Books Set in the 1910s

By Betty Smith
Setting: 1900-1918, Brooklyn, New York
First published 1943

This is a beloved American classic that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience.

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior—such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce—no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama.

The Book Girls say... This classic is at the very top of our reading list for the 1910s. We can't wait to share our thoughts on it soon.

By E. L. Doctorow
Setting: New York City, 1906 through WWI
First published 1975

The story opens in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.

The Book Girls say... This book has been on Angela's want to read list ever since her husband performed in a production of the musical adaptation of Ragtime several years ago and she was blown away by the story!

by Sinclair Lewis
Setting: 1910, Minnesota
First published 1920

This classic novel shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire. Main Street attacks the conformity and dullness of early-twentieth-century midwestern village life in the story of Carol Milford, the city girl who marries the town doctor.

Her efforts to bring culture to the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip, greed, and petty, small-minded bigotry. Published in 1920, this is widely considered the first popular bestseller to attack conventional ideas about marriage, gender roles, and small town life.

By Jeffrey H. Jackson
Setting: Paris, 1910
First published 2010

The Great Flood of Paris is an event that has been largely forgotten by history, but this book, in breathtaking detail, captured, for the first time, the story of the flood that plunged the City of Lights into darkness.

Given the Parisians' history of deep-seated social, religious, and political strife, many at the time worried that they wouldn't be able to collaborate to confront the crisis. Yet while the sewers, Métro, and electricity failed around them, Parisians of all backgrounds rallied to save the city and one another.

A thoroughly researched work of non-fiction, this book tells the story of Improvising techniques used to keep Paris functioning. Parisians braved the dangers of collapsing infrastructure and looters, and leaders and residents alike answered the call to action.

By Susan Meissner
Setting: Manhattan 1911, 2011
First published 2014

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made.

September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers...the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. But a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf may open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life.

By Eva Ibbotson
Setting: 1912, Cambridge and South America
First published 1985

For 19-year-old Harriet, weekly ballet classes are her only escape from her intolerably dull life in Cambridge. When she is invited to join a corps de ballet which is setting off on a tour of South America, she leaps at the chance against her father's wishes.

Performing in the grand opera houses is everything Harriet dreamed of, and falling in love with an aristocratic exile makes her new life complete. Swept away by it all, she is unaware that her father and intended fiancé have begun to track her down.

by Fiona Davis
Setting: 1913 and 1993 New York City
First published 2020

In 1913, Laura's husband ins the superintendent of the NY Public Library, which gives them, and their two children, the ability to live in an apartment in the grand building. Laura seems to have it all, but after she enters journalism school at Columbia, and meets a group of women fighting for women's suffrage, has her world view is rocked and she starts to question if the things she has are the things she wants.

Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie has landed her dream job as a curator at the NY Public Library, but the legacy of her grandmother, Laura, looms over her until she can no longer ignore it.

The Book Girls Say... Fiona Davis is one of our favorite historical fiction writers because of her strong female characters and because each novel is set in a famous NYC building. This book is no exception! We enjoyed the dual timeline that follows this family through the generations.

By Booth Tarkington
Setting: Indianapolis, Indiana 1910s
First published 1918

This book tells a prototypical "American Story" of the era. Though the book was later overshadowed by the Orson Welles movie adaptation, The Magnificent Ambersons was not only a best-seller when it first appeared in 1918 — it also won the Pulitzer Prize.

Set in the Midwest at the dawn of the automobile age—the story centers around the richest family in town, the Ambersons. Exemplifying aristocratic excess, the Ambersons have everything money can buy—and more. But George —the spoiled grandson of the family patriarch—is unable to see that great societal changes are taking place, and that business tycoons, industrialists, and real estate developers will soon surpass him in wealth and prestige. Rather than join the new mechanical age, George prefers to remain a gentleman, believing that “being things” is superior to “doing things.” But as his town becomes a city, and the family palace is enveloped in a cloud of soot, George’s protectors disappear one by one, and the elegant, cloistered lifestyle of the Ambersons fades from view, and finally vanishes altogether.

By Kate Quinn
Setting: France, 1915 and 1947
First published 2017

Two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

The Book Girls say... Angela and Melissa both rated this book 4 out of 5 stars. Angela found the story of the WWI Alice Network fascinating, and enjoyed the writing style the intertwined the stories of the two woman. Unlike many other stories told from two perspectives in two different time periods, Angela liked that the two female protagonists were together in the later time period forming a unique relationship as well, which added another layer to the story.

By Aimee K. Runyan
Setting: 1917 Philadelphia, 1918 France
First published 2018

As World War I rages in Europe, twenty-four-year-old Ruby Wagner, the jewel in a prominent Philadelphia family, prepares for her upcoming society wedding to a man that her family chose for her. But when her beloved older brother is killed in combat, Ruby follows her heart and answers the Army Signal Corps’ call for women telephone operators to help overseas. She becomes of the trailblazing "Hello Girls" deployed to war-torn France.

