Defining Books of the Decade, Part 5: 1850s

The is part five of a series of discussions that will go by decade all the way up to the present. This is meant to be an in-depth discussion, so please be open and honest about what you think. You can talk about any or all books you've read from the featured decade, why you did or didn't like them, and any other points you want to make about the books or the era as a whole.

My favorite book of the 1850s has been A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, which I just finished last night. I loved the descriptions of England and France in the French Revolution. This was one of the few books I've read where the prose was the best part of the book for me. I also loved how Dickens used things that are a simple and timeless such as knitting and shoe-making, and turned them into a powerful and complex symbols. Some other major works of the decade include Bleak House, also by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

Part 1, 1810s

Part 2, 1820s

Part 3, 1830s

Part 4, 1840s