1700s britain fiction.

Also worth looking for books concerning Jacobites and the way they were treated before/after the Battle of Culloden.
 
Be wary of researching through novels -- there's no guarantee anything is accurate in what is written. You'd be far better off looking at books from the time and history books which are based on original sources, more and more of which do concentrate on ordinary people and how they lived their lives.
 
The Judge said:
Be wary of researching through novels -- there's no guarantee anything is accurate in what is written. You'd be far better off looking at books from the time and history books which are based on original sources, more and more of which do concentrate on ordinary people and how they lived their lives.
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Agreed, although reading fiction is usually more entertining than learning about the day-to-day life of the British peasant in the 18th Century!

HAving said that, the 18th Century was one of the more interesting, in particular the Industrial Revolution and the way that the French Revolution impacted on Britons.
 
Writers who wrote about 18th century cared for realism alot back then. You could find alot real history about everyday people in old historical fiction.

Why not read both historical fiction and history non-fiction as research.
 
many of today's historians write using "narrative history" - telling gripping stories rather than concentrating on dry theories and facts. you've got a decent chance of finding something that races through the period and gives you a flavour of it as well as pointing the way forward into other areas of (potentially more stodgy) relevant research. i do have to say that the 18th century isn't really my specialty however - ask me about anything prior to the Reformation, and i'm good to go....
 
paranoid marvin said:
HAving said that, the 18th Century was one of the more interesting
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Historian Frank McLynn's book 1759 has as a subtitle "The year Britain became master of the world" because we beat the French in battles in India, the West Indies, Europe and Canada. Even more interesting:
The summing-up is simple: no 1759, no victory in the Seven Years War; no victory in North America, no expansionist British Empire, no breakaway colonies and therefore, conceivably, no United States of America
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No African colonies hm some of us would like to change 1759 and stop the brits before the global empire days ;)

There is a good time traveling, alternate history story there.
 
Why settle for historical fiction, when there are some good novels written in that period? I would recommend "Moll Flanders", written in 1722 by Daniel Defoe (shortly after he wrote "Robinson Crusoe"), which tells the adventures of a con-woman in 18th century London.

ETA - the 1996 TV version featuring Alex Kingston (River Song from Doctor Who) and Daniel "James Bond" Craig is finally out on DVD, and it's a pretty accurate adaptation of the book. Just avoid the US movie with Robin whatshername from The Princess Bride, which is Hollywood invention.
 
I agree with TJ that you can't depend on the accuracy of anything you read in an historical novel ... or even novels written during the period (although I agree with Anne about Moll Flanders because it's worth reading anyway).

But there are books full of facts about everyday life during that period, from the mundane to the totally bizarre, that (in my opinion) are just as entertaining as fiction.

The Pageant of Georgian England by Elizabeth Burton

Daily Life in Johnson's London by Richard B. Schwartz

Journeys of a German in England in 1782 Carl Philip Moritz, translated by Reginald Nettel (this one is a primary source)

And if you decide to go beyond Great Britain for your inspirations, I can recommend several other very good books with all sorts of unexpected information, far more outlandish than anything you could find in a fantasy novel.
 
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