British Literature: Beyond Dickens, Shakespeare, and Doyle

I’m going to England and Scotland next year. I’ve read, and mostly loved, all works of Dickens. I’ve read and watched almost every single Shakespeare play and I’ve read every work of Doyle multiple times. What else should I read to get me in a British mood?

I’ve read Animal Farm as well as 1984 by Orwell, a bunch of Agatha Christie, the Hobbit as well as the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. I’ve read every Harry Potter book as well. I have never made it through the Canterbury Tales, and only read excerpts from Beowulf.

Try:

*Pride and Prejudice
Emma

Vanity Fair
Pendennis

Jane Eyre
Villette
*

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

So much!

Brave New World
1984
Animal Farm
A Clockwork Orange

Look for works by the Bronte sisters, Swift, Pepys, and Hardy. You should also listen to British music, particularly Handel’s oratorios. For a more adult and modern take on Harry Potter, read Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series , the first volume of which is Rivers of London.

You can pick up a lot of tips on the everyday grind of British life by reading the works of PG Wodehouse. :wink:

Get your hands on a good Trollope.

Definitely read Willkie Collins’s The Woman in White.

+1 for the Bronte sisters and Wodehouse

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy is exceptionally British.

I loved The Quincunx by Charles Palliser, which is like Dickens but better.

I might recommend Dorothy Sayers and Collin Dexter.

There’s always Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.

Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy - Regeneration, Eye in the Door and the* Ghost Road* - are deservedly lauded. About the damaged men of the First World War, featuring cameos by various of the well-known poets [Sassoon, Owen etc]. Probably could substitute Iraq/Afghanistan for France and much would be sadly still relevant.

Any novels assaying the class system still have a useful role in making sense of British society.

You might also want to do yourself a mini-festival of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh films, as well as old standbys like* The Full Monty*, *Pride *and Brassed off. [I guess we have to belatedly thank Thatcher for prompting such an artistic explosion]

Oscar Wilde was quite good.

H.G. Wells.

The short stories of W. Somerset Maugham.

I’m a bit puzzled by this thread. Hundreds of novels are published in Britain every year. Why not just have a look at the Booker (or Man Booker) prize shortlists for the last few years and read the ones set in Britain?

Why do people think that something written and set in the 21st century is in some way less British than something written 150 years ago?

It’s a two-way exchange. Novels are reflections of the times they are written in. But great novels then turn around and become influences on the wider society. So modern Britain is, in part, a reflection of literature written 150 years ago.

Try some PG Wodehouse; the Jeeves & Wooster stories are charming, funny, and quick-reading.

They are also all about 85% the same story, so don’t feel like you need to be a completist.

Read all volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and you cover pretty much the whole range of British literature and fiction.

Chesterton. Love the fellow. The Father Brown stories are delightful, and The Man Who Was Thursday is…really eerie. It is one of the best efforts in literature to capture the sense of dreaming.

I only recently discovered A.E.W. Mason, and I’m having a ball!