Good morning, Gentle Reader, some tips for the writers amongst you today!
How to research a Victorian setting for fiction authors – Steampunk, Historical Romance & Beyond
In this post I offer tips for online, book, and other sources for researching a Victorian-set novel. Including tips you’ve not read elsewhere.
25+ Tips for Researching a Victorian Set Novel
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: nothing beats primary sources. Google books offers a number of public domain primary sources from the 1800s but there are plenty from universities and libraries as well. Victorian primary sources are (mostly) out of copyright, so have been digitalized.
Primary Sources for Writing a Victorian Setting
1. Household management guides like Things a Lady Would Like to Know by Southgate (digitalized by google). One of my personal favorites, with recipes and other interesting tidbits about domestic management in 1876. (Series for which I used this the most? The Parasol Protectorate)
2. Family care management guides like Floote’s Medical Common Sense (1868 digitalized by google) is a wonderful resource for a historical perspective on the historical attitude towards medical science, not to mention a window into scientific, social, and psychological theory. This is an American classic (if non-fiction can be called such). (Book for which I used this the most? Reticence has a female doctor main character names Arsenic, yes she’s aware of the irony.)
3. Victorian era travel journals such as Edwards, Amelia B. Edwards’s A Thousand Miles Up the Nile (1877 digitalized) for language and the Victorian adventurer abroad feel. From more on researching Victorian Egypt: Victorians in Egypt (These books used for researching Timeless, Egypt from a dirigible and the 1882 riots, as well as later Imprudence. Davidson’s Hints to Lady Travellers (from 1889) is also good and I used it a lot for Competence.)
4. Victorian era travel guides from Karl Baedeker, aka Baedekers (my most used is Baedeker’s London and its Environs. 1896) but any Baedeker’s dated to the Victorian era and the place you are setting your book will work. These little gems have maps, railroad time tables, popular museums and visitors areas, not to mention names of shops, clubs, restaurants, newspapers, money lenders, and more. These are by FAR my most useful resource. Whenever I take my characters abroad I only take them to a place I have a Baedeker’s for. I can’t recommend them highly enough. I find them in used bookstores and haunt online used book dealers.
Secondary Sources for Writing a Victorian Setting
As for secondary sources, what you need will depend upon what you’re writing. I write comedy of manners, so my needs reflect this more pedestrian interest level, someone with a military bent probably has a different list. Nevertheless, I find myself constantly reaching for the following:
5. Pool, Daniel. 1993. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. For the basics.
6. Cunnington, C. Willett. 1990. English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century. For anything to do with women’s clothing
7. Flanders, Judith. 2003. The Victorian House. For domestic life questions. The information is not well structured, obviously stemming from some kind of PhD thesis, but it is there.
8. Farwell, Byron. 1972 Queen Victoria’s Little Wars. For the quickest insight into the Empire Building mentality and military history of the age.
9. Goodman, Ruth. 2014 How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life.
Online Research Tools for Writing a Victorian Setting
Aside from Wikipedia, which can be an okay place to start but is sometimes dodgy, there are some good, if not particularly well organized, research tools dedicated to the Victorians online as well.
10. By far the biggest is the Victorian Web which is a spiderweb of all sorts of useful information with a painfully old fashioned UI
11. The Victorian Dictionary offers up primary newspaper articles on different topics
Here are a few interesting individual offerings online:
12. 17 Euphemisms for Sex from the 1800s
14. The Illustrated London News (starts with 1842)
16. Dictionary of Victorian London
17. Order of Precedence in England and Wales
Other general searching tips:
18. Use Google Alerts to keyword your specific topic of interest within the time period.
19. Try both YouTube and Pinterest. Remember these two platforms can also act/behave primarily as search engines.
20. You never know what streaming services might be dealing out next. Documentaries at least give you a jumping off point.
21. Watch BBC costume dramas, and if at all possible get ahold of the DVD and check out the extras, they often have interviews with historical experts. Sometimes these pop up on YouTube.
22. Having a really hard time answering a research question? Cold call a local university history department. Experts love to talk about their expertise, perhaps there is someone in the history department you can ask. They may at least give you a book or article to read.
23. Of course you can keep an eye on this blog or follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I occasionally put up bits and bobs I’ve discovered around the net about soem curious Victorian fact or another.
24. There are links to the research I’ve used on my wikia.
25. Each book I’ve written has it’s own page on this website, there is always an extras post for that book. It’s like DVD extras and includes any fun sources I used/found. (For example: here’s how to stock and Victorian medicine box from Imprudence).
