BABBLING BOOKS

missunderstood · Babblers First Words Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 5

I wasn't sure where to post this but hopefully it's ok to post it here. Can anyone suggest novels that are a mix of fact and fiction but which are also based in the Victorian era? Preferably featuring an actual Victorian heroine too! Tall order, but I'm sure there are similar titles already out there! Thanks in advance.

charlottestar · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:54 pm Post subject:

Um...that's a difficult one. So you want historical fiction based on fact kind of thing?
Ok well here's few I can think of....

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood about a real life woman called Grace Marks who was convicted of killing her employer in Canada in 1843

Scapegallows by Carol Birch (actually set in 1817 so not quite Victorian) is about a woman called Margaret Catchpole who escaped the gallows twice.

The Captain's Wife by Douglas Kelley is about Mary Ann Patten who. after the death of her husband, sailed his ship around Cape Horn alone (i.e. as captain not alone alone)

That's all I can think of for the moment...but I'll keep my thinking cap on.

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue is a good one but it's not Victorian it's set in 1760 so perhaps too early.

Update: I thought of a another one!
How about ..Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster which is about the romance and relationship between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning told through the eyes of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's maid, Elizabeth Wilson.

Tigerlily · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:34 pm Post subject:

I can't think of any novels, but I was thinking of a book today that reads like a novel it's that interesting and juicy. Do you like the Pre-Raphaelites? If so, then the book I'm on about (and loved to bits) is Pre-Raphaelites in Love by Gay Daly. It's about their private lives, the affairs they had with their models, the times in which they lived and how it is portrayed in their paintings, the drugs they took etc.

A portrait of the Pre-Raphaelites and the women they loved and painted. It describes the scandals, betrayed lovers, secret dalliances, endless engagements, stormy marriages and suicides that affected this group.

I've read it twice. I really can't better Charlottestar's recommendations.
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Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10

Daniela-26 · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:16 am Post subject:

Tigerlily · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:00 am Post subject:

Kilgore Trout · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:34 pm Post subject:

Perhaps not quite what you were thinking, but for a bit of fun you might like to try The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol.1 /2 by Alan Moore.

They are graphic novels and will really test your knowledge of Victorian literature as EVERY single character has appeared in a book from that era. Some of the references are obvious and some are very obscure. For example, one of the lead characters is Wilhelmina Murray (aka Mina Murry from Bram Stoker's Dracula). Even the very minor characters will have popped up somewhere else.

There are actually entire websites that disect the books piece by piece an discuss all the subtle references, such as http://www.geocities.com/athens/olympus/7160/league1.html

But for just a general overview, Wikipedia has an interesting entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen

The stories themselves are great and you don't have to be up on your Victorian literature to enjoy them. Although I do realise that graphic novels are not everybodys cup of tea, these good fun!

Chris

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2008 '1001 Challenge' Books: 9

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