I am writing a book set in 1895. Any recommendations for a book set in a similar time period with a decent plot to show me how people talked back then? I don’t mean how people talked in the Midwest, so Tom Sawyer wouldn’t help… I need European or well educated Americans, or African explorers, Scientists, and similar people.
Or did they talk like modern people? If so, what “slang” which today seems like proper or old-fashioned speech should I avoid?
Don’t ask me why or how I remember this, and I looked it up to confirm, but I know that “The King In Yellow” by Robert W. Chambers was published in 1895. Maybe you shouldn’t use that as a guide to how “normal” people spoke back then. I found it on project Gutenberg. A quote:
But seriously, just off the top of my head, didn’t Henry James publish in that time period?
eta: see also early Sherlock Holmes stories!
Holmes! Yes, of course! I forgot about Holmes.
So, how much of Holmes’ and Watson’s odd speech comes from their date, and how much comes from them being British? The quote you gave me seems to basically be grammatically correct Modern English.
The quote above is not from Sherlock Holmes, it’s from one of the stories in The King in Yellow, which is a horror and probably not typical conversation.
Or are you saying that in your recollection Homes and Watson speak in a decidedly different way than the speech shown in the quote from The King in Yellow?
As far as I remember Holmes, they sound like the character in this story who speaks more formally, or perhaps a bit more formal than that, while the narrator in this quote sounds like a normal person of modern times.
I’ll be digging up my Holmes book soon, though, and will reread at least 1 story.
You first need to decide if what you want is to present a form of speech that is historically accurate (something that is difficult to be really sure about anyway), or simply something that just seems to be the "speech of the 1890s to a modern ear.( The way people are quoted in literature of the time is not necessary how people really spoke then.)
Then you need to consider the context in which any given character is speaking, and with whom that person is speaking.
Project Gutenberg is full of books from that period. Many of the authors have their birth and death dates listed so you can pick some from the correct period and browse some samples to find what is good for you.
Dracula is almost entirely epistolary and quoted conversations.
Teddy Roosevelt was in his 30s/early 40s in the 1890s and wrote voluminously. Google *Teddy Roosevelt speeches *or something similar and there’s a mine of them on the net.
The Victorian Slang link should be very helpful. I am now beginning a search for late 19th century American slang, but my google-fu being what it is… I’d appreciate some help.
And Guizot: What do you mean “seems” to be? What sort of vocabulary would give this impression?
EDIT: Wow, found this: http://www.rugglesrag.com/lookout/OLD-LOOKOUT-DO-NOT-USE/a_19th_century_slang_dictionary.htm.