The eighteenth century was a fascinating time in European history, a period which saw the development of the Enlightenment ideas that formed the modern Western world. Close to its end, the bloody convulsion of the French Revolution, sent shockwaves through the continent and beyond. 
Several of the five novels below are set around the time of the Revolution, all with links to my reviews.
Based on the early life of Madame Tussaud, Edward Carey’s Little takes us first to Switzerland then to Revolutionary Paris before its final Baker Street destination following orphan Anne-Marie Grosholtz who, aged six, attaches herself to Dr Curtius proving herself so adept at assisting in his wax modelling work that Berne’s worthies begin to commission busts of themselves. Eventually, the bustling business gained from Marie’s work at the Parisian court will be replaced by the grisly modelling of the Revolution’s victims. When it’s all over Marie is alone, but – sharp and resourceful as ever – she finds her own pragmatic way. Marie is an engaging narrator who unfolds her blood-soaked, heartrending story with sharp insight and a pleasingly sly wit, leading us through a life begun in poverty which ends as the proprietor of one of London’s most visited attractions.
Jonathan Grimwood’s The Last Banquet follows another orphan with a particular talent. We first meet five-year-old Jean-
Marie d’Aumout in 1723, enthusiastically eating stag beetles, analysing their taste and describing it to himself. Rescued by the Duc d’Orléans, he’s set upon a path which will see him become Manager of the Menagerie for Louis XV and negotiating with Pasquale Pauli on the eve of the Corsican war for independence before retiring to his chateau to pursue his scientific and culinary curiosity, always attended by Tigris, the blind tiger he’s reared from a cub. For Jean-Marie, the whole world’s a pantry and continues to be so throughout his long life during which he consumes an astonishing variety of things. Having followed the trajectory of the Age of Reason, this vibrantly original novel ends in 1790, the year after the Revolution began.
Beginning a few years later in 1793, Alix Nathan’s The Warlow Experiment tells the story of an unmarried, childless 
recluse, Herbert Powyss, and John Warlow, a semiliterate father of six who answers Powyss’ advertisement for a man willing to be sealed underground in solitary confinement for seven years in exchange for fifty pounds a year for life as part of an experiment that Powyss is convinced will see his research recognised by the Royal Society. Needless to say, things do not go according to plan. Influenced by Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, Powyss’ gardener decides it’s time for the working man to rise up, leading to an act which will unleash a trail of destruction. In her author’s note, Nathan explains her novel was sparked by a record in the Annual Register, dated 1797, indicating that such an experiment had reached its fourth year.
I’d assumed the title of Katharine Grant’s bawdy, rollicking Sedition referred to politics given that it’s set five years after the beginning of the Revolution but it’s more to do with the subversion of male authority. Five financiers hatch a plan to marry off their daughters by having them display their accomplishments on a new-fangled musical instrument called the piano. They commission the finest of craftsmen who, disgusted at the arrogance of the men, hatches a plan to ruin their daughters’ reputations but in a delicious act of sedition, the tables are turned by the young women. A hugely enjoyable novel, liberally laced with a ribald, salacious wit underpinned with sufficient sobriety to save it from caricature. I read it over a decade ago but it’s one that’s stayed with me.
Jake Arnott’s The Fatal Tree is a rip-roaring tale of thieves and whores, love and folly, corruption and redemption, much of it 
told in flash, a gloriously vivid slang. In 1726 Edgeworth Bess is in Newgate Gaol, awaiting trial for possession of stolen goods which may lead her to Tyburn’s gallows. The daughter of a servant, Bess is thrown out when she’s caught in bed with her master’s son, finding her way to London with only the guinea he’s given her. She’s soon installed in Mother Breedlove’s bawdy academy where she learns how to please the punters and herself, attracting the attention of both Jonathan Wild, Thief-taker General, and Jack Sheppard, a carpenter’s apprentice who puts his skills to use as an expert burglar. Alongside Bess’ story, our narrator Billy – petty thief, scribbler and molly – tells his own tale, intertwining his narrative with hers as each moves towards a decisive conclusion. I’m sure Arnott had a lot of fun writing this wonderfully atmospheric piece of storytelling, delving into the lives of spruce-prigs, twangs and buttock-brokers.
What about you? Any eighteenth-century set novels you’d recommend?
If you’d like to explore more posts like this, I’ve listed them here.
My five nineteenth-century set novels are here.
