Historical fiction, Victorian era?

[treaclesoda]

I enjoy a bit of historical fiction (and read a fair bit of actual history too) but seem to have read an awful lot that is set in 16th century and thereabouts and fancied something different.

I quite fancy something set in the Victorian era, or even the very early 20th century at a push.

Can anyone suggest anything?
Thanks

[MamaMary]

Well there were a lot of novels actually written and published in the Victorian era - do they count? Pretty much anything by the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins - all fairly easy to read. More of a challenge (at least some of their works): Dickens, George Eliot.

If you mean fiction written much more recently I've also read a few of those - I'll have a think.

[whitershadeofpale]

Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White. Also Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith and Affinity are all Victorian, her latest The Paying Guests is set in 1922.

[MamaMary]

Recommend all the three Sarah Waters mentioned above, as well as Gillespie and I by Jane Harris and The Observations also by Jane Harris.

[agoodbook]

Tracy Chevalier
Linda Holeman
Jaqueline Winspear writes crime novels set just after the 1st world war,

[Sansarya]

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Morland Dynasty series has several volumes that span the Victorian age, although it helps if you've read the preceding books too.

[SoljaBonita]

Water Music by t.c Boyle, which is my favourite book ever,

[agoodbook]

forgot Ken Follett- love his books!

[treaclesoda]

Thanks for the suggestions, loads for me to investigate.

Embarassingly when I was thinking about this last night I had a bit of a blank and could only think of Dickens and I knew he wasn't the only writer of his era.

But yes, interested both in books written at that time and in more modern authors who have written books set in that era.

[highlandcoo]

Yy to Michel Faber, Sarah Waters and particularly Jane Harris - The Observations is one of my favourite books. Came on to thread to recommend all three.

Arnold Bennett is a great Edwardian writer who deserves to be more widely known. He wrote family sagas set in the Potteries which are very readable. The Old Wives' Tale and Clayhanger are particularly good.

[ImperialBlether]

Start with Sarah Waters' Fingersmith. It's beautifully written with a fantastic twist.

[jeee]

Susan Howatch, Cashelmara (famine, Ireland), Penmarric (late nineteenth/early twentieth century Cornwall).

[Sansarya]

Oh yes, definitely Susan Howatch. Also Reay Tannanill who wrote historical epics mainly set in Scotland in Victorian times.

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

Another fan of Sarah Waters and Michel Faber. Also Emma Donaghue's The sealed letter and Sarah Moss Bodies of Light - both excellent.

[lucysnowe]

The Quincunx and The Unburied by Charles Palliser (I am always recommending them on here!)

[DandyDan]

The Observations by Jane Harris;

in fact, also "Gillespie & I" by Jane Harris which is brilliant as well.

[bruffin]

Anne Perry Victorian detective novels
Jean Plaidy books about Queen Victoria are very good.

[PausingFlatly]

Dickens is hugely variable. I find some of it grippingly readable; some turgid trash.

My personal list of good Dickens reads is:
Bleak House
Tale of Two Cities (set in the C18th)
Our Mutual Friend
David Copperfield
The Pickwick Papers

Can take it or leave it:
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished)
Little Dorrit
Great Expectations
Dombey and Son (this one's teetering on the next category)


To be used only as loo roll:
Hard Times
Barnaby Rudge
The Old Curiosity Shop

[PausingFlatly]

Seconding Mrs Gaskell and Wilkie Collins.

[PausingFlatly]

If you're prepared to go a touch earlier than Victorian, there's Walter Scott. The Antiquary is one of my favourite books, but Rob Roy is an excellent read too.

Any Robert Louis Stevenson is a rollicking good read as well.

[PausingFlatly]

Um, with the exception of the The Tailor of Ballantrae, unless you have a taste for the exceptionally creepy.

[hifi]

www.amazon.co.uk/Falling-Angels-Tracy-Chevalier-ebook/dp/B002RI9D38/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Norah Lofts wrote some splendid Victorian ones - try Lovers All Untrue and Nethergate.

[SecretSpi]

Stone's Fall by Iain Pears

[Molewoman]

I recommend Lady's Maid, by Margaret Forster. If you're also interested in France in the 19th century, try Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (as in the musical, but with a lot more in it). There's a good English translation published by Penguin.

[MrsJolowicz]

It's ages since I read it, but I remember being impressed by A S Byatt's Possession. And there's always The French Lieutenant's Woman, some would say John Fowles' only good novel!