Books written during 1895-1905

[Lyra Jean]

I'm writing a novel that is set during 1895-1905. I'm wanting to read novels that were written during this time period. Does anyone know who wrote during this time period. I'm thinking Dickens maybe but I'm not sure. I would prefer American writers but British ones will do in a pinch.

Thanks for your help.

[AmyBA]

Here a a few authors that published during that time period:

Upton Sinclair
Kate Chopin
Horatio Alger
Mark Twain
Bret Harte
Ambrose Bierce
Henry James
Sarah Orne Jewett

You can also try Michael Korda's Making the List. If I remember correctly, it lists all the bestsellers between 1900 and 1999, with some brief discussion of publishing trends, popular topics and authors, and titles before then too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0760725594/103-5552388-7437414?v=glance&n=283155

[Marlys]

Edith Wharton should be at the top of your list.

[blackbird]

Stephen Crane- "Red Badge of Courage," 1895.
"Maggie, A Girl of the Streets"-1898

Also, Oscare Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Grey," though I believe it just misses your specific decade by a year or two, would be a good one.

Jack London's "Call of the Wild" came out in 1906--another "just miss" that might be worth noting.

By the way, if you are looking for novels written specifically during this ten-year time span, Dickens would not count. He died in 1871. But, of course, people would have still been reading and talking about his books.

[ted_curtis]

Also, are you looking for books written then, or that occur during that time period? For example, even though the Red Badge of Courage is from the 1895s, it is set during the Civil War, 30 years earlier. Jules Verne wrote in the 1880s, but some of his works are futuristic.

I guess what I'm asking, are you looking to learn the style of writing in the 1890s, or are you trying to get some historical accuracy of the 1890s? If the latter, you might also go to your nearest big-city (or even small city) library and read some of the papers from that period -- you'd get both the writing style and also some juicy details on how people lived their lives and what they were concerned about (and what they were buying at the store).

[KTC]

Arnold Bennet's A Man From The North was published in 1898.

HG Wells's The Time Machine was published in 1895. (War of the Worlds was 1898.)

[Peggy]

You can read some of those books as free ebooks at Project Gutenburg (http://www.gutenberg.org/). I don't think you can search by publication year, so you would have to know either the book title or the author's name.

Here's a list of authors (http://www.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/amlitchron_19th2.html) who wrote in the latter half of the 19th century.

[Christine N.]

Ben-Hur
Jane Eyre ( I think?)

I found both on a list of "Books to Read" in my great-grandmother's 1901 diary.

[Medievalist]

Look for:

Hackett, Alice. 80 years of Best Sellers, 1895-1975.

[Jamesaritchie]

Ben-Hur
Jane Eyre ( I think?)

I found both on a list of "Books to Read" in my great-grandmother's 1901 diary.

Nope. Ben-Hur was 1880, and Jane Eyre was 1847.

[Jamesaritchie]

Your best bet might be to start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:19th_century_novels

[Christine N.]

Sorry, I guess it was just popular reading. I thought Jane was earlier.

[blacbird]

Some American authors prominent during your desired time period:

Mark Twain
Edith Wharton
Henry James (qualifies as English, too)
O. Henry
Frank Norris
Stephen Crane
William Dean Howells

Some English ones:

H. G. Wells
Joseph Conrad
Oscar Wilde
Rudyard Kipling
Arthur Conan Doyle


caw.

[Mayor of Moronia]

Consider this: The taste of 19th Century readers was very different than it is now. And Twain wrote much earlier than 1890-1905; Dickens, too. I think Sir Walter Scott was the rage about 1890. When I visited Julia Gordon Lowe's home her library was filled with Scott's books.

[Mayor of Moronia]

Jack London!

[blacbird]

Twain wrote much earlier than 1890-1905

Twain lived a long and productive literary life, expiring in 1910. Although most of his major novels appeared before 1895, a lot of his important nonfiction, plus numerous stories appeared afterward, and he left behind much unfinished, posthumously published work, notably The Mysterious Stranger.

caw.

[Mayor of Moronia]

I know all about Twain, he was my ancestor's cousin. Twain's Line and mine came from Louisa County, Virginia. Lotsa writers on my family tree.

Still, Twain was writing 30 years before the 1890s. Like Norman Mailer writing today.

[SeanDSchaffer]

I seem to recall L. Frank Baum having written some of his Oz stories around that period of time. I could be mistaken on that though.

[SeanDSchaffer]

HG Wells's The Time Machine was published in 1895. (War of the Worlds was 1898.)


Wasn't Jules Verne from around that period of time, as well?

[Jenny]

Gene Stratton Porter?

[blacbird]

Wasn't Jules Verne from around that period of time, as well?

Except Uncle Jules was French, disqualifying him from the subject of the question.

caw.

[Joanna_S]

A friend gave me a small stack of books that were published around that period, including a Tolstoi, George Eliot, Stevenson, etc. There is a version of Alice in Wonderland from 1905 that is written in primarily one syllable words (published, I might add, despite the fact that the copyright didn't expire until 1910). What I've found the most fascinating in the bunch, however, misses your time period.

