Book picks similar to
Jack Dawkins by Charlton Daines


historical-fiction
dickens
fiction
19th-century

Master of His Fate


Barbara Taylor Bradford - 2018
    Even as a boy working in his father's market stall in Camden, he was determined to become a merchant prince. Through hard work and a single-minded determination, James rises quickly through the ranks, with a loving wife, devoted children, and a lofty position in the Malvern & Malvern Company. But when back-to-back tragedies strike the Falconer home, shattering this idyllic life, it seems as though James might never recover his former glory...until a royal summons gives him the chance to prove that he truly is a master of the game.The first book in an expansive and intricately detailed new historical fiction series from master storyteller Barbara Taylor Bradford, Master of the Game is filled with drama, intrigue, and Bradford's trademark cast of compelling characters.

Life After Life


Kate Atkinson - 2013
    She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she?

Sweet Thames


Matthew Kneale - 1992
    What he finds there, amid the poverty and death, shatters his ideals and strikes at everything he holds dear.

Observations by Gaslight: Stories from the World of Sherlock Holmes


Lyndsay Faye - 2021
    And witness Stanley Hopkins’ first meeting with the remote logician he idolizes, who will one day become his devoted mentor.  From familiar faces like landlady Mrs. Hudson to minor characters like Lomax the sub-librarian, Observations by Gaslight—entirely epistolary, told through diaries, telegrams, and even grocery lists—paints a masterful portrait of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as you have never seen them before.

The Forsyte Saga


John Galsworthy - 1922
    John Galsworthy, a Nobel Prize-winning author, chronicles the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle-class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s.

Dancing on Deansgate


Freda Lightfoot - 2003
    But when the Blitz reaches Manchester, she is locked in the cellar by her feckless mother, Lizzie. As bombs rain down from a sky turned blood red with flame, Jess waits for Lizzie to return.But fortunes are fickle, and soon Jess finds herself packed off to live with her tyrant Uncle Bernie, a bullying black marketeer. Though he treats her like a servant, she seeks refuge in the Sally Army and her natural musical talent offers both an escape route and the chance for love.But Uncle Bernie never forgives his niece for refusing to join his illegal schemes and threatens to deprive Jess of her hard-won freedom once and for all. This is a sweeping saga of hope and resilience perfect for fans of Kitty Neale and Rosie Goodwin. Praise for Dancing on Deansgate ‘A heart-wrenching story’ 5* Reader review‘It drew me in straight away’ 5* Reader review‘Another gem from a great writer’ 5* Reader review‘A compelling story of separation and hardship, and heartache overcome at last’ 5* Reader review

The Long View


Elizabeth Jane Howard - 1956
    'The Long View', a revealing portrait of a marriage, is the ingenious construction of a couple's story that offers a remarkable and very real view of the shifting relationship between two people from 1950 to 1926.(The author, Elizabeth Jane Howard, rose to international stardom with her magnificent Cazalet family saga.)

The Meaning of Night


Michael Cox - 2006
    A story of betrayal and treachery, of death and delusion, of ruthless obsession and ambition.The atmosphere of Bleak House, the sensuous thrill of Perfume, and the mystery of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell all combine in a story of murder, deceit, love, and revenge in Victorian England."After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an oyster supper."So begins the extraordinary story of Edward Glyver--booklover, scholar, and murderer. As a young boy, Glyver always believed he was destined for greatness. A chance discovery convinces him that he was right: greatness does await him, along with immense wealth and influence. Overwhelmed by his discovery, he will stop at nothing to win back a prize that he knows is rightfully his.Glyver's path to reclaim his prize leads him from the depths of Victorian London, with its foggy streets, brothels, and opium dens, to Evenwood, one of England's most beautiful and enchanting country houses, and finally to a consuming love for the beautiful but enigmatic Emily Carteret. His is a story of betrayal and treachery, of death and delusion, of ruthless obsession and ambition. And at every turn, driving Glyver irresistibly onward, is his deadly rival: the poet-criminal Phoebus Rainsford Daunt.The Meaning of Night is an enthralling novel that will captivate readers right up to its final thrilling revelation.

The Somnambulist


Essie Fox - 2011
    While there, Phoebe is drawn to a stranger, the enigmatic Nathaniel Samuels who heralds dramatic changes in the lives of all three women. When offered the position of companion to Nathaniel's reclusive wife, Phoebe leaves her life in London's East End for Dinwood Court in Herefordshire — a house that may well be haunted and which holds the darkest of truths. In a gloriously gothic debut, Essie Fox weaves a spellbinding tale of guilt and deception, regret and lost love.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day


Winifred Watson - 1938
    When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies. Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever.

Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages


Phyllis Rose - 1983
    The couples are John Ruskin and Effie Gray; Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh; John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor; George Eliot and G. H. Lewes; Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth.

Restoration


Rose Tremain - 1989
    Merivel slips easily into a life of luxury and idleness, enthusiastically enjoying the women and wine of the vibrant Restoration age. But when he’s called on to serve the king in an unusual role, he transgresses the one law that he is forbidden to break and is brutally cast out from his newfound paradise. Thus begins Merivel’s journey to self-knowledge, which will take him down into the lowest depths of seventeenth-century society.

A Woman's Work...


S. Block - 2017
    Enjoy one ebook episode a month or own the complete novel in ebook or paperback in October 2017.The story continues . . . The women of Great Paxford are no strangers to hardship, but as the war progresses they encounter challenges they never imagined.Pat Simms found a moment of happiness, but her husband's scheming brought that to an end. Yet Pat can't help but hope for another chance.Teresa thought all her troubles would disappear when she married Nick, but chance encounters with a young pilot leave her torn and conflicted.Still reeling from the death of her husband, Frances Barden worries she's made the wrong choice in sending her young ward away. Anything could happen to a boy at war time . . .And all the while the Campbell family struggle to hold their family together as illness takes a toll.Don't miss a minute of this enthralling new series. Keep the Home Fires Burning - Part One: Spitfire Down! is available for pre-order now. Search 9781785763564.Ready for the next instalment? Keep the Home Fires Burning - Part Three will be out in September and is available for pre-order now! Search 9781785763588.Perfect for fans of Call the Midwife, Granchester and Foyles War. If you adore the novels of Nadine Dorries, Diney Costello and Daisy Styles then this is an unmissable series for you.

The Seance


John Harwood - 2008
    Once, a family disappeared there. And now Constance Langton has inherited this dark place as well as the mysteries surrounding it. Having grown up in a house marked by the death of her sister, Constance is no stranger to mystery, secrets, and the dark magic around us. Her father was distant. Her mother was in perpetual mourning for her lost child. In a desperate attempt to coax her mother back to health, Constance took her to a seance hoping she would find supernatural comfort. But tragic consequences followed, leaving her alone in the world-- alone with Wraxford Hall. Saddled with this questionable bequest, she must find the truth at the heart of all these disappearances, apparitions, betrayal, blackmail, and villainy, even if it costs her life. John Harwood's second novel delivers on the great promise proven by his first with this gripping mystery set in the heart of Victorian England.

The Diary of a Nobody


George Grossmith - 1889
    Yet he always seems to be troubled by disagreeable tradesmen, impertinent young office clerks and wayward friends, not to mention his devil-may-care son Lupin with his unsuitable choice of bride. Try as he might, he cannot avoid life's embarrassing mishaps. In the bumbling, absurd, yet ultimately endearing figure of Pooter, the Grossmiths created an immortal comic character and a superb satire on the snobberies of middle-class suburbia - one which also sends up late Victorian crazes for spiritualism and bicycling, as well as the fashion for publishing diaries by anybody and everybody.