What book from the Victorian era would you would like to see illustrated?

[auversoi]

book or scene from a book?
I am curious because I have a project in mind.
Thank you.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Well I am quite a fan of Victorian literature and it does stretch far - so there are many. It’s an interesting and unusual question by the way, so I see there must be some sort of project in mind. Really there is just so much, but the cream of personal preference I would go with Wilde’s Dorian Gray, in particular the portrait, (see my avatar) but anything in that novel would be grand, Hardy’s Jude and Tess, the bleak scenes on the moor of Wuthering Heights, scenes illustrating the poetry of Keats, maybe in the likes of "To Autumn," Wordsworth in "Tintern Abbey" (yes they are not “Victorian” strictly speaking but are placed close to Victorian literature often) the likes of Austen (same again) George Eliot in Silas Marner, Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (just for kicks) maybe the “cosy” fireplace in James’ Turn of the Screw.

Above all anything from Dorian Gray as I have said, even them drinking things "with strawberries in it" that would go up on my wall. I have an original of Wilde's house on Merrion Square from an artist (Pete Hogan) when I visited Dublin a couple of years ago. I touched the house that Wilde lived in, very proud moment in my life, bless him forever.

What on earth are you doing with this project anyway?

[JBI]

Just so you know - almost all the popular ones did come out in illustrated editions. Generally there was a higher quality reprinting featuring illustrations for a higher price, often printed on rag paper. Zola's L'Assommoir for instance, had illustrations by the then just starting out, Renoir.

You could probably find many of these in antiquarian bookshops, or from ABE Books online (I have never bought there, but one of my professors who has a background in material bibliography recommended it).

[auversoi]

Thanks alot, you have provided me with lots of ideas. I am a painter and my subject matter is from the Victorian Era and 1 painting is based on an Edgar Allen Poe, now I would like to concentrate more on literature.

[Moloko87]

Definitely the Picture of Dorian Gray
anything really but I would to see something with Dorian and Sibyl Vane.

[JBI]

I believe there was an illustrated Dorian Gray put out shortly after the books publication. It certainly has had drawings from it illustrated recently though:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Doriangray.jpg