The best Victorian novels: 8 doorstoppers worth the page count
The Victorians wrote serialized, plot-rich novels designed to be devoured chapter by chapter — which is exactly why they still read so well. Here are eight of the best, with a tip on where to start.
1. Great Expectations — Charles Dickens
An orphan, a mysterious benefactor, and Miss Havisham’s decaying mansion. The ideal Dickens starter.
2. Jane Eyre — Charlotte Brontë
A governess with an iron will and a secret in the attic. Gothic romance at its finest.
3. Middlemarch — George Eliot
A provincial town rendered with astonishing wisdom. The crown jewel of the era.
4. Tess of the d’Urbervilles — Thomas Hardy
A young woman ground down by fate and society. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
5. Bleak House — Charles Dickens
A never-ending lawsuit, fog, and one of literature’s great mysteries. Ambitious and rewarding.
6. Wuthering Heights — Emily Brontë
Obsession and revenge on the moors. The wildest book of the period.
7. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall — Anne Brontë
The overlooked Brontë’s bracingly modern novel about leaving a ruinous marriage.
8. The Woman in White — Wilkie Collins
The original sensation novel — mistaken identity, conspiracy, and pure page-turning suspense.
Where to start
New to the Victorians? Begin with Great Expectations or The Woman in White for momentum, then build up to Middlemarch and Bleak Houseonce you’re hooked.
Settle in
We keep used editions of these on our classics shelves — ask the Matchmaker where to begin. For more, see our classic novels by women and gothic classic novels.