction

R.M. Ballantyne - "The Dog Cursoe and his Master"
Mary Elizabeth Braddon - "Three Times Dead"
Charles Reade - "The Cloister and the Hearth"
Mary Howard Schoolcraft - "The Blacak Gauntlet: A Tale fo Plantation Life in South Carolina"

Non-Fiction

Ralph Waldo Emerson - "The Conduct of Life"
Gray's Anatomy (2nd edition)

1870

Fiction

Wilkie Collins - "Man and Wife"
Jules Verne - "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"
                       "Around the Moon"
Charlotte M. Yonge - "The Caged Lion"
Bret Harte - "The Heathen Chinee"

Non-Fiction

Henry Maudsley - "Body and Mind"
William Robinson - "The Wild Garden"

1880

Fiction

Amelia Edwards - "Lord Brackenbury"
Mark Twain - "A Tramp Abroad"
Lew Wallace - "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ"
Rhoda Broughton - "Second Thoughts"

Non-Fiction

Henry Charlton Bastian - "The Brain as an Organ of the Mind"
Algernon Charles Swinburne - "A Study of Shakespeare"

1890

Fiction

Kate Chopin - "At Fault"
Molly Elliot Seawell - "Little Jarvis"
Arthur Conan Doyle - "The Firm of Griddlestone"
Mary Elizabeth Braddon - "One Life, One Love"

Non-Fiction

James McNeill Whistler - "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies"
Algred Thayer Mahan - "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History"

So there you have it, a spattering of books from the past. Of course there were many more. I've left out children and poetry books, although I admit, I enjoy reading them. I wonder if our stories and books will make list one hundred years from now? It's something to think about. I know, in my latest novel, "The Outlaw's Letter", my heroine has a passion for Homer. Below is a short excerpt.

     As she stretched out on the ground, she turned, catching a glimpse of Grant's profile. If she didn't know better, she would swear he was a stone statue. With a sigh, she pulled her blanket to her shoulders and turned her gaze to the night sky. "I always loved Homer's Odyssey," Hetty said, smiling at the memory of herself sitting under the tree, living the adventure in her mind. She wondered now what people would say about her relating to the hero instead of the long-suffering wife. She looked up, hoping Grant would say something. His silence was disturbing.
     "And how do you think he would be as an old man, confined by age, to living within his four walls?" Grant asked, casting his eyes toward Hetty.
     "Never thought about it," Hetty responded. "I imagine he would still be a vital person. I don't think he'd even be slowed down. It wasn't his nature. What about you?"

Amazon

Doris Gardner-McCraw -
Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History
Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet
For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 
Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here




4 comments:

  1. That's a lot of books, thank you for sharing this. Your book sounds like a good read, I liked the excerpt , I really like the cover also. I'll have to add it to my books to read. God Bless you.

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    1. It is, and it was only a sample of some of the books released in those decades. As a lover of stories the boks from the past fascinate me, and reading Helen Jackson's books adds to that love.

      I hope you enjoy "The Outlaw's Letter", I had a blast wrangling it into something folks could read. Doris

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  2. Absolutely too many books to mention, Doris, although I admit I was looking for Uncle Tom's Cabin and Frankenstein in that list. And I, too, am curious what books will be mentioned a century from now.

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    Replies
    1. This was just a partial list, but I found it fascinating. It does make you wonder if our books will be on someone's list.

      "Frankenstein" was published in 1818, but "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published in 1852

      Doris

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