A Victorian Celebration Sign-up Post!

Welcome to the sign-up post for A Victorian Celebration, an event taking place this June and July! I'm really excited about this event, especially because I have been planning it for months. The Victorians are very near and dear to my heart. Some of my very favorite writers come from the era, and I still have many others to discover. During the months of June and July, I'm only going to be reading titles from this time period. I hope you'll decide to join me for a text or two.

The Victorian era in literature refers to the time that Queen Victoria was ruling in Britain (1837-1901). It was a time period of great peace and prosperity for Britain and allowed for a lot of artistic and literary expression. Generally speaking, Victorians are only the British authors who published during this time period. However, some like to group American writers and others into the mix since their work can be closely tied together.

To give you an idea of what writers I am talking about, some of the most well-known Victorian writers include: Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, and the Bronte sisters. Others include Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anna Sewell, and the Brownings. There are countless more, but these are the big hitters and those most commonly referred to as Victorians.

For this event, the goal is to read as many Victorian pieces as you wish during the months of June and July. I will have posts going up throughout the event on different authors, as well as my own reviews on Victorian pieces and biographies of writers. There will also be prizes (lots of them) that will go up throughout the two month event. If you are going to participate, you can read a novel from the era, a biography on a writer or Queen Victoria herself, or anything else pertaining to the era. All posts will help you qualify for prizes, which I'll explain as we get closer to the event's starting line!

(Important: I will allow you to read books by non-British writers if they were written during the time period of the Victorians, but for certain prizes those books won't count-more on that as the starting date appears).

To sign up, all you need to do is comment below with your intentions. :) Then, feel free to grab a button, spread the word, and help me get bloggers signed up. Events like this are more fun with more participants!

If you sign up by May 1, 2012, you will be entered to win YOUR CHOICE of the following (Victorian) Penguin Clothbound books:

• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens
• Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• Hard Times by Charles Dickens
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
•  A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Tess of D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

You can still sign up after May 1, but you won't be entered to win one of those titles (don't worry, plenty more prizes during the event!). The book will be shipped via The Book Depository, so as long as they deliver to your country, you will qualify to win the sign-up prize!

I hope you'll consider joining, and I look forward to lots of reading come June and July!

*I am looking for bloggers interested in writing guest posts or hosting a giveaway related to the event. If you are interested, please e-mail me at aliteraryodyssey (at) gmail.com so I can talk it over with you!*