26. Academic search engines such as
- refseek.com
- worldcat.org/ (a library resource, particularly good if you are looking for a physical copy of a rare book)
- link.springer.com (mostly for scientific research and documents, but sometimes someone is investigating a Victorian “cure” etc..)
Some errors are forgivable, we all make mistakes, but some are not and will throw readers out of the story due to an innate sense of cultural discomfort.
For example, I once read a sentence in a steampunk book of some repute along the lines of:
“He had worked with the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the House of Parliament.”
Sigh.
There will always be pet experts in specific fields. If you make a mistake about sausage casings, or call blood sausage black pudding in the wrong geographic area, someone will write an angry email or review.
As writers, most of us learn that we can’t worry about the sausage casing experts of the world, our first objective is to finish the manuscript, not present an academic paper.
We must keep writing, not constantly researching. There also aren’t that many sausage casing experts in the world. But a mistake that every native born Brit will catch is going to hurt an author’s reputation, and possibly cost them a UK rights deal.
(At which juncture I direct you to FAQ regarding the vocabulary in my own work. And remind you I never said what kind of ships docked at Canterbury.)
Want more?
- Writing and Researching Steampunk & Victorian History
- All About Steampunk Fashion from Author & Style Maven Gail Carriger
- Tips for Complex Historical Research
- My ongoing list of research books on Amazon
- Steampunk Research & Resources
Miss Gail’s Childhood Favorite Books & Research Bookshelf Reveal Video
This is an amended reblog of a post originally entitled In Which Gail Reveals All Her Researching Secrets written for J. Daniel Sawyer many years ago. I’ve found more sources since the original blog and have added them in (and others are now gone). As with anything even faintly academic, this kind of thing is ever evolving. The bottom of the post contains the latest update date. If any of the links are obsolete, please let me know about it via the calling card feature of this website.
Yours (destined to be killed by a tumbling TBR pile),
Miss Gail
Find my books
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* One of my personal favorites, with recipes and other interesting tidbits about domestic management in 1876, is Things a Lady Would Like to Know
* Floote’s Medical Common Sense is another wonderful resource for a historical perspective on the Victorian attitude towards medical science, not to mention a window into scientific, social, and psychological theory. This is an American classic (if non-fiction can be called such).
There are other useful primary sources as well, that you might be able to order through Amazon or a rare books dealer. My two favorites are:
* Baedeker, Karl. 1896. Baedeker’s’s London and its Environs. (or any Baedeker’s dated to the Victorian era) for maps, railroad time tables, popular museums and visitors areas, not to mention names of shops, clubs, restaurants, news papers and more.
* Edwards, Amelia B. 1877. A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. For language and the Victorian adventurer abroad feel.
As for secondary sources, what you need may depend upon what you’re writing. I write comedy of manners, so my needs reflect this more pedestrian interest level, someone with a more military bent probably has a different list. Never the less, I find myself constantly reaching for the following:
* Pool, Daniel. 1993. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. For the basics.
* Cunnington, C. Willett. 1990. English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century. For anything to do with women’s clothing
* Flanders, Judith. 2003. The Victorian House. For domestic life questions. The information is not well structured, but it is there.
* Farwell, Byron. 1972 Queen Victoria’s Little Wars. For the quickest insight into the Empire Building mentality and military history of the age.
Aside from Wikipeda, which can be an okay place to start, there are some good, if not particularly well organized, research tools dedicated to the Victorians online as well.
* By far the biggest and the best is the Victorian Web which is a great spiderweb of all sorts of useful information
* The Victorian Dictionary offers up primary newspaper articles on different topics
And here are a few interesting individual offerings online.
* Victorian Slag Dictionary
* Victorian Etiquette
* The Illustrated London News (starting in 1842)
* Victorian servants
* The Ladies Journal
* Godey’s Lady’s Book
* Naval Ships of Victorian times
* Nick Names of Cavalry regiments
* Some ways to tie a cravat
* La Mode Illustree LiveJournal group
Other tips:
* If you have a DVR or Tivo trigger in keywords pertaining to your topic of interest. You never know what the history channel might be dealing with next. It will at least give you a jumping off point.
* Watch BBC costume dramas, and or, rent the DVD and check out the extras, they often have interviews with historical experts.
* Having a really hard time answering a research question? Cold call a local university history department. Experts love to talk about their expertise, perhaps there is someone in the history department you can ask. They may at least give you a book or article to read.
