Although Wells’s best-known science fiction novels were written in the last decade of the 19th century, he continued writing until 1941 (bibliography), and those forty post-Victorian years included some of his most famous and influential work… I think it’s dubious to call him a Victorian writer.
Thanks for the tips.
Okay, I get the hint, folks. Victorian isn’t the right word. I think everyone knows what I am talking about, however. I’m not literally looking only for books written during the exact reign of Queen Victoria, but books with a certain feel about them.
No, I think his most famous and influential work was written during his early years, as often happens. Nobody would remember him for Star-Begotten. People do think of him as a Victorian writer, for that reason (look up a review of the originbal film of “The Time Machine” that doesn’t use the term). Likewise, Doyle is called a Victorian writer, although he lived and wrote until well after the Queen’s death.
No, I think his most famous and influential work was written during his early years, as often happens. Nobody would remember him for Star-Begotten. People do think of him as a Victorian writer, for that reason (look up a review of the originbal film of “The Time Machine” that doesn’t use the term). Likewise, Doyle is called a Victorian writer, although he lived and wrote until well after the Queen’s death.
A fair number of people remember him for Kipps, The History of Mr. Polly, Ann-Veronica, or The Shape of Things to Come, though… based on the first three, I tend to think of Wells’s “period” as Edwardian - whenever I forget that he lived through both world wars, and much of his writing therefore qualifies as “disillusioned post-Edwardian”.
I agree, the film of The Time Machine is consciously Victorian in tone, but I don’t think that’s a good guide to the character of his writing.
I think a more accurate term for the period talked of in this thread is “late Victorian/Edwardian.” Victoria’s reign was from 1837 to 1901, and that’s really too long a period to be useful as a classification. The period we’re talking about is approximately 1885 to 1915.
Howabout “Somewhat Non-Modern” or “Somewhat Early”? I’m really not overly concerned with the exact taxonomy of the stuff, just the books. There’s a lot of really good suggestions here, and I’ll be kept busy for a while with them.
ONly marginally related, with the Burroughs stuff I start leaning into pulp heroes. What stuff in that department is recommended?
Doc Savage.
Olaf Stapledon: Last and First Men
You mentioned Feng Shui in the OP and no one has suggested any of the books about Dr. Fu Manchu, written by Sax Rohmer? Of course, if you have read “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, you have been introduced to the character, but not by name.
There are a large number of references to the fiction of the period of TLoEG at this site:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/league1.html
After you read what he has to say about volume 1, follow the links to volume 2, and you will find explanations of all those obscure entries in the “almanac.” If you find that geocities has made the site unavailable, come back another day. It’s worth the effort.
Well, in that time period we can then add Jack London who wrote a few science-fiction short stories and a novel : The Star Rover
Also, if you read French, I would recommend three authors of that era : [ul]
[li]J.H. Rosny Sr (is most available book in English is probably is prehistoric epic, The Quest for Fire) who was compared to Burroughs and Wells (he’s also the one who invented the terms “astronautics” and “astronauts”)[/li][li]Gaston Leroux, of Phantom of the Opera fame with his novel La poupée sanglante and its sequel, La machine à assassiner about a man whose brain is transplanted into an automaton (complete with cogwheels and pulleys !) and then proceed to extract revenge on those who killed him [/li][li]Maurice Renard, who wrote The Hands of Orlac (filmed several times, the earliest version being Mad Love with Peter Lorre)[/li][/ul]
I’d recommend Phil Foglio’s humorous comic “Girl Genius.” It’s set in a Victorian/Gothic style world and plays with ideas like mad scientists and their inventions/creations.
It’s quite good, although it’s a quarterly and is only on issue 7. It’s a long haul committment to see the story through to any forseeable climax. I’d prefer it as a monthly, but it’s published by Phil and Kaja Foglio’s own small company, and I have no idea what the necessities of publishing are.
But it is very good.
Legomancer writes:
> Howabout “Somewhat Non-Modern” or “Somewhat Early”? I’m
> really not overly concerned with the exact taxonomy of the
> stuff, just the books.
Then why set up the classification that you began with at all? I’m sorry, but this really irritates me. Someone announces a category (of books, movies, etc.) that they’re interested in, and then proceeds to name a bunch of examples of it. When someone else points out that the examples that were given don’t actually all fit within the category as named, they pull back and say, “Well, I’m not concerned with categorization. I only want to talk about the (books, movies, etc.).” If you don’t want to do categorization, don’t do it, but don’t say you’re doing it and then say that you don’t actually care whether you’re doing it.
I thought that Late Victorian/Edwardian was as good a name as any for the things that you’ve been mentioning in this thread, but that still leaves out a lot of what’s been discussed. Incidentally, a few more notes about the dates of authors mentioned in this thread: Haggard and Rosny are more writers who began writing at the end of the Victorian period and continued well into the twentieth century. The Doc Savage novels came out in the 1930’s and 1940’s, the same period in which Stapledon wrote his novels. And a whole slew of things mentioned in this thread aren’t Victorian at all, but recent pastiches of Victorian fiction.
I don’t know how to classify the things being mentioned here. Science fiction doesn’t really describe all of them. Many of them are fantasy, horror, or just adventure novels. Some of what’s been mentioned are pulp hero adventures.
Wendell, I’m sorry to have annoyed you. I figured it was clear from the OP the sorts of things I was looking for. I called it what I called it just to have a name other than “Some books I’ve been reading recently which I feel are linked in tone and theme but others may feel are simply randomly chosen since they don’t all, without exception, fit into one easily-defined category.”
Also in the OP I asked for other examples of the sort of stuff I was looking for, rather than to come up with a completely inclusive name for all the books on the list. It’s the literary equivalent of someone listing some bands they like and asking for suggestions for other music based on those.