Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Victober is a month-long readathon, all about celebrating Victorian literature (British and Irish literature published and/or written 1837–1901).

Challenges and hosts:

1. Kate’s challenge: Read a Victorian book where friendship is featured.
youtube.com/@katehowereads @katehowereads youtube.com/watch?v=HmcjpgJwayE

2. Katie’s challenge: Read a work of Victorian literature that is not a novel (i.e. a play, short story, poem or work of non-fiction).
youtube.com/@katiejlumsden @katiejlumsden youtube.com/watch?v=_RWZlJaUU-E&pp=0gcJCR0AztywvtLA

3. Marissa’s challenge: Read a work of Victorian literature where a character experiences a change in class status (social mobility, rags to riches, fallen women, etc.)
youtube.com/@BlatantlyBookish @BlatantlyBookish youtube.com/watch?v=ztsTdAcdmcw

4. Ros’s challenge: Empire spotting: see how many times you can spot signs of the Empire in your Victober reading.
youtube.com/@scallydandlingaboutthebooks @scallydandlingaboutthebooks youtube.com/watch?v=kvMoJGm0YAs

5. Elizabeth’s challenge: Read a work by an underrated Victorian woman writer (meaning not the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, or Christina Rossetti).
youtube.com/@elizabethaliteraryprincess @elizabethaliteraryprincess youtube.com/watch?v=Egpr2t6NQIQ

6. Hannah’s challenge: Read a Victorian work that discusses education.
youtube.com/@HannahsBooks @HannahsBooks youtube.com/watch?v=ZrN1y5VK3Z4

7. Jess’s challenge: Step back in time—read a Victorian work set in a different era.
instagram.com/dickens.and.docks (our instagram champion!) youtube.com/@dickens-and-docks @dickens-and-docks youtube.com/watch?v=qMttOTjhLVk&pp=0gcJCR0AztywvtLA

8. Milena’s challenge: Spin a (digital) colourwheel and pick a Victorian book with a cover that primarily features that colour. You can pick any edition.
youtube.com/@MilenaReads @MilenaReads youtube.com/watch?v=ExhyaqrJff0

9. Roy’s challenge: Read a Victorian work of fantasy.
youtube.com/@royreadsanything [is me!]

10. Catherine’s challenge: Read a Victorian book that has a connection to Jane Austen.
youtube.com/@takingteawithcatherine @takingteawithcatherine youtube.com/watch?v=cRWSGhLwkFk

Completed 1–3 challenges = Mr Micawber level
Completed 4–6 challenges = Jane Eyre level
Completed 7–9 challenges = Sherlock Holmes level
Completed 10 challenges = Dracula level (because you have to be an immortal magical being in order to complete all ten challenges!)

Group Read:
Hester, Margaret Oliphant

Victober Discord: discord.gg/fG3q8mB2c2

Download the Bingo Card: drive.google.com/file/d/168mYn9yPWY1WbAvZZqAoC6Ny3IjCm_O8/view?usp=drive_link

Works mentioned:

My First Picture, Rosa Mulholland
Lizzie Leigh, Elizabeth Gaskell
Lady Mary's Experiences, Ada Maria Jocelyn
The Open Door and Other Stories of the Seen and Unseen, Margaret Oliphant
The Princess, Alfred Lord Tennyson
Brigadier Gerard, Arthur Conan Doyle
Letter to Dead Authors, Andrew Lang
Lilith, George MacDonald
The Glittering Plain, William Morris
The Time Machine, H G Wells




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