There is a series of pamphlets put out by the YWCA in 1916, during WWI. Each pamphlet was written by a different author, many big names for the time, including President Woodrow Wilson's daughter, and several Suffragettes. They are a fascinating window into what the world was like for women in that time period. If you're looking for the 'voice' of the era, maybe magazines (often available in microfilm) or something akin to these pamphlets would be excellent sources. If you're looking for popular novels of the day, everyone else has excellent suggestions.

-- Joanna

[johnnysannie]

If you can find them, magazines of the period would yield a great deal of information about the period. I was fortunate to grow up in a house where there was a treasure trove of books and magazines in the attic. Old bound issues of a magazine called "The Illustrated American" were among my favorites.

Some novelists from that time period would include Harold Bell Wright, Rose O'Neill (creator of the Kewpie dolls she was also a writer and her first novel appeared in 1904), Frank Norris, Kate Chopin, Henry James, Theodore Dreiser (he later wrote several memorable classics but "Sister Carrie" appeared within your time frame), Hamlin Gardener, and Owen Wister ("The Virginian". Popular poets of the day included Emily Dickinson and Edwin Arlington Robinson.

[Mayor of Moronia]

johnnysannie

Yes! I use the 19th Century newspapers and magazines for a historical novel I'm writing. For example: Magazines, then, included detailed instructions for making virtually anything you can imagine. I have such articles for gunpowder, nitroglycerin, whisky, beer, a steam bomb! All kinds of things. And you get a good idea of what was socially acceptable behavior.

[Lyra Jean]

I'm wanting to get a feel for the time period. So maybe I should lean more towards magazines and newspapers then. Thanks for all the help. :)

I've been leaning toward Rhode Island for my setting but having never been there should I change the setting? I've lived in Florida for nearly all my life and was wondering on y'all's opinion on whether or not my wanting to set it in Rhode Island is the whole it's more exciting than where I grew up syndrome so I'm going to write about that instead.

[johnnysannie]

I'm wanting to get a feel for the time period. So maybe I should lean more towards magazines and newspapers then. Thanks for all the help. :)

I've been leaning toward Rhode Island for my setting but having never been there should I change the setting? I've lived in Florida for nearly all my life and was wondering on y'all's opinion on whether or not my wanting to set it in Rhode Island is the whole it's more exciting than where I grew up syndrome so I'm going to write about that instead.


I would not use a setting with which I was not familiar although I'm sure some writers do this well. I do not always use a setting in which I live or have lived but I like to be at least semi-familiar with a place before I use it. In order to do so, I've made many trips to a new place.

One question - if you have not been to Rhode Island, how to you know it's more exciting than Florida? I have not been to Rhode Island either but I've counted two Rhode Island natives among my men friends and neither gave any indication that it was a happening kind of place....or at least not more exciting than most other places.

Or, could you visit Rhode Island before you use it as setting? If possible, that might be the best option.

Just my two cents worth - :)

[Mayor of Moronia]

rosemerry

Whats wrong with Florida? I've culled a gozillion articles from the old magazines-papers, and Florida is more exciting than the Wild West.

[rtilryarms]

johnnysannie

Yes! I use the 19th Century newspapers and magazines for a historical novel I'm writing. For example: Magazines, then, included detailed instructions for making virtually anything you can imagine. I have such articles for gunpowder, nitroglycerin, whisky, beer, a steam bomb! All kinds of things. And you get a good idea of what was socially acceptable behavior.

Interesting. I do the same thing.
I have several set of Encyclopedia, full volumes, from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. The 1950’s volume, for example, show in great detail how to make an atomic bomb.

Also, they didn’t mince words about their feelings of other races. They were quite demeaning actually. One of the updates in the ‘60’s talk about the uppity civil rights movement and also talks about colored music taking over the radio.

I agree; to study history correctly you have to go into history and not just read what historians have to say.

[Mayor of Moronia]

rtilryarms

Almost all of my research is in the 19th Century. There is some amazing stuff. Like the black parents who sold all of their daughters into slavery. Child brides. And did you ever wonder where people had sex when they had 10 kids and lived in a one room log cabin or covered wagon? My great-grandfather taught school in Oklahoma in the 1890s. He kept a loaded 45 pistol on his desk to shoot parents with!

[Lyra Jean]

Johnny not that Rhode Island is more exciting than Florida but that because I think I know Florida so well it seems boring and I don't know anything about Rhode Island except it snows there in Winter and gets cold. But I see your point.

Here I am off looking up Florida history. :)

[Mayor of Moronia]

My son-in-law is from Rhode Island and says to tell you "it's boring."

[Peggy]

Rhode Island may be boring (and, yes, I've been there, and it's pretty boring), but it does have all of those fabulous "Gilded Age" mansions in Newport.

http://www.gonewport.com/nav.aspx?id=149

[blacbird]

rosemerry

Whats wrong with Florida? I've culled a gozillion articles from the old magazines-papers, and Florida is more exciting than the Wild West.

Yep, you just gotta love those pristine mountain vistas there in Florida.

caw.