Score

"Slammerkin" is a great book; it's not set in the Victorian Age, though, but roughly a century earlier ...

ETA: Similarly, Brecht's "Threepenny Opera" is an early 20th century adaptation of an 18th century (not Victorian!) ballad opera, namely, John Gay's "Beggar's Opera."

And on yet another note: My understanding of "historical" fiction is that it is "historical" (i.e., lying in the past) from the point of view of the WRITER, not merely his/her readers. I.e., any- and everything by Dickens and other writers actually living in the Victorian Age should not qualify for inclusion in this list, either.

Ashley, you created the list -- can you comment on the above?

I took Slammerkin off, and I'll get rid of Threepennny Opera as well, thanks for the heads up on these!

Personally, I agree with your understanding of historical fiction as well - written by someone who is looking back on that particular point in history, and not living it.

I was curious about this when I noticed one of the more popular lists of historical fiction includes a lot of books written by authors who were writing what was, to them, contemporary fiction. I came across some different definitions, some that included these authors, and most like this one from the Historical Novel Society's website:

"To be deemed historical (in our sense), a novel must have been written at least fifty years after the events described, or have been written by someone who was not alive at the time of those events (who therefore approaches them only by research)."

This was more my intent in creating this list. I'll include that in the description, and try to keep the list to that, I think.

Thanks!

I looked into Threepenny Opera a bit, and it does seem to be set in Victorian England - a bit of a blurry line, so I'll leave that one :)

You're right about the Threepenny Opera -- it's actually intended to be set right before Queen Victoria's coronation. It occurs to me I've never seen it performed in a Victorian setting, though (early 20th century virtually every single time)! Anyway, yeah, do leave Brecht/Weill by all means in light of this.

Here's a cool website on the piece, btw:

http://www.threepennyopera.org/storyS...

For more on books set in Victorian England check out this blog:

http://thebooklover.wordpress.com/tag...

Professor and the Madman is non-fiction.

True -- sorry for the oversight. I removed it.

Yep, interesting book, but non-fiction.

Kate Morton's The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden are really good... can't quite remember if they are Victorian or Edwardian, but certainly within that era. Also Micheal Cox's sequel to The Meaning of Night called The Glass of Time was really good.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is not fiction.

Indeed ...

Did you remove it? I went to, and didn't see it.

Yeah, I removed it yesterday :)

The Mystery of Charles Dickens isn't a book; it's a recording of a one-man stage show. Also available on DVD.

Are anything of these clean from language and honey-room scenes?

She walks in Beauty takes place in NYC, not England.

Deleted, along with a few others that were not set in England or not during the time frame.

Didn't #82 Year of Wonders take place earlier than Victorian times? I'm pretty sure it was late Medieval.

Pikachu wrote: "Didn't #82 Year of Wonders take place earlier than Victorian times? I'm pretty sure it was late Medieval."

It's set in 1665, so definitely not Victorian.

Zee wrote: "Pikachu wrote: "Didn't #82 Year of Wonders take place earlier than Victorian times? I'm pretty sure it was late Medieval."

It's set in 1665, so definitely not Victorian."

I removed it, along with a number of books by authors actually living in Victorian England and writing about their own time (i.e., books not qualifying as "historical fiction") -- most notably, Charles Dickens -- and David Liss's "Benjamin Weaver" series (set in 18th, not 19th century London).

Will leave The Observations and Greyfriars Bobby to Ashley's prerogative as the list creator.

Thanks for deleting those Themis-Athena! I hadn't thought about the Britain/England distinction, and I think I will change it to Britain and leave those two on the list :) Thanks for pointing it out Suzanne!