Welcome vaporist! We are going to talk about Victorian books . It is an extraordinary genre, of an absolutely inexhaustible richness and above all in constant renewal which will be able to give you countless ideas as much for your everyday outfits and accessories as for cosplay.
First of all, what is the Victorian genre itself? Well, you should know that from 1837 to 1901 , Queen Victoria reigned over England and therefore over the world, her empire where the sun never set. Her reign would influence and create the world of the 20th century with the industrial revolution. It was an effervescent period in terms of creation, so popular in the field of fiction, whether in literature, architecture , fashion, cooking...
First of all, you have to draw inspiration directly from the sources. We will help you discover or rediscover the best and most faithful representatives of the genre. For example, who does not know HG Wells with the War of the Worlds.
This is the great classic of science fiction, we can even say that the author is one of the inventors of the genre, it is read very quickly, the style is obviously a little old but it has this little old-fashioned charm. No need to tell you the story, there is a moment of the aliens of the Martians who attack... To read from the same author the essential time machine, Victorian science fiction in its purest form, heralding steampunk.
Another inspiration, also a great classic, a little thick but totally immersive, great hopes from Charles Dickens .
He is also the author of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield. Charles Dickens is incomparable in describing the social conditions of the working classes. In Great Expectations there are Gothic images to wish that Tim Burton has in no way denied. In particular the story of Miss Havisham, this woman who was abandoned on her wedding day and who since then, having become mad, lives in her house with the remains of the meal that was never eaten wearing her wedding dress. We find there all the components of the Gothic universe of this time.
Of course you can also read Sherlock Holmes . It's not just the BBC TV series. Reading Conan Doyle will give you all sorts of little details about the Victorian era and immerse you in the time. Note the absolutely authentic and colorful characters as well as the investigations that are not all known and very gripping.
Also read all the modern novels that take up the Victorian era . The very first one we recommend will be Drood by Dan Simmons . It is a real wink in itself because the mystery of Edwin Drood is the last work written by Charles Dickens. It is a murder story and it was a novel in episodes that never had a conclusion, the author died before the end of his story. We do not know how the mystery of Edwin Drood ends and who is the culprit.
Dan Simmons takes this postulate, he also takes another element of the life of Charles Dickens or a few years before his death, he is the victim of a train accident from which he miraculously escapes. In the novel he sees someone suspicious and obviously it is the beginning in the wreckage of this train of the whole intrigue ...
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Another gem of the Victorian uchronic genre is Anno Dracula by Kim Newman .
The Earl married Queen Victoria ... and when you have a vampire at the head of the country of England, things get very complicated. Suddenly many vampires are going to be murdered, people start to whisper that a certain Jack the Ripper might be in town and all the secrets hidden by our dear Dracula will finally be able to come to light. Truly the little gem that steampunk store recommends to you in the genre. namely the first one you can buy to familiarize yourself with these gigantic and extraordinary lands that are the Victorian era.
Another book; The Windfield Brand by Ken Follett . Here the great English best-selling author tells us a story in a posh, very posh, high society English school.
A mysterious drowning will mark the lives of all the students of the time and will continue from generation to generation. This is what we call a page-turner in English. You take the first page and you will not want to let go.
We continue with Mark Frost 's list of seven.
For some people you will recognize one of the writers of the series twin peaks. He ventured into the genre of the Victorian novel. The story is very uchronic, we find characters who really existed like Conan Doyle and all the themes of the time ... the occult, the machinations and the plots. This not very well-known book is really worth the detour and will be a real source of inspiration or immersion for lovers of the Victorian era.
Just like The Alienist written by Caleb Carr in 1896. The story takes place eight years after the Jack the Ripper murders in New York, a series of very strange murders hits the Big Apple.
There in the Victorian genre, we cross the pond as the English say and we find ourselves in the United States in an absolutely extraordinary atmosphere of this great novel by Caleb Carr.
The Victorian genre is also the comic strip and all comic strip fans know From Hell by Alan Moore .

It's thick, it's in black and white and it's a true masterpiece. It's an absolutely inimitable and unique dive into the Victorian universe. A dive that he would repeat a few years later with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen . Forget the film, it's a real disaster, and it's after this film that Alan Moore decided to no longer want to be associated with the various productions he was able to make in film. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is quite simply the great literary characters of the Victorian era, in a sort of Avengers (just to make a comparison) created by Alan Moore .
Namely, we will find Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray , Allan Quartermain, Mina Harker from Dracula and they will form this league of extraordinary characters who will, for example, in one of the episodes, confront the alien invasions of HG Wells .
Still in comics, in a more French-speaking and I would even say almost Norman way, you have the four from Baker Street .
We will explore a London in a more childish way with a Victorian universe that we sometimes have difficulty imagining with colors. We find the adventures of Sherlock Holmes ' child informants who will go through hills and dale to foil the worst traps that Victorian London can set for them.
There is not only the real literature of the Victorian era, there is also the genre that particularly interests us, steampunk .The genre of steampunk appeared in the 80s, more precisely when the inventors of cyberpunk namely William Gibson and Bruce Sterling created the difference engine .
So they write this novel where all the elements of the Victorian genre are taken but which they mix with anachronisms and especially a very industrial aesthetic. In this story it is Lord Byron who is Prime Minister, we find ourselves in a series of plots in which Charles Babbage is more or less involved. We will also find extraordinary machines like the kinoscope which is a kind of large computer ... in short we find all the progress of the industrial revolution mixed with an aesthetic described as retro futuristic. This absolutely unique atmosphere where we take this extraordinary era as a promise and where we will give it a very advanced technological aspect. To read absolutely like another classic, another founding book of the steampunk style ....
The Ways of Anubis , by Tim Powers , a book that will further establish the genre.
Blending themes of time travel, werewolf myth and Egyptian dark magic in Victorian London.
In short, the steampunk style , which is absolutely abundant, will be the subject of an article dedicated to the cream of the cream of steampunk novels. See you soon vaporist, think about sharing the article if, like us, you like the Victorian era and of course steampunk !
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