Lastly, of course you can keep an eye on my website, I often put up bits and bobs I’ve discovered around the net.
– See more at: http://jdsawyer.net/2009/10/10/super-sneaky-victoriana-research-tips/#sthash.xBdpVlLU.dpuf
* One of my personal favorites, with recipes and other interesting tidbits about domestic management in 1876, is Things a Lady Would Like to Know
* Floote’s Medical Common Sense is another wonderful resource for a historical perspective on the Victorian attitude towards medical science, not to mention a window into scientific, social, and psychological theory. This is an American classic (if non-fiction can be called such).
There are other useful primary sources as well, that you might be able to order through Amazon or a rare books dealer. My two favorites are:
* Baedeker, Karl. 1896. Baedeker’s’s London and its Environs. (or any Baedeker’s dated to the Victorian era) for maps, railroad time tables, popular museums and visitors areas, not to mention names of shops, clubs, restaurants, news papers and more.
* Edwards, Amelia B. 1877. A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. For language and the Victorian adventurer abroad feel.
As for secondary sources, what you need may depend upon what you’re writing. I write comedy of manners, so my needs reflect this more pedestrian interest level, someone with a more military bent probably has a different list. Never the less, I find myself constantly reaching for the following:
* Pool, Daniel. 1993. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. For the basics.
* Cunnington, C. Willett. 1990. English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century. For anything to do with women’s clothing
* Flanders, Judith. 2003. The Victorian House. For domestic life questions. The information is not well structured, but it is there.
* Farwell, Byron. 1972 Queen Victoria’s Little Wars. For the quickest insight into the Empire Building mentality and military history of the age.
Aside from Wikipeda, which can be an okay place to start, there are some good, if not particularly well organized, research tools dedicated to the Victorians online as well.
* By far the biggest and the best is the Victorian Web which is a great spiderweb of all sorts of useful information
* The Victorian Dictionary offers up primary newspaper articles on different topics
And here are a few interesting individual offerings online.
* Victorian Slag Dictionary
* Victorian Etiquette
* The Illustrated London News (starting in 1842)
* Victorian servants
* The Ladies Journal
* Godey’s Lady’s Book
* Naval Ships of Victorian times
* Nick Names of Cavalry regiments
* Some ways to tie a cravat
* La Mode Illustree LiveJournal group
Other tips:
* If you have a DVR or Tivo trigger in keywords pertaining to your topic of interest. You never know what the history channel might be dealing with next. It will at least give you a jumping off point.
* Watch BBC costume dramas, and or, rent the DVD and check out the extras, they often have interviews with historical experts.
* Having a really hard time answering a research question? Cold call a local university history department. Experts love to talk about their expertise, perhaps there is someone in the history department you can ask. They may at least give you a book or article to read.
Lastly, of course you can keep an eye on my website, I often put up bits and bobs I’ve discovered around the net.
– See more at: http://jdsawyer.net/2009/10/10/super-sneaky-victoriana-research-tips/#sthash.xBdpVlLU.dpuf
* One of my personal favorites, with recipes and other interesting tidbits about domestic management in 1876, is Things a Lady Would Like to Know
* Floote’s Medical Common Sense is another wonderful resource for a historical perspective on the Victorian attitude towards medical science, not to mention a window into scientific, social, and psychological theory. This is an American classic (if non-fiction can be called such).
There are other useful primary sources as well, that you might be able to order through Amazon or a rare books dealer. My two favorites are:
* Baedeker, Karl. 1896. Baedeker’s’s London and its Environs. (or any Baedeker’s dated to the Victorian era) for maps, railroad time tables, popular museums and visitors areas, not to mention names of shops, clubs, restaurants, news papers and more.
* Edwards, Amelia B. 1877. A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. For language and the Victorian adventurer abroad feel.
As for secondary sources, what you need may depend upon what you’re writing. I write comedy of manners, so my needs reflect this more pedestrian interest level, someone with a more military bent probably has a different list. Never the less, I find myself constantly reaching for the following:
* Pool, Daniel. 1993. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. For the basics.
* Cunnington, C. Willett. 1990. English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century. For anything to do with women’s clothing
* Flanders, Judith. 2003. The Victorian House. For domestic life questions. The information is not well structured, but it is there.
* Farwell, Byron. 1972 Queen Victoria’s Little Wars. For the quickest insight into the Empire Building mentality and military history of the age.
