I am writing the first draft of a novel (historical fiction) set in the late Victorian era between England and France. As I live and work in Japan, however, my research scope is limited to Google and the Book Depository/Amazon.jp.
The British Library recently launched a fantastic "Romantics and Victorians" feature (http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians) on their website. While this archive has been quite fascinating in its own right and an immense help, I would like to ask fellow historical fiction writers where else I might conduct research. Any free online newspaper archives from the era would be highly appreciated, too.
Also, and though it isn't research as such, I often use the Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php) in addition to the Oxford/Collins/Cambridge Dictionaries to check up on word usage/anachronisms. Are there other resources like this online that would prove useful?
Booth and Round About a Pound a Week should help you with the prices of things. It's worth trying to get hold of Rowntree's reports on the Poverty Line too, I think his earliest was about 1895
Malcolm, thank you very much for the reminder on using the correct monetary values and terms. I have a couple of webpages bookmarked with this kind of information, but I think you have summed it up well in a single paragraph.
A lot of Victorian novels include references to money, but my greatest challenge will be finding the equivalent information for the Continent (namely urban/provincial France).
If anyone can recommend any relevant French novels that have been translated into English set in the fin de siècle I would really appreciate it! (Colette has been a great inspiration, though he stories are not necessarily 1880/90s France).
Khai,
I don't think I can offer much in the way of how much those things may have cost at that time. You must remember that you are writing fiction so you don't always need to be totally accurate. Also you have picked up that would be regional differences.
I think you need to use the correct terminology for the currency at that time. Whilst the pound was the unit of currency, this was pre-decimalisation and there were 20 shillings in a pound, 12pennies in a shilling, a farthing was a quarter of a penny, a halfpenny (pronounced ha'penny) was half a penny. Five shillings was a crown, two shillings and sixpence was half a crown, etc. I hope this helps.