Victorian London

[shivbo2014]

I'm currently reading the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the ripper and loving it. Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for any other books set in Victorian London? Both fact and fiction would be great!

Have a look at Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber.

And Dickens of course. Our Mutual Friend is excellent.

Sorry - Michel Faber, not Michael

Inventing The Victorians - Matthew Sweet

Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty And The Mad-doctors In Victorian England - Sarah Wise

I was coming on the thread to say your first two! Also Affinity also by Sarah Waters.

Just posted on another thread, Lauren Owen 'The quick.' There are some supernatural elements, but also well researched insights into circus performers, street food, slums, the theatre - quite a good snapshot of Victorian life.

Thank-you, I'll take a look at these!

Another vote for The Crimson Petal and the White - whopper of a book but you won’t want to put it down!!

@shivbo2014 a few ideas from this 19thc London obsessive! Another Sarah Wise - The Blackest Streets. Fascinating and grim exploration of 19thc poverty.

Lee Jackson’s Dirty Old London - he makes the topic of the city’s filth unexpectedly readable! He’s also well worth following on Twitter.

The Victorian City by Judith Flanders is a stonking book about London (highly recommend her The Victorian House too).

Rosemary Ashton’s One Hot Summer looks in detail at the London of 1858, when the Thames was so foul that people were almost physically sick from the stench 😯🤮 She focuses particularly on Darwin, Dickens and Disraeli but it’s really interesting.

All non-fiction.

George Gissing's novels, especially New Grub Street

And Henry Mayhew's amazing sociological book London Labour and the London Poor

Daniel O'Thunder by Ian Weir is good. The Crimson Petal and the White is just brilliant and one is my favourite books.

Lee Jackson’sDirty Old London - he makes the topic of the city’s filth unexpectedly readable! He’s also well worth following on Twitter.

His website Dictionary of Victorian London is well worth a look too.

Another vote for both The Crimson Petal and the White (my favourite book!) and Fingersmith. Both brilliant neo-Victorian novels.

The Crimson Petal is an astonishing book. One of the best I've ever read.

Thanks, everyone. I've just ordered the blackest streets and the crimson petal and the white as well as the worst street in london, which was also recommended to me.

A London child of the 1870s , A London Girl of the 1880s and A London Family of the 1890s by Molly Hughes.

Not dramatic but an interesting portrait of a middle class family in Victorian London. Rather less staid than you'd think.

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. A share shark living in Mayfair.
Based on several real life swindlers and dealers preying on the minor aristocracy who were too lazy to investigate these dubious schemes.
It is a long novel. with finely drawn characters.
IMO

Love The Way We Live Now, it feels very modern.

Oh and London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins, and The Heart of London by Monica Dickens.

Peter Ackroyd is great on Victorian London. Try his biographies of Dickens and Charlie Chaplin.

Or how about Alan Moore’s chilling From Hell. It’s a graphic novel about Jack the Ripper, but it really brings the place alive.

Dickens is the obvious writer. Harold Bloom describes Dickens’s London as a “phantasmagoria.” I love that - it’s the perfect word.

I haven't read the other two but the Crimson Petal and the White is one of my favourite books, glad you've ordered that one.

One of my other favourites is David Copperfield. I really would recommend reading that one too

And of course the Sherlock Holmes stories, which are mostly set in London.

Great thread, was looking for something good to read, just ordered The Crimson Petal and the White.

The Victorian City by Judith Flanders is a stonking book about London (highly recommend herThe Victorian Housetoo).

I loved The Victorian City - absolutely fascinating.