Victorian eBooks
These excellent books bring vivid historical context to your family history research.
On this site (transcribed by Peter Moulding)
The Lancashire Factory Girl
Preston 25 November 1862. Touching poem about the cotton famine by an unknown author.
Home-life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine
By Edwin Waugh 1862. Touching descriptions of many individuals and families in Blackburn, Preston and Wigan written during the cotton famine. Also letters, speeches and songs of distress.
Churches and Chapels
By Atticus (A Hewitson) 1869. Describes in great detail the parsons, priests, congregations, buildings and beliefs of all the churches and chapels in Preston, Lancashire at the time.
External Links (Project Gutenberg)
Hard Times
By Charles Dickens 1854. Highlights the social and economic pressures of English society. Based on a northern town.
North And South
By Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1855. Industrialists and workers, love and hate, freedom and slavery based on Manchester.
The People Of The Abyss
By Jack London 1902. Life in the workhouse and on London streets contrast with fine clothes, wine and food of their millionaire oppressors.
Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick
By Emily Beavan 1845. Beautifully descriptive account of early settlers in Canada.