But with the dramatic rise of literacy amongst the "common" classes of society, there was no stemming the demand for entertainment. Victorian magazines like The Strand initially offered more fiction than nonfiction! Nearly every general-interest magazine of the 19th century offered dozens of short stories and usually at least one or two serialized novels in every issue. Most serialized novels were tailored to run for six to twelve issues, so that they could be completed within a single year of publication.

This section does not attempt to bring you all the fiction in our magazine collection; that would probably require a separate website! Instead, we offer a selection. Some of the works we've chosen are by authors whose names are familiar today, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and so forth. Some are by authors who were wildly popular in the Victorian era, but are less well known now, such as Frank Stockton (famous for "The Lady or the Tiger?") and W.W. Jacobs (best known for "The Monkey's Paw").

Often, novels were serialized in an "episodic" format, where a tale might have a beginning and a conclusion, but each chapter stood alone as a complete story. For such episodic novels and story collections, we've listed each chapter individually. Serialized novels that do not have stand-alone chapters are presented as single files (and are sometimes quite long).

Are these tales all "great fiction"? Some, yes. Some probably had more appeal to a Victorian audience than they might today. Consider this a sampling! And again, we leave you with a reminder that Victorian fiction quite often makes no attempt to be politically correct. That being said, we hope you enjoy this "purely entertaining" section!

Fiction by Author

Grant Allen Short Stories An African Millionaire Hilda Wade Miss Cayley's Adventures Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles The Return of Sherlock Holmes The Reminiscences of Mr. Sherlock Holmes The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard The Adventures of Etienne Gerard Round the Fire Short Stories Novels & Novellas True Crime Stories Bret Harte S.W. Hornung Short Stories Stingaree Stories W.W. Jacobs Rudyard Kipling Short Stories The Naulahka (with Wolcott Balestier) Puck of Pook's Hill

L.T. Meade Short Stories Stories from the Diary of a Doctor The Adventures of a Man of Science The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings Stories of the Sanctuary Club The Sorceress of the Strand E. Nesbit - Children's Stories Short Stories The Seven Dragons The Psammead, or, The Gifts The Phoenix and the Carpet The Amulet The Enchanted Castle The House of Arden Harding's Luck The Magic City Frank Stockton Mark Twain H.G. Wells Short Stories The First Men in the Moon P.G. Wodehouse