Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved literature, especially for its daring use of language. Thatā€™s how I became interested in the weird and strange styles of the nineteenth century. For many scholars, the Victorian novel is the most realistic form of writing ever produced and the closest that the novel comes to cinemaā€”so if you notice an authorā€™s style, then somethingā€™s gone wrong because it disrupts the illusion of reality. But it doesnā€™t take much to realise that even the most realistic novels have styles that are highly distinct and that the Victorian period is full of other writers whose styles are bizarre, extreme, or fascinatingly eccentric. 


I wrote

Stylistic Virtue and Victorian Fiction: Form, Ethics, and the Novel

By Matthew Sussman,

Book cover of Stylistic Virtue and Victorian Fiction: Form, Ethics, and the Novel

What is my book about?

My book is about literary style: what it is, where it comes from, and how to describe it. Scholars ofā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Matthew Sussman Why did I love this book?

This book has become so familiar to us through cartoons and movies that we often forget how very weird it is as a piece of writing. The book begins when Alice, bored of her sisterā€™s company, notices a white rabbit muttering to itself ā€œOh dear! Oh dear!ā€, and starts to become curiousā€”not, mind you, because talking rabbits are impossible, but only because they are so very intriguing.

The rest of the book shares this bemused tone: Alice will be subjected to all sorts of indignities, including a near-beheading, but as a ā€œgoodā€ Victorian girl, she will generally accept the bizarre reality that is presented to her. Carrollā€™s mastery of language is key to this effect. Nearly every character sounds sensible, turning well-formed logical sentences, but they never make much actual sense, and their speeches are riddled with so many puns, double meanings, and other linguistic tricks that one can never take anything at face value.

A wonderful parody of the arbitrariness of linguistic (and other) systems, Carrollā€™s classic is the most verbally inventive fiction of its period. 

By Lewis Carroll,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel by English author Lewis Carroll (the pseudonym of Charles Dodgson). It tells of a young girl named Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a subterranean fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children.

One of the best-known and most popular works of English-language fiction, its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have been enormouslyā€¦


Book cover of The Egoist

Matthew Sussman Why did I love this book?

The first time I read this book, I was baffled. In the second chapter, we get introduced to the main character by being told that ā€œhe has a legā€ā€”the ā€œleg of the born cavalier,ā€ a ā€œburning leg,ā€ the ā€œleg that smiles, that winks, is obsequious to you, yet perforce of beauty self-satisfied.ā€

Clearly, this is no ordinary leg, but Meredith is no ordinary novelist. Skeptics claim that Meredithā€™s style is arch, theatrical, self-indulgent, and pompousā€”not unlike the central character of this book, a clueless narcissist named Willoughby who seeks to dominate everyone around him.

But I have since come to appreciate how Meredith draws on the full resources of the language to undercut anything (or anyone) that he deems insincere and artificial, blending the intensity of poetry with the exuberance of prose to create a style both versatile and original.  

By George Meredith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Egoist as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.


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Book cover of The Real Boys of the Civil War

The Real Boys of the Civil War by J. Arthur Moore,

The Real Boys of the Civil War is a research about the real boys who served during the war, opening with a historiography research paper about their history along with its 7-page source document. It then evolves into a series of collections of their stories by topic, concluding with aā€¦

Book cover of Marius the Epicurean

Matthew Sussman Why did I love this book?

Walter Paterā€™s only novel is not just weird for its style but also for its plot, which traces the development of a young man as he experiments with the various philosophies and religious sects of second-century Rome. But content and style go hand in hand, for, as Pater writes, ā€œThat preoccupation of the dilettante with what might seem mere details of form, after all, did but serve the purpose of bringing to the surface, sincerely and in their integrity, certain strong personal intuitions, a certain vision of apprehension of things as really being, with important results, thus, rather than thus.ā€

Language, in other words, is how we feel our way through the world, and the novel brilliantly captures the experience of being a young person for whom syntax and vocabulary constitute a way of life. When it was first published, many were repulsed by Paterā€™s convoluted syntax and rarefied tone, dismissing it as a professorā€™s novel. But this book reveals, with every exquisitely turned phrase, how language lies at the heart of our self-construction. 

