Georgian Detective Fiction: Exploring the Violent Society of the 18th Century
Before the pandemic, I had always read a lot of detective stories. They are absorbing and engaging, and back when we relied on physical books — before Kindles and smartphone apps — they were easy to carry when travelling. Of course, when concert life was forced to a standstill in 2020, the genre was something of a lifesaver.
I have always loved the historical and musical niches of the genre. About two years ago on this blog, I wrote about books with musical themes and those set in the 16th century, the England of the Tudors and William Shakespeare. Now it is the 18th century's turn. It may seem as if I have jumped the gun, but don’t worry! I will return to the Jacobean/Restoration period in a future piece before I go on to the Regency — one of the most inspiring for writers of mysteries — and the Victorian periods.
I would not wish anyone to think that this survey of books is in any way complete or systematic. I am simply listing books that, for the most part, I have actually read and enjoyed. There are plenty waiting in the wings, either on my bedside table or up in a cloud.
Lurking beneath the veneer of gilded tailcoats and powdered wigs
The 18th century is thought of as an age of great elegance, when the beau monde flirted while circling around to the menuet (this is the French spelling; the English is often minuet. Take your Pick!) wearing gorgeous outfits trimmed with gold, their heads topped with elaborate wigs. But this was merely a veneer. Underneath, there was a vicious and often violent society of cheats and cutthroats fuelled by appalling poverty and sexual exploitation. Georgian detective fiction covers the whole gamut of life from the highest to the lowest. Obviously much of the genre centres around London, a burgeoning city of splendour and squalour, whose population nearly doubled in the 18th century, causing a huge rise in crime of all sorts.
William Hogarth, Cruelty in Perfection, 1751
One thing I find really interesting about so many of the writers is that they blend together actual characters of the time with those they invented for their tales of murder and mayhem. Often a book will have an appendix revealing who is fictional and who is not. Sometimes the story is also based on actual events. The authors have usually done their research on Georgian life: What time did people have dinner?
How did they get about London? They really strive to get the details right. But I am happy to say, they generally don’t make their characters speak period English. You won’t find too many "zounds," "stap me," or "mayhaps" peppering the conversation — something that ironically, for me, makes the characters seem less real and immediate.
Of the authors whose stories take place in and around London, one of my favourites is Deryn Lake. Her protagonist, John Rawlings, is based on a real person and we follow his life and fortunes over 17 books. His day job is as an apothecary, but when sleuthing he works for John Fielding, who succeeded his brother Henry, the novelist, as the magistrate of Bow Street. Although he was blind, Fielding dispensed justice helped by the famous Bow Street Runners who also feature in each book.
Portrait of Sir John Fielding by Nathaniel Hone, 1762
The author in my view has a real feel for 18th-century London in all its infinite variety. We visit not only St. James’s Palace, Drury Lane Theatre, and the Pleasure Gardens at Vauxhall, but also the dark, dangerous backstreets where Mr. Rawlings sometimes gets beaten up. It sometimes feels as if she has John Rocque’s map of the city open on her desk, so accurate are her descriptions of travelling about the place.
Imogen Robertson is another writer I like. Her novels feature Mrs. Harriet Westerman and her neighbour Gabriel Crowther, an anatomist. It is most refreshing to have a female sleuth in an age when women were supposed to stay at home, have children, and be clothes horses. Like Deryn Lake, Robertson has a terrific feel for every aspect of the era.
Daughters of the Night by Laura Shepherd Robinson is on my desk begging to be read. It is about the sex trade in the capital, while Blood and Sugar deals with slavery. I have dipped into both books and look forward to reading them over the summer.
Antonia Hodgson is also an excellent writer. I have read two of her books so far with two more to enjoy. Her hero, Tom Hawkins, is a fascinating character who survives prison and the noose. Hodgson's first book, set in the 1720s, reminds me of The Beggar's Opera with its cast of rakes, robbers, and trulls. Death at Fountains Abbey is set in a part of Yorkshire I have visited many times and many of the people in the book are based on historical figures. It deals with the financial scandal of the age, the South Sea Bubble, which ruined so many.
Her books are on a grander scale than many, the characters are drawn in greater detail, and she is a fine observer of humanity.
William Hogarth, The South Sea Scheme, 1721
Robert Lee Hall, in a delightful series of books, made Benjamin Franklin his sleuth. Franklin was often in London from the 1750s until the 1770s, and the city provides a rich backdrop for these novels. All great books to pack for a holiday, though I wish they were available on Kindle to make them even easier to travel with.
Beyond the intrigue of the capital
Let us now leave London and go on a little tour of the provinces where the streets were just as filthy and the crimes just as bloody. The city of Leeds blossomed in the Industrial Revolution, but 50 years earlier, it was already a centre of the wool trade, a place that was bursting at the seams with people on the make and on the take.
