Book recs?

[telophase]

OK, I figure there's a wide enough variety of people who read my journal one way or another that I might get some interesting responses to this.

I'm vaguely working on a comic project that's set in a neo-Victorian/Edwardian wonky world -- 'vageuly' meaning I've got the three characters that showe dup when I was doodling that I've linked to earlier in this journal, and a few vague ideas for setting knocking about my brain, but nothing has really jelled yet.

So -- I"m looking for recommendations for books, comics, art, movies, and whatnot that you think fits the parameter of "Victorian/Edwardian weird," either period or modern, I don't care. I wish I could be more specific, but I can't really pin down what it is I'm talking about - even 'Victorian' and 'Edwardian' don't do more than describe a vague flavor. The book The Thackery T Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases - which I gleefully recommend to all of you - is a perfect example. As is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics - ebony14, I may be asking to borrow yours. :) Maybe H. Rider Haggard, too, since I haven't read any of him - I'm looking in part for the sort of world where you'd get retired British colonels sitting around the fireside telling tall tales about their hair-raising exploits with savages and cannibals in the depths of Africa, and where'd you'd get languid Bohemians lounging around in opium dens and drinking absinthe in Parisian bars and cafes.

There's probably some elements of steampunk in the world taking shape in my head, too, so steampunk would work, in the Castle Falkenstein mode. I also just spent a happy half hour downloading pictures of the Japanese Visual Kei band Malice Mizer, because the Elegant Gothic Lolita look is a part of it, and I'm going to raid my mother's bookshelves for Georgette Heyer and P.G. Wodehouse when I'm home this week because the rather-ceremonial world of the British upper class is central to bits of it -- and parts of this thing extend up into the 1920s and 30s in the Bohemian set.

So, I know that's rather vague and broad, but I'm looking for vague and broad because I'm planning on stuffing my head full of these bits and pieces over the next few weeks to see what pops out, because I've got these three characters and a sort of late-19th-century city with a very large city of the dead nearby, and there's no real framework yet on which to hang them.

Ah. Thunder. I should get off the computer now; the wiring in this complex tends to be wonky during storms.

Comments

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Comme Il Faut (http://tundra-sales-org.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TTP&Product_Code=CF6011&Category_Code=CFK) is the best Castle Falkenstein book for what you're trying to do IMHO. It concentrates on the social manners of the period. There's a GURPS book for steampunk (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/steampunk/) as well. For fiction, The Difference Engine (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/055329461X/qid=1091051156/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-3671518-2386321) is the best steampunk novel I've seen. Let me know if you'd like to borrow our copies.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Studio Foglio, Girl Genius.
http://www.studiofoglio.com/girlgenius.html

I HEAVILY recommend it.

And yes, Heyer is great, although it's Georgian and Regency.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Weeeeel, you might want to talk to ratmmjess, seeing as how he's the expert, but you'd obviously want to start with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells. Go for The Invisible Man or any of Wells' short stories for a start; for more contemporarily-written material, take a peek at K.W. Jeter's Infernal Devices or Morlock Night. Now, if you need any Victorian science material, let me know: I can give you a list as long as your arm.

[longshot14.livejournal.com]

Wilde. Wilde Wilde Wilde Wilde Wilde. *Lots* and lots of Wilde :)

"Never speak disrespectfully of society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that." ;)

[longshot14.livejournal.com]

Aside from that, the only recommendation I can give that hasn't already been given is a kinda pulpy novel by Barbara Hambly called "Those Who Hunt The Night".

If you want video, I'll recommend _Tipping the Velvet_ which was a 3-part BBC miniseries about Victorian lesbians - yes, that's the Bonnie in me talking ;)

[mothoc.livejournal.com]

Try some adolescent literature. Specifically, the Lemony Snicket stuff (A Series of Unfortunate Events), and the Edge Chronicles (out for a while in England, just now appearing on US shores). They both have a very Victorian feel, if not actually Victorian.

[espion.livejournal.com]

I wish I could help you out. heh, I can tell you the indications for abdominal aortic aneurysm repair...

The only reason I commented really, is because my cousin named his 2nd son Fitzgerald Wodehouse Wilson. They call him "Fritz," and of course, the "Wodehouse" is from their favorite author...