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Historical novels

Another Kind of Life by Catherine Dunne (Picador, 2003)
Three sisters whose early life in Dublin, with their middle-class parents, has prepared them for a comfortable future. Further north, Mary and Cecilia, also sisters, are struggling to make a living in the linen mills of Belfast, amid rising political tension. This is an intricately crafted tale of how their lives entwine, against the backdrop of the rapidly changing Ireland of the late 19th century.
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The Doorstep Girls by Valerie Wood (Black Swan, 2003)
Set in the slums of Middle Court, the poorest place in Hull, Ruby and Grace have worked at the local cotton mill since they were nine years old. With the decline of the industry and money ever scarcer, Grace becomes involved in a militant campaign against poverty and injustice, while Ruby is tempted into prostitution.
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The Fall of Light by Niall Williams (Picador, 2002)
A beautiful tale of families, gypsies, horses and love set in Ireland, in the difficult years of the mid-19th century.
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Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (Virago Press, 2003)
A damning critique of Victorian moral and sexual hypocrisy; this is Water's third lesbian Victoriana. Her suspense novel is awash with all manner of gloomy Dickensian leitmotifs: pickpockets; orphans; grim prisons; lunatic asylums; 'laughing villains'; and, of course, 'stolen fortunes and girls made out to be mad'.
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Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser (HarperCollins, 1999)
Soldier, duellist, lover, imposter, coward, cad and hero, Harry Flashman – the villain in Tom Brown's Schooldays – triumphs in this first instalment (1839-1842) of The Flashman Papers . His adventures as the reluctant secret agent in Afghanistan and his entry into the exclusive company of Lord Cardigan's Hussars culminate in his foulest hour: the historic disaster of the retreat from Kabul. There are 11 other Flashman novels, all of which have been meticulously researched, and which take readers to virtually every hotspot in Europe, Asia and the United States during the 1840s and 1850s.
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The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles (Vintage, 1996)
The story of a woman wronged, depicted against an unrelenting Victorian England. Set in Lyme Regis in 1867, it is shot through with authorial comment and insight to provide a critique of the Victorian novel.
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A Metropolitan Murder by Lee Jackson (Heinemann, 2004)
Jackson's second novel brilliantly recreates the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian London, taking readers on a suspense-filled journey through its criminal underworld.
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Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper case closed by Patricia Cornwell (Time Warner, 2003)
With the firsthand expertise she has gained through writing the best-selling Dr Kay Scarpetta novels, Cornwell uses the demanding methods of modern forensic investigation to re-examine the evidence in the Jack the Ripper murders of Victorian England.
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The Private Life of Florence Nightingale by Richard Gordon (House of Stratus, 2001)
This harsh and gritty story does little to perpetuate the myth of the gentle lady of the lamp. Instead, through the eyes of his impassioned narrator, Richard Gordon – author of Doctor in the House – lays bare the truth of this complex and chilling character.
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The Quincunx: The inheritance of John Huffam by Charles Palliser (Penguin, 1995)
Palliser's inspiration is the work of Dickens, Wilkie Collins and other early Victorian novelists. All the elements of a great Victorian novel are here – mysterious characters and happenings, bizarre and strange characters, mixed with amazing details of life in early Victorian England.
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Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor (Secker & Warburg, 2003)
Personal dramas of the most distressing kind play themselves out against the background of the Irish potato famine and the almost equal nightmare of the mass emigration that it caused. As passengers on a ship die of starvation and disease in steerage, a drama of adultery and incest plays itself out in first class.
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The Sweetest Thing by Fiona Shaw (Virago Press, 2003)
A tale of love, ambition and betrayal, set against the backdrop of a Quaker-run cocoa factory in York in the late 1800s.
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