Representations of Victorian london

straight

wings cru
A friend of mine has got a job writing the pilot for a TV show set in victorian soho with occult/sci-fi bits. We're all super excited and he's just been given a research budget for books and DVDs. Can you reccomend any good books/films on the era aside from the usual alan moore business? The weirder the better
 

Chris

fractured oscillations
I always thought the Granada Television version of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett (doing probably one of my favorite depictions of anyone ever) was really well done, very moody and atmospheric at times.

Late 1800s occult/esoteric/hermeticism really interests me, as well as the Decadence/Aestheticism/Symbolist/Pre-Raphaelites/opium dens/etc etc. Interesting time and I'm curious to see what might pop up on this thread.
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Kim Newman's 'Anno Dracula' (first book in the series, havent read the rest) was really well done I thought.

For research, anything by Henry Mayhew is invaluable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mayhew

He was kinda the original don of social anthropology, Mass Observation style, and for accuracy he should definitely read them, as should anyone! They're totally brilliant.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Late 1800s occult/esoteric/hermeticism really interests me, as well as the Decadence/Aestheticism/Symbolist/Pre-Raphaelites/opium dens/etc etc. Interesting time and I'm curious to see what might pop up on this thread."
Have you ever read this book? It's interesting on the subject and has some nice pictures.


Guess you have. Any other good ones you know of?

Er, not really to do with London though, sorry.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Not read it, though I've flicked through it in bookshops: The Vesuvius Club by Mark 'League Of Gentlemen' Gatiss is a graphic murder-mystery/spy novel* full of Beardsley-esque Edwardian dandyism, decadence and transsexual weirdness. Not set in London, but it seems to chime in rather well with
Decadence/Aestheticism/Symbolist/Pre-Raphaelites/opium dens/etc etc.

*i.e. a graphic novel about mysterious murders, not graphic murders - although they may well be that, too

Edit: which of course brings to mind The Picture Of Dorian Gray, an obvious one for this thread, no? Or were you more after modern writers writing about that epoch? Hell, I guess you could probably do a lot worse than read a bunch of Dickens (not that I have, friends of mine who've read him tend to describe it as unspeakably dull, though I assume it would be good if you want authentic descriptions of Victorian London).
 
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straight

wings cru
Edit: which of course brings to mind The Picture Of Dorian Gray, an obvious one for this thread, no? Or were you more after modern writers writing about that epoch? Hell, I guess you could probably do a lot worse than read a bunch of Dickens (not that I have, friends of mine who've read him tend to describe it as unspeakably dull, though I assume it would be good if you want authentic descriptions of Victorian London).


been through most of the classics over the treatment stages, everything else mentioned here is gold thanks
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Well, I can think of one or two who reckon he's dull and I can't think (off the top of my head) of anyone who likes him - though from your response I take it that you do?"
Yeah, I mean he's not my favourite author or anything but he's certainly very readable (though some books are obviously better than others) - which critic was it who derided him as "that entertainer"? It's just that I thought if you were to have a problem with Dickens it would more likely be to do with his "overwriting" or being patronising or something rather than saying he was dull.
 
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jenks

thread death
Franco Moretti does all that great stuff with maps and such like to examine the victorian novel.

The Ghost Map is very good on disease in vic london

the new Samuel Johnson prize winner - The Suspicions of Mr Whicher is also very good on crime and the rise of the detective figure both in Lit and in reality.

As to all the denigrating comments about Dickens - he really is very good - a page turner still and very aware of the early 'science'of psychology.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
As to all the denigrating comments about Dickens - he really is very good - a page turner still and very aware of the early 'science'of psychology.

Cool - he's on my long-term to-read list, I'll make up my own mind then.
 

STN

sou'wester
It's just that I thought if you were to have a problem with Dickens it would more likely be to do with his "overwriting" or being patronising or something rather than saying he was dull.

Or because you're a Terry Eagleton type with a wildly controversial opinion in a field that reeeaaaaaally isn't that big a deal. I had this lecturer once who 'didn't like Shakespeare', yeah, don't care. Dickens is wicked, I had a go at cussing him when I was about 17 but that's it. I mean obviously bits of it are kind of crap but that's just cos it's old.

Autobiography of Jack Ketch is a good (just) pre-Victorian look at London. Wildly unrealistic and fucking depressing but enjoyable.
 

sufi

lala
http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications/thomson.htm

thomson-27a.png


can never find a good mush faker when you need one innit
 

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
Try getting some Paul Roland-records, Roland is often a kind of gothic-folk-music-version of Alan Moore, but much better IMO. Especially "Happy Families" would be relevant, it's more or less based on victorian eccentrics.
 
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