London in fiction
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Many works of fiction are set in London, the capital of the United Kingdom.
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Early Fiction
19th Century fiction
- Many of Charles Dickens's most famous novels are at least partially set in London, including: Oliver Twist (1838), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale Of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861), Our Mutual Friend (1865).
- Bram Stoker's Dracula comes to London in order to seduce Mina Harker.
- Henry James - The Europeans (1878), Daisy Miller (1879)
- Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
- Somerset Maugham - Liza of Lambeth (1897)
- Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Holmes live at 221B Baker Street - a fictional address since Baker Street was much shorter in Victorian times. The Docklands area plays a large part in The Sign of Four.
20th Century fiction
Prewar fiction
- P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels (1919 onwards). Wooster lives mainly in London, and is a member of the Drones Club.
- T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land makes frequent reference to the Unreal City.
- Chesterton's allegorical works The Man Who Was Thursday and The Napolean of Notting Hill both feature surreal depictions of London.
- Pamela L. Travers' Mary Poppins (1934). Takes place on Cherry Tree Lane and at the Bank of England.
- Cameron McCabe - The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor (1937)
- Patrick Hamilton - Hangover Square (1941)
Postwar Fiction
- Elizabeth Bowen - The Heat of the Day (1949)
- Agatha Christie - Crooked House (1949)
- Graham Greene - The End of the Affair (1951)
- Samuel Selvon - Lonely Londoners (1955)
- Colin McCabe's City of Spades (1957), Absolute Beginners (1959) and Mr Love and Justice (1960)
- Iris Murdoch - A Severed Head (1961)
- Doris Lessing - The Four-Gated City (1969)
- Maureen Duffy - Capital (1975)
- Peter Ackroyd - Hawksmoor (1985)
- Iain Banks - Walking on Glass (1985), Dead Air (2002)
- Martin Amis - Money (1984), London Fields (1989)
- Hanif Kureishi - The Buddha of Suburbia (1987)
- 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 (1992), High Fidelity (1996), About a Boy (1998)
- Will Self - Grey Area (1996)
- Ronald Wright - A Scientific Romance (1997) features detailed descriptions of a ruined London in the year 2500.
- Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (1997) is set partly in real London, and partly in an alternative "London Below".
- J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series (1997 onwards) features fictional London locations: the hidden Diagon Alley and a Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross.
- Julian Barnes - Metroland (1997)
- Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones' Diary (1997)
- William Boyd - Armadillo (1998)
- William Sutcliffe - The Love Hexagon (2000)
21st-Century Fiction
- Zadie Smith - White Teeth (2001)
- Bernadine Evaristo - The Emperor's Babe (2002)
- Zoë Heller - Notes on a Scandal (2003)
- Adam Thirlwell - Politics (2003)
- Monica Ali - Brick Lane (2004)
- Ben Elton - Past Mortem (2004)
- A. N. Wilson - My Name Is Legion (2004)
- Anthony Horowitz - Stormbreaker, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel
- Ian McEwan - Saturday (2005)
Nursery rhymes
Several nursery rhymes mention places in London. London Bridge is obviously mentioned in London Bridge is falling down. Oranges and Lemons mentions several London Churches. One version of Pop Goes The Weasel refers to the Eagle pub on the City Road.