What novels have had a substantial real-world effect?

I think I'd want to include The Handmaid's tale because of the impact on protest, the fact it's such a widely referred to book in the realm of women's rights (or lack thereof)

Invisible Women by Perez - I see her book and ideas from it all over social media and in various programmes, even comedies. I don't know if most know they are quoting her research but it has changed a lot in a few years; the world's first female crash test dummies we trialed in last month.

Huckleberry Finn
All Quiet on the Western Front

Dickens used most of his novels to highlight injustice, child labour and poverty by sneaking mention of dire situations into the stories. Having experienced poverty himself in his childhood, including a time when he was sent to work in a bottle blacking factory, he also wrote many articles on the subject in which he strongly argued against the idea that poverty was caused by some sort of moral failure.

Once he was successful he used his position to support many anti poverty campaigns, he donated money raised from his public reading to good causes and helped set up a women's refuge. He also campaigned fiercely for the banning of public hangings, having been appalled at the festival like behaviour of the crowd at the public execution of a woman who had murdered her abusive husband

50 shades of grey probably helped the choking of women become acceptable.

I agree. I think the Labour landslide was due more to people having fought a hard war and thinking that they needed a peace that offered more than just a return to the status quo. Labour were offering things like the NHS which was very attractive to a population where huge numbers of people couldn't afford to see a doctor.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist (great book and much loved in Hastings - not far from me - because Mugsborough is based on the town) was, and still is, popular with socialist activists rather than being a popular best seller.

Certainly created pressure for reform of Poor Laws, which did happen.

Poor Law reform happened before Oliver Twist was published. Whether for better or worse is debatable, but it didn't happen because of Oliver Twist.

It largely happened for the same reason as there is pressure to reform the benefits system today - the ever increasing cost.

The podcast Journey Through Time just did a three part series on A Christmas Carol with an emphasis on the effect it had on society - Christmas wasn’t massively celebrated when it came out and it was an important part of a revival, as well as raising awareness of the cruelty of Victorian legislation that put the poor in workhouses.

Thanks. That's really helpful.

Good question, I'm not sure on that one.

Wild Swans by Jung Chang made people much more aware of the horrors of the cultural revolution than they had previously been.

Did The Mayor of Casterbridge as well? Because that would make a lot of sense.

Germinal by Emile Zola

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte both influenced the debate around divorce legislation.

Water Babies, yes, but Ragged Trousered Philanthropists? Can you provide more info about direct impact of RTP? I was going to mention it, then didn't as I could really think of its wider RL impact outside already socialist circles (and you needed more than that to win thst election)

It was published at the height of civil rights activism in America, it’s widely thought that MLK’s speech where he spoke about wanting children to be judged by the content of their character was a direct reference to the novel. It has been a foundational text in America schools ever since and often further afield (I first read it in school). Barack Obama said that it was the one story that “changed the way we saw each other, and then the way we saw ourselves". It had massive cultural resonance and, even as things improved, was a timely reminder to never go back to those times. It’s in the fabric of history as much as change of law to be honest. Kids being brought up to see injustice for what it is.

wait, so Keir Starmer is responsible for Christmas Jumper Day?! mind.blown

The Waterbabies by Charles Kingsley led to the abolition of child chimney sweeps.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell was allegedly the book that won the Labour Party landslide after WW2.

It's a fantastic book but I didn't know that it had a RL impact. Any more info?

Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers (The sorrows of young weather) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Sparked the Romantic Movement in Europe and was said to have caused many copycat suicides.

The first Bridget Jones book is responsible for Christmas jumpers as we know them now, in their ironic form. When she goes to the drinks party and Mark Darcy turns round in the jumper knitted by his mum. The book description is very funny.

I was so closed to doing the same and even googled Mary Wollstonecraft as I couldn’t remember how to spell it! But yes, not a work of fiction.

Speaking of googling spellings, I just had to check this one too - Radclyffe Hall The Well of Loneliness.

1984

What about Mary Walstoncroft - Vindication of the Rights of Women. I’ve not read it but probably should. Edit - it’s not fiction - doh!

To Kill a Mockingbird is a massive one.