My Experience with The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London by Judith Flanders

About half of the books I read every year are non-fiction, but I rarely talk about them with you. Why talk about a book on marketing, or writing, or project management when I can talk about books with magic or space battles?

However, it’s the end of the year, and I’ve decided to look back and pick one non-fiction title that a fantasy fan might enjoy. And to that purpose, I picked The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London by Judith Flanders.

The Victorian City is an engaging chronicle of Victorian London. Exploring the historic subtleties detailed when reading the work of Charles Dickens, this book gives context to many of the references and humor in his work that may otherwise be misunderstood when limited to a modern perspective. 

Give it a read if you plan to dive into the Dickens catalog, or if you would like to know what life was like in the “city of the future.” Fans of historical fiction and fantasy set in Sudo-European cultures will find interesting nuggets here as well.

And me? I read it because it was a great resource for my high fantasy worldbuilding. So if you like to tell stories of times past, put this on your reference list. You’ll learn why Charles Dickens wrote about certain elements of London, and how to make your pre-modern era city historically accurate.