10 Victorian Bestsellers

The ten Victorian bestsellers published by Penguin Books in 2010, in the series "PENGUIN POCKET CLASSICS".

1. LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (9780141192338 )

2. PAUL CLIFFORD by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
(9780141191881)

3. JACK SHEPPARD by William Harrison Ainsworth
(9780141191898 )

4. THE STRING OF PEARLS by Thomas Preskett Prest (9780141192345)

5. THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins
(9780141191911 )

6. THE MOONSTONE by Wilkie Collins
(9780141191928 )

7. THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO by Ann Radcliffe
(9780141191935)

8. A SICILIAN ROMANCE by Ann Radcliffe
(9780141191942 )

9. THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO by Horace Walpole
(9780140437676 )

10. THE MONK by Matthew Lewis
(9780141191966 )

ISBN numbers are all to paper editions; the books appeared between April and May 2010.

Edwin, thanks for this provocative post. Obviously Penguin is a little self-serrving in this series, including only adult fiction readily available for reprint without need of much editorial labour. Yet somehow they managed to miss the works of Sir Walter Scott! Beyond that, a little research -- perhaps twenty seconds' worth -- reveals the enormous popularity, in innumerable editions, of the poetry of Byron and Moore. Then too there are the didactic and children's books like THE FAIRCHILD FAMILY. An examination of the latter is chilling, and a healthy corrective to any false longing for the not-so-good-old Nineteenth Century -- not that I am suggesting you have such a thing! -- Goddard

The Ann Radcliffe books may have been popular with the Victorians but were written pre-1837, surely. They are referenced by Jane Austen. Similarly for the other two Gothic novels.

In re Mrs Radcliffe (one of the loves of my life, even if we were both married to other people): UDOLPHO has always gotten better press, but I must put in a good word for THE ITALIAN, OR, THE CONFESSIONAL OF THE BLACK PENITENTS. Sadly, all the latter-day re-issues use tiny type, as if to replicate the horrors of reading by candle-light two centuries ago.

>3 CDVicarage:, 4

I hadn't thought of that;

I agree I would rather have seen a novel by Walter Scott or some more, other variation, rather than have two by Radcliffe and two by Collins.

>3 CDVicarage:
They are called Victorian bestsellers as in "Bestsellers during the Victorian times" and not as in "Books written during the Victorian times and becoming bestselling" - a book written earlier can be a bestseller later (in the case of Radcliffe, we know that she had been widely read during the Victorian era). Same for the other Gothic works.

#6 Thanks, I haven't seen this series, though I have nearly all the books in other editions.

I belong to a Gothic novels group and will claim some of these for the Gothic genre; although I am aware that some books may have elements of both. I consider anything by Ann Racliffe as Gothic; in fact she was known as the creator of the genre. #1,9, 10 are also often on the Gothic novel list.