Historical novels set in 19th Century New York City

[Sanity Claws]

Can anyone recommend any historical novels set in that time period? Or perhaps a novel written in that time period and place that you can recommend?
Thanks!!

[evlbstrd]

1. Gangs of New York.

[jobycom]

2. No, but I just read one set in 19th century Baltimore.

It's called "The Poe Shadow." Decent, not brilliant. It's about Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious death, and a lawyer (fictional) trying to find out what happened. The story is a bit slow, but the setting is vivid. Also, the author (Matthew Pearl--also wrote "The Dante Club") did a lot of historical research into the death itself, and found a few details that supposedly other researchers had missed. His problem is he tries to include all these findings as though his character were finding them, and it gets a bit monotonous, and at times the story seems strained as he tries to find an excuse to work in his research. Although I imagine if someone were a Poe aficionado, it might be intriguing.

I know it's not New York, but it's an east coast urban center, pre Civil War (1850s). Don't know if that helps you. :)

[ananda]

3. I think Henry James might have written one.

nt

[villager]

4. "Time and Again," by Jack Finney

tho' it also involves time travel in order to, you know, get to 19th century New York...

[NYC]

8. Time and Again

was a great book. I haven't spoken to anyone who didn't like it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. One of my all-time favorites!

Finney almost makes time travel believable as well as accurately portraying how a twentieth-century person (the book was written in the 1970s) would go through culture shock traveling to the past of his own city.

[AngMic]

5. 19th cent. NYC novels

 There is a very good one  about the draft riots it's called
"Paradise Alley" by Kevin Baker.  It is well written
and very well researched.  You might also look for Caleb
Carr's "The Alienist"  

[hwmnbn]

7. Bwahahaha....

You beat me by 5 minutes.

Wecome to DU!! :hi:

[AngMic]

16. welcome

Thanks for the welcome.

[alarimer]

30. Also the one he wrote about Coney Island

And there is a third one sort of related to those two. I can't for the life of me remember their names though.

[hwmnbn]

6. Two books I enjoyed very much by Caleb Carr....

"The Alienist"

The Alienist is a psychological thriller which revolves around one of the earliest forensic teams put together in the late 19th century. In order to catch a serial killer, the NY Police Commissoner (Theodore Roosevelt) put together a secret and rather unexpected forensic team including a journalist (John Moore), a police secretary (Sara Howard), two detectives (the Isaacsons), and the "alienist" himself (Laszlo Kreizler). In addition to finding out how a psychological profile is built of a criminal, within the pages of this book you also get to fall in love with the timeless characters it describes.

"The Angel of Darkness"

The Angel of Darkness is the follow-on story from The Alienist. It features the same cast of characters as the original along with some new ones (Mr Picton, Clarence Darrow, and of course the infamous Libby Hatch) and is told from Stevie's point of view. Within it we follow the story of a kidnapper and murderer from turn of the century New York city to upper New York state.

[yellowdogintexas]

14. don't forget the parody : "Shroud of the Thwacker" : Seriously

Caleb Carr's books were both fantastic.

[NYC]

9. Edith Wharton.

The Age of Innocence.

or

The House of Mirth.

[Sedona]

10. Ragtime

Its set in 1906, just after the turn of the century. I read it in high school.

http://www.amazon.com/Ragtime-Novel-E-L-Doctorow/dp/0812978188/ref=sr_1_2/105-9733921-5601257?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187490599&sr=1-2

Age of Innocence

http://www.amazon.com/Age-Innocence-Barnes-Noble-Classics/dp/1593080743/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-9733921-5601257?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187490717&sr=1-1

[yellowdogintexas]

15. Ragtime is one of my most favorite books ever. nt

[Rageneau]

11. "The Waterworks" by E.L. Doctrow

Puts you right there on Broadway, in a horse-drawn streetcar.

