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.
Folklore
Early fiction
19th century fiction
- 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 â Vanity Fair (1847)
- Mark Twain â The Prince and the Pauper (1881)
- Henry James â The Princess Casamassima (1886), A London Life (1888), What Maisie Knew (1897), In the Cage (1898)
- Oscar Wilde â The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
- H. G. Wells â The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898)
20th century fiction
- G. K. Chesterton â his allegorical works The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) and The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) both feature surreal depictions of London
- Joseph Conrad â The Secret Agent (1907)
- J. M. Barrie â Peter and Wendy (1904âÂÂ1911)
- Marie Belloc Lowndes â The Lodger (1913)
- D. H. Lawrence â Sons and Lovers (1913)
- P. G. Wodehouse â in his Jeeves and Wooster novels (1919 onwards), Wooster lives mainly in London, and is a member of the Drones Club
- T. S. Eliot â his long poem The Waste Land (1922) makes frequent reference to the Unreal City
- Virginia Woolf â Mrs Dalloway (1925)
- Evelyn Waugh â Vile Bodies (1930)
- Aldous Huxley â Brave New World (1932)
- P. L. Travers â Mary Poppins (1934) Takes place on Cherry Tree Lane and at the Bank of England
- Patrick Hamilton â 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (1935)
- George Orwell â Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
- Cameron McCabe â The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor (1937)
- T. H. White â The Sword in the Stone (1938)
- Patrick Hamilton â Hangover Square (1941)
- Patrick White â The Living and the Dead (1941)
- Norman Collins â London Belongs to Me (1945)
- Elizabeth Bowen â The Heat of the Day (1949)
- Agatha Christie â Crooked House (1949)
- John Wyndham â The Day of the Triffids (1951)
- Graham Greene â The End of the Affair (1951), The Destructors (1954)
- Dodie Smith â The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956)
- Michael Bond â A Bear Called Paddington (1958)
- Colin MacInnes â Absolute Beginners (1959), Mr Love and Justice (1960)
- Iris Murdoch â A Severed Head (1961)
- Muriel Spark â The Girls of Slender Means (1963)
- Doris Lessing â The Four-Gated City (1969)
- Michael Moorcock â the Jerry Cornelius stories (from 1969): Mother London (1988), King of the City (2000)
- Thomas Pynchon â Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
- Maureen Duffy â Capital: a Fiction (1975)
- Julian Barnes â Metroland (1980)
- Peter Ackroyd â 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 â V for Vendetta (1982 â 1989), From Hell (1989âÂÂ1996)
- Martin Amis â Money (1984), London Fields (1989)
- Iain Banks â Walking on Glass (1985)
- Tom Clancy â Patriot Games (1987)
- Hanif Kureishi â The Buddha of Suburbia (1987)
- Vertigo (DC Comics) â Hellblazer (1988âÂÂ2013)
- Salman Rushdie â The Satanic Verses (1989)
- Josephine Hart â Damage (1991)
- Bernice Rubens â A Solitary Grief (1991)
- Barbara Vine â King Solomon's Carpet (1991)
- Nick Hornby â Fever Pitch - A Fan's Life (1992), High Fidelity (1995), About a Boy (1998)
- Will Self â Grey Area (1994)
- Helen Fielding â Bridget Jones's Diary (1996)
- Neil Gaiman â Neverwhere (1996) is set partly in real London, and partly in an alternative 'London Below'
- Anthony Frewin â London Blues (1997), is set mainly in Soho at the time of the Profumo affair
- Ian McEwan â Enduring Love (1997)
- J. K. Rowling â Harry Potter series (1997âÂÂ2007) features fictional London locations: the hidden Diagon Alley, and Platform at King's Cross
- Kouta Hirano â Hellsing manga series (1997âÂÂ2009) casts London as the story's main setting
- William Boyd â Armadillo (1998)
21st century fiction
- Hanif Kureishi â Gabriel's Gift (2001)
- John Lanchester â Mr Phillips (2001), Capital (2012)
- Bernard Cornwell â Gallows Thief (2001)
- Philip Reeve â Mortal Engines (2001), A Darkling Plain (2006), Fever Crumb (2009)
- Zadie Smith â White Teeth (2000), NW (2012)
- Miles Tredinnick â Topless, (2001)
- Iain Banks â Dead Air (2002)
- William Gibson â Pattern Recognition (2003)
- Zoë Heller â Notes on a Scandal (2003)
- Adam Thirlwell â Politics (2003)
- Neal Stephenson â The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver (2003), The Confusion (2004), The System of the World (2004))
- Monica Ali â Brick Lane (2004)
- Ben Elton â Past Mortem (2004)
- A. N. Wilson â My Name Is Legion (2004)
- Nick Hornby â A Long Way Down (2005)
- Ian McEwan â Saturday (2005)
- Will Self â The Book of Dave (2006)
- Charles Finch â A Beautiful Blue Death (2007), The September Society (2008), The Fleet Street Murders (2009), A Stranger in Mayfair (2010)
- Mary Novik â Conceit (2007)
- Charlie Fletcher â The Stoneheart (2008)
- Anthony Horowitz â Stormbreaker, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel (2008)
- Ruth Rendell â Portobello (2008)
- Audrey Niffenegger â Her Fearful Symmetry (2009)
- DC Comics â Wonder Woman is based in London following The New 52 relaunch of her ongoing series (2011âÂÂpresent)
- Jared Anthony Patterson â My Journey through the Gay Underground of London: Memoir of a Tottenham Boy (2011)
- Ben Aaronovitch â 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 â 13 (2011)
- Daniel O'Malley â The Rook (2012)
- Robert Galbraith â The Cuckoo's Calling (2013), The Silkworm (2014) Career of Evil (2015) Lethal White (TBC)
- Anakana Schofield â Martin John (2016)
- Robert J. Sherman â Bumblescratch (2016)
- John Roman Baker â Time of Obsessions (2017)
- Cassandra Clare â The Clockwork Angel (2010), The Clockwork Prince (2011), The Clockwork Princess (2013)
- Jonathan Stroud⣠â â£The Screaming Staircase (2013), The Whispering Skull (2014), The Hollow Boy (2015), The Creeping Shadow (2016), The Empty Grave (2017)
- Deborah Hewitt â The Nightjar (2019)
- Garth Nix â The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (2020)
Nursery rhymes
Several nursery rhymes mention places in London.
References
External links
- London Fictions â looks at commanding London novels from Defoe to the present day