Dickensian vibes but not Dickens?

[slet]

Can anyone recommend anything with this sort of feel- I want to read about Victorian London in the winter, but I don’t want actual dickens as I have read most of it and it’s a bit convoluted at times.

Any recommendations?

Not London, but Elizabeth Gaskell- North & South, and Cranford

Wilkie Collins!

The Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. The short stories are excellent and better than the four full length novels. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is a Christmas story.

Agree about Wilkie Collins. I love The Moonstone.

Not London but there are some great French writers of a similar period. I think I remember Balzac being a bit like Dickens.

Yes The Blue Carbuncle is perfect London and Christmassy.

Dh and I like to listen to the audiobook or watch the Jeremy Brett tv version at Christmas and we both get a bit teary-- at the end.--

Set in 19th century France not London but try Zola.
The Ladies Paradise - Parisian department store
Germinal - oppressed coal miners
Nana - from poor sex worker to actress

Agree about Willie Collins.
You could also have a look at Arnold Bennett - set around the Potteries

Leon Garfield. They are children's books, but on the bleaker side. A very Dickensian feel.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

Definitely! The Woman in White or No Name are really good!

I don't know if it's in print, but The Quincunx by Charles Palliser, published in 1989. Superficially it looks like a pastiche of Victorian novels like Dickens, but it's more complex than that. It covers aspects of Victorian and pre-Victorian society that authors of the time couldn't talk about explicitly, such as sex work. I absolutely loved it. May have a go at re-reading in the New Year.

George Gissing is similar to Dickens (but easier and less theatrical)! They were contemporaries.

Investigations of Mr Whicher (or something like that) about first big real life murder mystery. Also Rest is History are doing Jack the Ripper at the mo and talking about lots of stuff to do with Victorian London around the murders.

(I know you didn’t ask for podcasts!)

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber.

I was coming on to say this-it’s one of my favourite books

I just read a sort of murder mystery set in the period -The Art of a lie. I don’t normally like murder mysteries but this was very good

‘The Five - The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper’ by Halle Rubenhold. Non fiction but an easy read and absolutely fascinating. I’d also recommend George Gissing. Anthony Trollope is also good.

Yes, Sherlock Holmes is a good choice.

I think most foreigner’s view of London is a mash up of Dickens, Sherlock Holmes, Oscar Wilde, Mary Poppins and the Guy Ritchie films.

If you like that snowy Victorian vibe, watch the original film adaptation of H G Wells’ Time Machine (not the re-make). It opens with a wonderful depiction of a snowy London on New Year’s Eve 1899.

Agree with this and The Quincunx.

Another wilkie Collins fan here

A modern twist on Dickens, but set in Victorian Sunderland, The Dress Lodger is an amazing book (warning: pretty damn dark!) I'm not 100% sure it's still in print in the UK, but you can get it online second hand; it's one of the most gripping reads I've had in the last few years.

Lots of good Trollope that is fun and not convoluted like Dickens - my favourites are Dr Thorne and The Way We Live Now!

I'm a bit late to this thread but my suggestion would be DJ Taylor - Kept and Derby Day. Both set in the 19th c and very Dickensian!

The Crimson Petal and the White, Michael Faber.

I also suggest The Crimson Petal and the White, it’s like a feminist Dickens.