Aside from Wikipeda, which can be an okay place to start, there are some good, if not particularly well organized, research tools dedicated to the Victorians online as well.
* By far the biggest and the best is the Victorian Web which is a great spiderweb of all sorts of useful information
* The Victorian Dictionary offers up primary newspaper articles on different topics
And here are a few interesting individual offerings online.
* Victorian Slag Dictionary
* Victorian Etiquette
* The Illustrated London News (starting in 1842)
* Victorian servants
* The Ladies Journal
* Godey’s Lady’s Book
* Naval Ships of Victorian times
* Nick Names of Cavalry regiments
* Some ways to tie a cravat
* La Mode Illustree LiveJournal group
Other tips:
* If you have a DVR or Tivo trigger in keywords pertaining to your topic of interest. You never know what the history channel might be dealing with next. It will at least give you a jumping off point.
* Watch BBC costume dramas, and or, rent the DVD and check out the extras, they often have interviews with historical experts.
* Having a really hard time answering a research question? Cold call a local university history department. Experts love to talk about their expertise, perhaps there is someone in the history department you can ask. They may at least give you a book or article to read.
Lastly, of course you can keep an eye on my website, I often put up bits and bobs I’ve discovered around the net.
– See more at: http://jdsawyer.net/2009/10/10/super-sneaky-victoriana-research-tips/#sthash.xBdpVlLU.dpuf
* One of my personal favorites, with recipes and other interesting tidbits about domestic management in 1876, is Things a Lady Would Like to Know
* Floote’s Medical Common Sense is another wonderful resource for a historical perspective on the Victorian attitude towards medical science, not to mention a window into scientific, social, and psychological theory. This is an American classic (if non-fiction can be called such).
There are other useful primary sources as well, that you might be able to order through Amazon or a rare books dealer. My two favorites are:
* Baedeker, Karl. 1896. Baedeker’s’s London and its Environs. (or any Baedeker’s dated to the Victorian era) for maps, railroad time tables, popular museums and visitors areas, not to mention names of shops, clubs, restaurants, news papers and more.
* Edwards, Amelia B. 1877. A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. For language and the Victorian adventurer abroad feel.
As for secondary sources, what you need may depend upon what you’re writing. I write comedy of manners, so my needs reflect this more pedestrian interest level, someone with a more military bent probably has a different list. Never the less, I find myself constantly reaching for the following:
* Pool, Daniel. 1993. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. For the basics.
* Cunnington, C. Willett. 1990. English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century. For anything to do with women’s clothing
* Flanders, Judith. 2003. The Victorian House. For domestic life questions. The information is not well structured, but it is there.
* Farwell, Byron. 1972 Queen Victoria’s Little Wars. For the quickest insight into the Empire Building mentality and military history of the age.
Aside from Wikipeda, which can be an okay place to start, there are some good, if not particularly well organized, research tools dedicated to the Victorians online as well.
* By far the biggest and the best is the Victorian Web which is a great spiderweb of all sorts of useful information
* The Victorian Dictionary offers up primary newspaper articles on different topics
And here are a few interesting individual offerings online.
* Victorian Slag Dictionary
* Victorian Etiquette
* The Illustrated London News (starting in 1842)
* Victorian servants
* The Ladies Journal
* Godey’s Lady’s Book
* Naval Ships of Victorian times
* Nick Names of Cavalry regiments
* Some ways to tie a cravat
* La Mode Illustree LiveJournal group
Other tips:
* If you have a DVR or Tivo trigger in keywords pertaining to your topic of interest. You never know what the history channel might be dealing with next. It will at least give you a jumping off point.
* Watch BBC costume dramas, and or, rent the DVD and check out the extras, they often have interviews with historical experts.
* Having a really hard time answering a research question? Cold call a local university history department. Experts love to talk about their expertise, perhaps there is someone in the history department you can ask. They may at least give you a book or article to read.
Lastly, of course you can keep an eye on my website, I often put up bits and bobs I’ve discovered around the net.
– See more at: http://jdsawyer.net/2009/10/10/super-sneaky-victoriana-research-tips/#sthash.xBdpVlLU.dpuf I also have a segment on my website wherein I mention other books from which I take inspiration for my own personal world building, including the humor.
Excellent, I really enjoyed the post. I am always plotting to build a set to make video book reviews. lol
This is a really useful post! I'm not writing anything so not useful to me but you know what I mean. I'm glad someone's speaking out about how poor the Judith Flanders book stands as non-fiction for us non-academics. Consuming Passions is the same.