Chris Nickson conjures up this period in a magnificent series of seven books featuring Richard Nottingham, who really was the town sheriff at the time. Violent death haunts the streets everywhere, even touching members of his own family. These books are as exciting as they are moving. I will write about Mr. Nickson’s later series about 19th-century Leeds in a future post, as well as his books set in medieval Chesterfield, a Derbyshire town I know well. Also set in Leeds but in the 1780s is David Paton’s The Hand of Truth, a fine work that I heartily recommend.
Newcastle in 1780
Going further north, we come to Newcastle upon Tyne, the setting for a wonderful series by Roz Southey. By profession, she is an excellent musicologist whose specialty is the musical life of the region in the first part of the 18th century, most particularly the composer Charles Avison. Although she is writing fiction, her descriptions of the city and its musical culture are all absolutely accurate. She does introduce a whole second city of ghosts, something that I am perhaps not so fond of. However, I really enjoy her books and look forward to more.
Throughout the medieval period and for several centuries afterward, Norwich in East Anglia was one of the most important cities in the whole kingdom — after London, of course. Like Leeds, its wealth was based on the production of cloth and it had very close links with Flanders. Even in the 18th century, when it was beginning to lose out to the mushrooming cotton towns of the western side of the country, it was still one of the richest places in England.
Robert Dighton, Norwich Market Place, 1799
William Savage, who lives in Norfolk, has written several series of mystery stories that bring the city to life. The ones I have read feature Mr. Ashmole Foxe, who is a bookseller but whose income — a lot of which he spends on fancy clothes and not very respectable lady friends — secretly comes from other sources. Savage has several more series that are set later in the 18th century and into the Regency. More treats in store!
A charming rabbit, a photo which I took when I visited Erasmus Darwin’s house about decade ago.
Lichfield is one of the smallest cities in Britain, but it is famous as the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, and the poet Anna Seward, and for being the home of Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin. He was a doctor and one of the Lunar Men, a group that included Joseph Priestley, James Watt, and Josiah Wedgwood. I visited his house near the glorious cathedral and in the garden was a hutch with an enormous rabbit in it who had the perfect name: Erasmus! Darwin’s elegant Georgian house, now a museum, and the one where Dr. Johnson was born make the short trip from Birmingham well worthwhile.
This city of beauty and intellect is the setting for a fine series of books by Michael Anson. His protagonist, Richard Greene, like John Rawlings in Deryn Lake’s books, was also an apothecary and really lived in Lichfield. Greene was related to Dr. Johnson and was famous as a collector of what were then called curiosities. His engraved portrait is at the front of one of Anson’s books.
Illustration of Dr. Richard Greene
Erasmus Darwin makes an appearance, slovenly in appearance but with a razor-sharp mind. Dr. Johnson and his sidekick Boswell feature in a huge series of books by Lillian de La Torre, of which I’ve only read one so far. The Great Cham and his biographer become the Holmes and Watson of their day.
"Crime and grime" on the television screen
In case this quick survey of 18th-century detective fiction seems overly chauvinistic, let me recommend the excellent series about the adventures of Nicolas le Floch. The invention of the late Jean-François Parot, le Floch is a Rococo heroic daredevil — an appealing cross between James Bond and the Scarlet Pimpernel. Although he may be fictional, le Floch is surrounded by a host of actual characters from Paris and beyond. I am happy to say that many of the stories have been dramatised by French television and star the charismatic Jérôme Robert.
Jérôme Robert as Nicolas le Floch
I have watched all but the last couple of episodes and they are terrific, classy, elegant, and dangerous. (And most of the DVDs have subtitles.)
Finally, I must mention two more DVDs that fall into the category of Georgian crime. The first is City of Vice, which stars the brothers Henry and John Fielding, the latter of which also features largely in the books of Deryn Lake. Again, the menacing atmosphere of "crime and grime" is everywhere. Secondly, there is the series Garrow’s Law based on the career of the barrister John Garrow (1760–1840). Many of the episodes are real cases Garrow defended. He is superbly played by Andrew Buchan, who also starred in the wonderful contemporary series Broadchurch.
Andrew Buchan as William Garrow
Next time, I will travel back to the 17th century, which was even more violent and dangerous than the period that succeeded it. There will be lots of murders, devious spies, and dastardly plots with the added spice of religious conflict. But for now, if you are looking for some gripping reading for your summer travels, I hope you will find some ideas here. Please take something light and comic along with you, otherwise you will always be tempted to look over your shoulder just in case a pickpocket (or worse) is following you.