Talking the Talk

Recently at a Reading Group discussion of , I was asked how I approached the dialogue, given that the novel is set in 1885. This is a good question.

I've read some novels set in the past where people use modern colloquialisms and it jars – on me, anyway. I've also read novels set in later nineteenth century where everyone speaks very formally: 'Would you care to partake of some refreshment?' This makes me uneasy too: I imagine some people may well have spoken like that, but I can't believe everyone did even among the educated classes.

But if you aim to make dialogue authentic the first difficulty is knowing how people spoke in the past – we have the literature and also letters and diaries, but these are all written forms and writing and speech are very different. Also they are the products of literate people and therefore fail to represent everyone.

The second difficulty is that the further back in history you go, the less familiar language becomes, so if you pursue accuracy, it can make the dialogue hard to follow.

Since my novels aren't set too far in the past, I don't have to worry too much about readers finding the dialogue accessible. To help me make it seem convincing, I look at the speech in nineteenth century novels. I realize that this may still be only an approximation of how people actually spoke, but since it's probably where most modern readers get their ideas of what a Victorian might have sounded like, it seems useful as a rough guide.

Here is an extract from Demos by George Gissing, written in 1886.

'I did so want you to come!' she exclaimed. 'Tell me about Adela.'

'I don't know that there's anything to tell,' was Alfred's stolid reply. 'It's settled, that's all. I suppose it's all right.'

'But you speak as if you thought it mightn't be, Alfred?'

'Didn't know that I did. Well, I haven't seen her since I got home. She's upstairs.'

To me this was surprisingly modern and less formal than one might expect.

In I particularly wanted Meriel, a rebellious teenager, to speak colloquially so I used slang, imagining that she had picked it up from the maid, Sally.

At the editing stage some of my phrasing was queried Cialis pill whithout prescription as sounding too modern. But I had checked it where possible, either in novels or Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Historical Slang – an invaluable tool for the historical novelist, so I was pretty confident about my usage.

In case you're interested, here are some examples:

'By jingo' in use from 18th century; appears in Gissing, Conan Doyle

'cheek' used from 1830, appears in Dickens

'went berserk' in use from 1867

'racked my brains' appears in Wilkie Collins, Gissing

'got on my nerves' in use from 1870

Some might say this degree of seeking after accuracy borders on the obsessional but it matters to me to get it right as far as I can.

But is it really so important? What do you think?