[flamingyouth]

27. I really liked that one.

:thumbsup:

[Sanity Claws]

12. Thank you everyone for the recommendations

I'm on a history kick right now and wanted to get a feel for how the working class lived back then. The classic authors that I could think of, Edith Wharton and Henry James, struck me as too concerned with the upper class.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Oh, for working class life in nineteenth century New York...

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn actually takes place in the early 1900s, but life really hadn't changed that much from the 19th century.

The All-of-a-Kind Family series was actually written for children, but it depicts the same era as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, only the characters are Jewish instead of Irish.

Oh, and I haven't actually read the book, just a synopsis, but Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, wrote a novel about life among the "underclass" of his day (1893) called Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.

For non-fictional contemporary accounts, try John Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives.

[terrya]

13. "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr

Very readable novel abut late 19th century New York

[SCDem]

19. second that - I LOVED the Alienist!

[northernsoul]

20. Great book

It's really too bad that Carr can't/won't write another page-turner of similar quality.

[Sequoia]

21. I will have to read it then.

Not New York but Chicago..."The Devil in the White City" Very excellent book!

[David Zephyr]

23. The Alienist is probably the Gold Standard on this subject. Simply an unforgettable book.

terrya, you have my vote. Caleb Carr made me feel I was right there with Teddy in the streets. I loved The Alienist.

[Mist]

22. I read "Heyday" a few months ago, by Kurt Andersen. At least half

the book is set in NYC, pre-Civil War. Highly detailed, great characters.

[David Zephyr]

24. Edmund White's latest and new novel "Hotel de Dream" deals with NYC in late 1800's.

I just finished this book, "The Hotel de Dream" and I liked it overall, but I feel that it was an amalgamation of three books:

1.) "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr mentioned above which deals with boy prostitutes in NYC at the turn of the century and which is a far better book that White's book.

2.) "The Newsies" which was a Disney musical that dealt with the newsboys and their strike against Hearst and Pulitzer at the turn of the century.

3.) "A Moving Feast" by Ernest Hemingway which deals with an ex-patriot American who is down on his luck while living in Europe who gossips about other writers.

Take these three books, mix them together and there's Edmund White's new novel. It's still a good read, but I feel like it was at the most, an inspired ripoff from the other three sources.

[mzteris]

25. here are a few for you to look at

sorry if they're dupes of what's already been listed.


Night Inspector
Fred Busch
Darkly imaginative historical novel re-creates 1867 New York City, whose seamy underbelly reflects the physical and psychological scars of the Civil War.


Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York
by Marge Piercy


Metropolis
by Elizabeth Gaffney


Hosack's Folly: A Novel of Old New York
by Gillen D'Arcy Wood,

Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York
by Peter D. Quinn


The Waterworks
by E. L. Doctorow


An Inconvenient Wife
by Megan Chance



Dreamland
by Kevin Baker

Paradise Alley: A Novel
by Kevin Baker

Suspension
by Richard E. Crabbe

Poe and Fanny
by John May

All Will Be Revealed
by Robert Anthony Siegel



Here's some non-fiction you might enjoy:

Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the Worlds Most Notorious Slum
Tyler Anbinder


The Murder of Helen Jewett
by Patricia Cline Cohen
In 1836, the murder of young New York City prostitute Helen Jewett and the ensuing trial of her lover captivated the nation. Jewett (her real name was Dorcas Doyen; Jewett used many pseudonyms during her short life) was an archetypal 1830s model of fallen virtue.


City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920
by Timothy J. Gilfoyle

[hedgehog]

26. Barbara Hambly's series featuring Benjamin January are a great

look at pre-Civil War New Orleans. Start with "A Free Man of Color".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. Another one of my favorite series

It really gives you an appreciation for the unique cultural mix that produced pre-Katrina New Orleans (aside from making you glad that you didn't live there during the pre-sanitation, pre-air conditioning days).

[Mz Pip]

28. Forever

by Pete Hamill.

It about a guy who arrives in Manhattan in 1741 and gets to live forever as long as he never leaves the city.

Mz Pip
:dem: