The Heroines' Library – Classic Literature Advent Calendar

A hand-illustrated advent calendar for book lovers: find 24 hidden doors in an elegant drawing-room library and guess the classic heroine behind each one.

Product description

Snow is falling outside the tall windows. The fire is lit, the tea is poured, and Father Christmas has settled into the wingback chair with a very good novel.

All around him, among the bookshelves, the pianoforte, the harp and the tea table, 24 little doors are hiding. Behind each one is a heroine from a classic novel, caught in her most unforgettable moment. Every morning in December, find the door, open it and guess who she is.

A muddy hem after a walk across the fields. A governess with a candle in a dark corridor. A woman in black velvet on a snowy railway platform. A girl who throws a dictionary out of a carriage window… How many will you recognise?

How it works

1. Find the door. Search the drawing room for today's number, hidden on a bookshelf, a painting, a window pane or the Christmas tree.
2. Open it. A hand-drawn scene of a famous heroine is waiting inside.
3. Guess the heroine, and her novel. Name her, then name the book (and the author) for bonus points.
4. Check the answers on Christmas Eve. All 24 heroines, with their novels, authors and publication years, are listed on an illustrated answer sheet, sealed in its own envelope.

Why readers love it

• A puzzle, not just a countdown: 24 mornings of recognising old friends from the books you love.
• Two centuries of great heroines: Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Tess, Lily Bart, Mrs Dalloway, Cosette and many more, by Austen, the Brontës, Eliot, Hardy, Tolstoy, Wharton, Woolf and others.
• Hand-illustrated artwork: a cosy ink-and-watercolour drawing room full of teacups, ribbons, a birdcage and a sleepy spaniel to spot.
• Screen-free and sugar-free: a quiet December ritual with a cup of tea, not a sugar rush.
• Made for sharing: perfect for book clubs, mothers and daughters, sisters and best friends to play together.

Perfect for

Lovers of classic novels, Jane Austen and Brontë fans, book club members, literature students and teachers, and anyone whose favourite Christmas gift is a good book.

What's included

• 1 illustrated advent calendar, A4 landscape (21 × 29.7 cm / 8.3 × 11.7 in), with 24 perforated doors
• 1 illustrated answer sheet listing all 24 heroines with their novels, authors and publication years
• 1 illustrated "The Answers" envelope to keep the solutions secret until Christmas Eve

Good to know

• The calendar contains no food or treats. The surprise behind each door is a heroine to guess.
• The answers are in English.
• Recommended for ages 12+, and best enjoyed by grown-up readers.

24 doors, 24 heroines, and the most literary December yet. Reader, she guessed them all. 📖🫖🎄