From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Blake 's poem
London , which explores the meaning of the city. This image is a digital repercussion of his hand-painted 1826 print from Copy AA of
Songs of Innocence and of Experience . The item is currently in the Collection of the
Fitzwilliam Museum , Cambridge, England.
[1]
Many notable works of
fiction are set in
London , the capital city of
England and of the
United Kingdom . The following is a selection; there are too many such fictional works for it to be possible to compile a complete list.
Many of
Charles Dickens ' most famous
novels are at least partially set in London; including:
Oliver Twist (1838),
The Old Curiosity Shop (1840),
A Christmas Carol (1843),
David Copperfield (1850),
Bleak House (1853),
Little Dorrit (1857),
A Tale of Two Cities (1859),
Great Expectations (1861),
Our Mutual Friend (1865), and
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
William Makepeace Thackeray —
Vanity Fair (1847)
Mark Twain —
The Prince and the Pauper (1881)
Henry James —
The Princess Casamassima (1886),
A London Life (1888),
What Maisi e Knew (1897),
In the Cage (1898)
Oscar Wilde —
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
H. G. Wells —
The Invisible Man (1897),
The War of the Worlds (1898)
G. K. Chesterton — his
allegorical works
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) and
The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) both feature
surreal depictions of London
Joseph Conrad —
The Secret Agent (1907)
J. M. Barrie —
Peter and Wendy (1904–1911)
Marie Belloc Lowndes —
The Lodger (1913)
D. H. Lawrence —
Sons and Lovers (1913)
P. G. Wodehouse — in his
Jeeves and Wooster novels (1919 onwards), Wooster lives mainly in London, and is a member of the
Drones Club
T. S. Eliot — his long poem
The Waste Land (1922) makes frequent reference to the Unreal City[
disputed –
discuss ]
Virginia Woolf —
Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Evelyn Waugh —
Vile Bodies (1930)
Aldous Huxley —
Brave New World (1932)
P. L. Travers —
Mary Poppins (1934) Takes place on Cherry Tree Lane and at the Bank of England
Patrick Hamilton —
20,000 Streets Under the Sky (1935)
George Orwell —
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936),
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Cameron McCabe —
The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor (1937)
T. H. White —
The Sword in the Stone (1938)
Patrick Hamilton —
Hangover Square (1941)
Patrick White —
The Living and the Dead (1941)
Norman Collins —
London Belongs to Me (1945)
Elizabeth Bowen —
The Heat of the Day (1949)
Agatha Christie —
Crooked House (1949)
John Wyndham —
The Day of the Triffids (1951)
Graham Greene —
The End of the Affair (1951),
The Destructors (1954)
Dodie Smith —
The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956)
Michael Bond — A Bear Called Paddington (1958)
Colin MacInnes —
Absolute Beginners (1959),
Mr Love and Justice (1960)
Iris Murdoch —
A Severed Head (1961)
Muriel Spark —
The Girls of Slender Means (1963)
Doris Lessing —
The Four-Gated City (1969)
Michael Moorcock — the
Jerry Cornelius stories (from 1969):
Mother London (1988),
King of the City (2000)
Thomas Pynchon —
Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
Maureen Duffy —
Capital: a Fiction (1975)
Julian Barnes —
Metroland (1980)
Peter Ackroyd —
The Great Fire of London (1982),
Hawksmoor (1985),
English Music (1992),
The House of Doctor Dee (1993),
Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994)
Alan Moore —
V for Vendetta (1982 – 1989),
From Hell (1989–1996)
Martin Amis —
Money (1984),
London Fields (1989)
Iain Banks —
Walking on Glass (1985)
Tom Clancy —
Patriot Games (1987)
Hanif Kureishi —
The Buddha of Suburbia (1987)
Vertigo (DC Comics) —
Hellblazer (1988–2013)
Salman Rushdie —
The Satanic Verses (1989)
Josephine Hart —
Damage (1991)
Bernice Rubens —
A Solitary Grief (1991)
Barbara Vine —
King Solomon's Carpet (1991)
Nick Hornby —
Fever Pitch - A Fan's Life (1992),
High Fidelity (1995),
About a Boy (1998)
Will Self —
Grey Area (1994)
Helen Fielding —
Bridget Jones's Diary (1996)
Neil Gaiman —
Neverwhere (1996) is set partly in real London, and partly in an alternative 'London Below'
Anthony Frewin —
London Blues (1997), is set mainly in
Soho at the time of the
Profumo affair
Ian McEwan —
Enduring Love (1997)
J. K. Rowling —
Harry Potter series (1997–2007) features fictional London locations: the hidden
Diagon Alley , and Platform 9+ 3 ⁄4 at
King's Cross
Kouta Hirano —
Hellsing manga series (1997–2009) casts London as the story's main setting
William Boyd —
Armadillo (1998)
Hanif Kureishi —
Gabriel's Gift (2001)
John Lanchester — Mr Phillips (2001),
Capital (2012)
Bernard Cornwell —
Gallows Thief (2001)
Philip Reeve —
Mortal Engines (2001),
A Darkling Plain (2006),
Fever Crumb (2009)
Zadie Smith —
White Teeth (2000),
NW (2012)
Miles Tredinnick —
Topless , (2001)
Iain Banks —
Dead Air (2002)
William Gibson —
Pattern Recognition (2003)
Zoë Heller —
Notes on a Scandal (2003)
Adam Thirlwell —
Politics (2003)
Neal Stephenson —
The Baroque Cycle (
Quicksilver (2003),
The Confusion (2004),
The System of the World (2004))
Monica Ali —
Brick Lane (2004)
Ben Elton —
Past Mortem (2004)
A. N. Wilson —
My Name Is Legion (2004)
Nick Hornby —
A Long Way Down (2005)
Ian McEwan —
Saturday (2005)
Will Self —
The Book of Dave (2006)
Charles Finch —
A Beautiful Blue Death (2007),
The September Society (2008),
The Fleet Street Murders (2009),
A Stranger in Mayfair (2010)
Mary Novik —
Conceit (2007)
Charlie Fletcher —
The Stoneheart (2008)
Anthony Horowitz —
Stormbreaker, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel (2008)
Ruth Rendell —
Portobello (2008)
Audrey Niffenegger —
Her Fearful Symmetry (2009)
DC Comics —
Wonder Woman is based in London following
The New 52 relaunch of her ongoing series (2011–present)
Jared Anthony Patterson — My Journey through the Gay Underground of London: Memoir of a Tottenham Boy (2011)
Ben Aaronovitch —
Rivers of London (2011),
Moon Over Soho (2011),
Whispers Under Ground (2012),
Broken Homes (2013)
The Hanging Tree (2016)
The Furthest Station (2017)
Mike Bartlett —
13 (2011)
Daniel O'Malley — The Rook (2012)
Robert Galbraith —
The Cuckoo's Calling (2013),
The Silkworm (2014)
Career of Evil (2015)
Lethal White (TBC)
Anakana Schofield — Martin John (2016)
Robert J. Sherman —
Bumblescratch (2016)
John Roman Baker — Time of Obsessions (2017)
Cassandra Clare —
The Clockwork Angel (2010),
The Clockwork Prince (2011),
The Clockwork Princess (2013)
Jonathan Stroud —
The Screaming Staircase (2013),
The Whispering Skull (2014),
The Hollow Boy (2015),
The Creeping Shadow (2016),
The Empty Grave (2017)
Deborah Hewitt — The Nightjar (2019)
Garth Nix — The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (2020)
Several
nursery rhymes mention places in London.
London Fictions — looks at commanding London novels from Defoe to the present day