By Walter Pater,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Marius the Epicurean as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Set in the second century AD, "Marius the Epicurean" follows the life of its eponymous protagonist, Marius. The story traces Marius' journey from his early years as a young Roman boy through his education, encounters with various philosophical and religious doctrines, and his search for meaning and fulfillment in life. The novel explores themes such as aesthetics, the pursuit of beauty, and the tension between hedonism and asceticism. Marius is depicted as a sensitive and introspective character, deeply influenced by his encounters with Stoicism, Epicureanism, and early Christianity. Pater uses Marius' experiences and reflections to delve into philosophical questions aboutā€¦


Book cover of The History of Henry Esmond

Matthew Sussman Why did I love this book?

Today, Thackeray is best remembered for Vanity Fair, but many of his fellow writersā€”including Anthony Trollope and later Virginia Woolfā€”thought Henry Esmond was his best book. The story itself can be hard to appreciate, delving into the intricacies of eighteenth-century politics. George Eliot called it ā€œthe most uncomfortable book you can imagineā€ because the hero ends up marrying his mother (figure).

The real charm of the book lies in its style, which is a painstaking pastiche of English in the age of Queen Anne. Thackeray insisted that the first edition be published using an eighteenth-century font to ensure the illusion was complete. Peppered with appearances by real historical figures (such as the poet Jonathan Swift), Henry Esmond set a new standard for the historical novel in English and paved the way for the parodies of later periods. 

By William Makepeace Thackeray,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The History of Henry Esmond as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'What spectacle is more august than that of a great king in exile? Who is more worthy of respect than a brave man in misfortune?' When "Henry Esmond" appeared in 1852, noted writers and critics of the time acclaimed it as the best historical novel ever written. Set in the reign of Queen Anne, the story follows the troubled progress of a gentleman and an officer in Marlborough's army, as he painfully wrestles with an emotional allegiance to the old Tory-Catholic England until, disillusioned, he comes to terms of a kind with the Whiggish-Protestant future. This change also entails aā€¦


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Book cover of The Colour Out of Space

The Colour Out of Space by H. P. Lovecraft,

What would you do if a meteorite landed in your own front yard? And not just any meteorite, but one that turns out to be some kind of mysterious force that will drain the life out of you and your surroundings?

Illustrator Sara Barkat lends her vision to H.P. Lovecraftā€™sā€¦

Book cover of The Wood Beyond the World

Matthew Sussman Why did I love this book?

When I first came across this story by William Morris, I didnā€™t think it was Victorian at all. The language and tone are archaically medieval, as are the plot points involving daggers and dwarves. And yet Morris was very much a nineteenth-century writer insofar as he shared that periodā€™s interest in foreign times and places, including the historical past.

While Thackeray liked the eighteenth century, Morris was obsessed with the Middle Ages, and this book represents an attempt to adapt the style and spirit of chivalric romances to the form of the modern novel. The resulting work, by turns dreamy and gripping, set the template for future novels of ā€œfantasyā€ (such as The Lord of the Rings), and still provides a fascinating way of escaping toā€”and fromā€”the nineteenth century.  

By William Morris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Wood Beyond the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A source of inspiration for the modern fantasy genre. A major influence on many writers of fantasy fiction, including C.S. Lewis (Narnia) and J.R.R. Tolkein (The Lord of the Rings). With a new Introduction by Ebenezer DuLally Uvney


William Morris (1834-1896) is best known as a designer of fabrics, wallpaper, tapestries, furniture, and stained glass windows. He was also a poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist, in fact one of the most culturally significant figures of Victorian Britain.
The Wood Beyond the World was published in 1894, towards the end of Morrisā€™s life. It tells ofā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Stylistic Virtue and Victorian Fiction: Form, Ethics, and the Novel

By Matthew Sussman,

Book cover of Stylistic Virtue and Victorian Fiction: Form, Ethics, and the Novel

What is my book about?

My book is about literary style: what it is, where it comes from, and how to describe it. Scholars of the novel typically say that the style reflects the contentā€”Hemingway, for example, writes in a ā€œtough,ā€ ā€œmasculineā€ style. But my book explores how style can get untethered from everything else in a text and float freely on its own, displaying an independent character. 

In the bookā€™s first half, I survey the history of style from Aristotle to the present to show how style has always been tugged between these two possibilities. In the second half, I examine the styles of major Victorian novelistsā€”Thackeray, Trollope, and Meredithā€”to show how style is never exactly what we think and often much more interesting than we imagine.

Book cover of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Book cover of The Egoist
Book cover of Marius the Epicurean

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