I first heard of it (as well as Louis Adhemar Timothee Le Golif’s “Memoirs of a Buccaneer”, wonderful for entirely different reasons) when it was quoted in GURPS Goblins.

(reCaptcha, before I noticed BB’s logged me out again (WTF?): “19th-Cen- course” )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_(television)

*goes…

I think BB linked to Nathan Bailey’s Canting Dictionary (1736), but a nice follow-up is the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence.

Guide to the Unprotected in Every-day Matters Relating to Property and Income. by A Banker’s Daughter. (1864) A glorious collection of money matters, including stocks, bills, property, and how to format a telegram.

Domestic medicine; or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines (1798). Includes “A LIST of the MEDICINES commonly ufed in Practice, with their proper Dofes”, information on inoculations, a full discussion of nightmares (under Chapter 43, “Of Nervous Difeafes), and a large number of very gross sounding things.

The Miseries of Human Life: An Old Friend in a New Dress (revised ed. 1853) A book of historical schadenfreude, essentially — lists of common “augh” moments, many of which have not changed in the intervening centuries, but all of which provide fascinating insight to the age. For instance:

“Being called in as an umpire in a matrimonial quarrel, which leaves you the choice of splitting on one of the six following rocks, viz.:–

“1. That of remaining silent–(for which both parties hate you; each supposing that you secretly favor the other).

“2. That of pronouncing that both are in the wrong–(for which you are, obviously, hated by both).

“3. That of insinuating that both may be in the right–(hated again on both sides: each being more enraged at your contre, than grateful for your pour).

“4. That of defending the lady at the expense of the gentleman–(still hated by both; by her, for attacking her caro sposo, whom she will suffer no one to despise but herself; by him, for siding with the enemy).

“5. That of defending the gentleman at the expense of the lady–(this case is, inversely, the same with the last).

“6. That of endeavoring to make peace, by treating the matter “en badinage”–(for which both are far too much in earnest, as well as far too eager for victory, not to hate you most of all). The best course, perhaps, if you cannot steal away, is to be taken with a sudden and violent fit of the toothache, which may last ad libitum.”

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/18/1850sera_account_of_.html

I saw this when it first came out and it’s my fave movie of all time — If you can find it in public library (I found ONE old VHS in the US) see ‘The Fool’, with Derek Jacobi – also based on this book. It’s not as much about steampunk, as about Madoff – a perfect, perfect story about the art of the ponzi and how to play it on the rich, while the poor conduct their lives unseen..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fool-DVD-Derek-Jacobi/dp/B000G8O2BO

on Google:
http://books.google.com/books?id=AEhlCzrYoS4C

from Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1688

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorian-Underworld-Pelican-Kellow-Chesney/dp/0140215824/

Herbert Asbury’s accounts of urban low life (most famously Gangs of New York) were the rough equivalent for thriller writers focusing on American settings, though Asbury’s are popular histories (written long after the events covered) rather than current sociology and thus filled with legend and gossip. Great grist for writers, though.

Happy reading,

Vee (Venetta Uye)

http://books.google.com/books?id=vE0OAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover

or here:

http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/MayLond.html

I’d consider it a stretch to call The Anubis Gates steampunk, unless anything that includes speculative elements and a Victorian London setting is steampunk. (It is, though, a great book, and high on the list of things I mean to re-read.)