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Original poster

Looking for recommendations of fiction set in 18th and 19th century

83 replies

EluneBePraised · 30/08/2022 21:57

Hi can anyone recommend books set in the 1700s/1800s? I've read several in the last few years, authors include:

Sarah Perry
Jane Harris
Stacey Halls
Georgette Heyer

I've also read Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Longbourn and Wakenhyrst. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks!

OP posts:
YingMei · 01/09/2022 18:32

Moonlight and the Pearler's daughter - set in Western Australia in the 1880s.
Lily by Rose Tremain is set in London mid 1800s.
Dictionary of Lost words although that is technically set at the very start of the 20th century.
I've enjoyed all these in recent months

DiscoBadgers · 01/09/2022 18:32

Basically all of Jennifer Donnelly’s non-fairytale books. A gathering light is brilliant - it’s set in rural NY in the late 1800s. These shallow graves takes place in Manhattan in the same period. The Rose series - Tea Rose, Summer Rose, Winter Rose - take place in London right at the time of the ripper killings.

Antonia Hodgson’s Jack Hawkins books, starting with the Devil in the Marshalsea are all set in London in the mid-1700s.

Sarah Waters - Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith.

EmmaH2022 · 01/09/2022 18:28

Oh hang on, the title does say 19th century!

deeplybaffled · 01/09/2022 18:27

If crime fiction or spin offs are your thing, I can strongly recommend both Anne Perry for a serious approach, or Elizabeth Peters for something more light hearted!

EmmaH2022 · 01/09/2022 18:27

JaninaDuszejko · 01/09/2022 18:23

Affinity is Victorian I think, but recommend it anyway.

'The Cost of Sugar' by Cynthia McLeod is about the sugar trade in 18th century Suriname seen through the eyes of two sisters.

Sorry
my brain read 1700 - 1900 for sone reason.

RiftGibbon · 01/09/2022 18:25

Actual authors from this period who wrote great stories - Elizabeth Gaskell and Mary Braddon

JaninaDuszejko · 01/09/2022 18:23

Affinity is Victorian I think, but recommend it anyway.

'The Cost of Sugar' by Cynthia McLeod is about the sugar trade in 18th century Suriname seen through the eyes of two sisters.

BigFatLiar · 01/09/2022 18:22

The woman in white - Wilkie Collins

EmmaH2022 · 01/09/2022 18:09

tinselvestsparklepants · 30/08/2022 22:07

The Crimson Petal and the White (Michel Faber)
Music and Silence (Rose Tremain)

Both beautifully written.

Love these

also, "Affinity" by Sarah Waters.

heronsinflight · 31/08/2022 16:17

William Golding's To The Ends Of The Earth trilogy, which starts with Rites Of Passage, is superb.

NannyR · 31/08/2022 09:20

PandaOrLion · 30/08/2022 23:19

Burial Rites. It’s the best book I’ve ever written and is about the last woman to be hanged in Iceland in 1800s.

I can second this suggestion, it's a brilliant book, very well written.

Original poster
EluneBePraised · 31/08/2022 07:25

Thanks to everyone for your replies, you've given me some great suggestions.

Bigfatliar no particular type of fiction but thanks for the Cookson recommendation, I remember my DF talking about one of her books a while ago so I'll look into that.

That's a great list FuncaMunca I've heard of a couple of them but didn't realise their time settings match what I'm looking for.

DisplayPurposes I read Gillespie and I a few years back and while it was good, I found it really disturbing! Jane Harris is great, I hope she brings more books out.

Terpischore I tend to lurk a lot on the 50 book thread and while I get loads of ideas I'm not ready to join! This Thing Of Darkness was one of my standout reads off the back off the thread though.

OP posts:
wizzler · 30/08/2022 23:44

Precious Bane by Mary Webb

Aria999 · 30/08/2022 23:42

Have you also read Georgette heyer's detective stuff?

It's quite like the romances (light social comedy) but with detectives in.

Terpsichore · 30/08/2022 23:40

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford. One of my top books last year (I was late getting round to it - it was published in 2016). It's set in New York in the 1740s.

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, about the French Revolution.

Come over to the 50 Books thread and it won’t be long before someone urges you to read Harry Thompson's This Thing of Darkness - it’s a thread favourite. It’s based on the story of Robert FitzRoy and the voyage of the Beagle.

YesThisIsMe · 30/08/2022 23:26

Xiaoxiong · 30/08/2022 22:47

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and the ladies of grace adieu, both by Susannah Clarke are a brilliant pastiche of late 18th/early 19th c novels, I love them.

This.

Also Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

RosalindsAFuckingNightmare · 30/08/2022 23:22

I loved Evelina by Fanny Burney

PandaOrLion · 30/08/2022 23:19

Burial Rites. It’s the best book I’ve ever written and is about the last woman to be hanged in Iceland in 1800s.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 30/08/2022 23:16

Norah Lofts. No one does hardship like her!

JamieFrasersSassenach · 30/08/2022 23:09

Proudofeveryone · 30/08/2022 22:51

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

This - absolutely!!

nocoolnamesleft · 30/08/2022 23:09

A Bachelor's Establishment - amusing quirky regency romance by Jodi Taylor (originally under a nom de plume as Isabella Barclay, but I think generally under her own name now).

NoPrivateSpy · 30/08/2022 22:54

Anything by Dickens? Or do you mean modern books set in those eras, rather than writers of the time?

Proudofeveryone · 30/08/2022 22:51

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

DisplayPurposesOnly · 30/08/2022 22:50

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

DisplayPurposesOnly · 30/08/2022 22:48

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

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