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Books sets in Victorian London (not Dickens)

36 replies

TellySavalashairbrush · 28/09/2023 17:15

I love Dickens I should hasten to add, but have read them all. I’m looking for fiction set in Victorian London. I read many Victorian authors at University but would love any suggestions in case I have missed some, even those written by modern day authors .

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TealOwl · 30/09/2023 21:18

The Wicked Cometh - Laura Carlin

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 30/09/2023 12:22

Terpsichore · 30/09/2023 11:11

I love Middlemarch. I keep meaning to re-read it but it’s a big commitment. It’s set in the Midlands though, not London.

Me too. I must get around to it sometime.

Terpsichore · 30/09/2023 11:11

I love Middlemarch. I keep meaning to re-read it but it’s a big commitment. It’s set in the Midlands though, not London.

drspouse · 29/09/2023 20:14

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/09/2023 13:40

Wonderful book, but set immediately after World War II.

The Quincunx is marvellous.

My favourite Wilkie Collins novel is The Moonstone.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Has anyone mentioned George Eliot? Daniel Deronda and Middlemarch are my favourites. Middlemarch is set a few years before Queen Victoria ascended to the throne, admittedly.

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I have the wrong one then! I meant the Ruby in the Smoke! Gah!

JaninaDuszejko · 29/09/2023 14:28

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I was going to say Daniel Deronda (which is mainly set in London).

What about The Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde? Late Victoriana and very readable, my 15yo read it recently and loved it.

Annasoror · 29/09/2023 13:41

George Reynolds
Harrison Ainsworth

Both Dickens's contemporaries.
Wordsworth Classics have the original The String of Pearls, which is Sweeney Todd and set in London.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/09/2023 13:40

drspouse · 29/09/2023 10:34

Tiger in the Smoke

Wonderful book, but set immediately after World War II.

The Quincunx is marvellous.

My favourite Wilkie Collins novel is The Moonstone.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Has anyone mentioned George Eliot? Daniel Deronda and Middlemarch are my favourites. Middlemarch is set a few years before Queen Victoria ascended to the throne, admittedly.

ScribblingPixie · 29/09/2023 12:45

@highlandcoo it's definitely more than 20 years since I read it! My friends and I were absolutely obsessed with it when it was first published.

MagpieCastle · 29/09/2023 10:54

highlandcoo · 29/09/2023 10:24

@ScribblingPixie I've had The Quincunx in my bookcase for over twenty years and I'm not at all sure why I haven't read it yet. On paper it's everything I like in a novel. I think I hesitated as I thought it might have a tricksy rather than a straightforward narrative style. I should give it a go though.

Ha! I was just about to post exactly the same. Am off to hunt it out from the bookshelves right now. Some great suggestions in this thread.

sipsqueak · 29/09/2023 10:53

Vanity Fair?

Lamelie · 29/09/2023 10:51

Also Liza of Lambeth, Somerset Maugham which I’ve never finished but the London slums descriptions are very evocative.
Kate Greenville’s Secret River is set on NSW but starts in London and is Victorian era- one of my favourite books.

Cinnamonandcoal · 29/09/2023 10:49

And Sherlock Holmes, of course.

HoHoHoliday · 29/09/2023 10:46

A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison. It's fiction but set in a real place, the old jago in east London, thought to be the worst slum in Victorian London.
Several other books and short stories by Arthur Morrison set in the same period.

Cinnamonandcoal · 29/09/2023 10:43

Such good suggestions. Love the Crimson Petal and the White. And Possession.

The Five also brilliant non fiction.

If you like fun fantasy stuff then Anno Dracula by Kim Newman. Alternate fantasy history with lots of real people as characters.

BitOutOfPractice · 29/09/2023 10:36

I also was going to suggest Wilkie Collins. I love The Woman in White so much!

Lamelie · 29/09/2023 10:36

Manchester not London but Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell.
Also North and South which isn’t London either 🤔

drspouse · 29/09/2023 10:34

Tiger in the Smoke

highlandcoo · 29/09/2023 10:24

@ScribblingPixie I've had The Quincunx in my bookcase for over twenty years and I'm not at all sure why I haven't read it yet. On paper it's everything I like in a novel. I think I hesitated as I thought it might have a tricksy rather than a straightforward narrative style. I should give it a go though.

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 29/09/2023 10:21

Place-marking for interesting recommendations.

highlandcoo · 29/09/2023 10:21

@CrossPurposes I also read The Way We LIve Now - a long time ago. Melmotte was a fantastic character. With all his financial shenanigans, politicking and frantic social climbing I'm sure it would resonate nowadays as much as it did 150 years ago. I should reread it; thanks for the reminder. Love Trollope.

I worked my way through the Barsetshire Chronicles during lockdown. The Warden is a little slow. but once you get into the rest they're a great read.

ScribblingPixie · 29/09/2023 09:56

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser.

KakiFruit · 29/09/2023 09:54

They're technically YA but I really love the Sally Lockhart series by Philip Pullman and think they're fine for an adult. Ruby in the Smoke is the first one.

The Woman in White is the best Wilkie Collins imo.

Have you read Frankenstein? A very different experience from any of the films.

If you like nonfiction, The Five (Hallie Rubenhold, about the Ripper victims) and The Ghost Map (Steven Johnson, about the man who discovered cholera was spread via water) are excellent.

BlueChampagne · 29/09/2023 09:50

Jack Maggs by Peter Carey

CrossPurposes · 29/09/2023 09:45

highlandcoo · 28/09/2023 23:33

I came on to suggest Fingersmith and The Crimson Petal and the White!

How about Trollope's Palliser novels? A very different side of London society from that portrayed by Dickens. And if you enjoy them there are six in the series.

I've not read any of the Pallisters though I loved the TV series when it was repeated. I think The Way We Live Now by Trollope is a great read (and also was adapted well).

Terpsichore · 28/09/2023 23:41

And I was just about to say Trollope too!

Matthew Kneale's Sweet Thames is set in London at the time of the notorious 'Great Stink' of the 1850s. There’s another on the same subject, actually just called The Great Stink, by Clare Clark.