The Book Girls Say... This book is very-well researched an provides a fascinating look at the too-little know history of the role of women in WWI. You'll fall in love with Ruby and find yourself invested in her personal story, which includes just the right amount of romance.

By Walter Lord
Setting: England, Atlantic Ocean aboard the Titanic, 1912
First published 1955

A Night to Remember is still considered the best book written about the Titanic. This is a completely riveting account of the Titanic's fatal collision that reads like a historical fiction novel.

By Camille Di Maio
Setting: New York City, mid-1910s
First published 2018

Vera, the daughter of German immigrants in New York City, finds her life upended when the man she loves becomes engaged to another woman. But Angelo has also inadvertently opened up Vera’s life to unexpected possibilities. Angelo’s new wife, Pearl, the wealthy daughter of a clothing manufacturer, has defied her family’s expectations by devoting herself to the women's suffrage movement. In Pearl, Vera finds an unexpected dear friend…and a stirring new cause of her own. But when Pearl’s selfless work pulls her farther from Angelo and their son, the life Vera craved is suddenly within her reach—if her conscience will allow her to take it.

The Book Girls say... We asked some avid reader friends for recommendations of books about the women's suffrage movement, and this one was mentioned over and over again as one of the best.

By Helen Simonson
Setting: 1914, East Sussex, England
First published 2016

Described by the Washington Post as, “a novel to cure your Downton Abbey withdrawal," this is a story of both love and war. The story begins in 1914 as a small English town reacts to the arrival of their first female teacher who is more freethinking (and attractive) than anyone believes a Latin teacher should be, and it "becomes a compelling account of World War I and its aftermath." (Woman's Day)

By Daniel Mason
Setting: Vienna, 1914
First published 2018

A 22-year-old medical student enlists in World War I, enraptured by romantic tales of battlefield surgery. He expects to find a well-organized field hospital, but when he arrives, allt he other doctors have fled and only a mysterious nurse remains. Lucius has never lifted a surgeon's scalpel but must learn a makeshift medicine. Then one day, an unconscious soldier is brought in from the snow, his uniform stuffed with strange drawings. He seems beyond rescue, until Lucius makes a fateful decision that will change the lives of doctor, patient, and nurse forever.

From the gilded ballrooms of Imperial Vienna to the frozen forests of the Eastern Front; from hardscrabble operating rooms to battlefields thundering with Cossack cavalry, The Winter Soldier is the story of war and medicine, of family, of finding love in the sweeping tides of history.

By Erich Maria Remarque
Setting: Germany 1914, France 1918
First published 1929

Considered by many the greatest war novel of all time, this classic novel tells of the experience of a young German soldier who enlists in World War I youthful and enthusiastic, but experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

By John Buchan
Setting: Scotland and London, 1914
First published 1915

Britain is on the eve of war with Germany. Richard Hannay is living a quiet life in London, but after a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger he stumbles into a hair-raising adventure - a desperate hunt across the country and against the clock, pursued by the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy. Hannay's life and the security of Britain are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: what are the thirty-nine steps?

The Book Girls say... Angela has been eager to read this novel ever since seeing the play of The 39 Steps, which is a parody adaptation of the book. If you don't have time to add this one to your reading list, you could also consider watching the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film.

By Kim Izzo
Setting: 1915, New York and aboard Lusitania
First published 2017

As World War I rages in continental Europe, two New York heiresses, Sydney and Brooke Sinclair, are due to set sail for England. Brooke is engaged to marry an aristocrat in the wedding of the social calendar. Sydney is drawn to the burgeoning suffragette movement, which is a constant source of embarrassment to her proper sister. As international tempers flare, the German embassy releases a warning that any ships making the Atlantic crossing are at risk. Undaunted, Sydney and Brooke board the Lusitania for the seven-day voyage, not knowing that disaster lies ahead.

By Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
Setting: 1915 aboard Lusitania; 2013 England
First published 2018

A captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century—two deep in the past, one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, the Lusitania.

By Kate Moore
Setting: America, 1917 through 1920s
First published 2017

The newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and the wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of World War I.

Across the US, hundreds of girls toil in the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

The Book Girls say... We have both read this book, and both highly recommend it! It is heartbreaking, because of the terrible illnesses that the woman suffer, but it's a riveting account of a little known and important piece of American history.

By Glen David Gold
Setting: opens in 1916, Hollywood
First published 2009

Set against the background of World War I, Sunnyside stars Charlie Chaplin and examines America's thirst for entertainment.

The book opens in 1916 and, after an extraordinary mass delusion where Chaplin is spotted in more than eight hundred places simultaneously, he becomes one of the world's first global celebrities. But while his fame is at its peak, his inspiration is at a low. As he struggles to find a film project as worthy as himself, we are introduced to a dazzling cast of characters that take us from the battlefields of France to the Russian Revolution and from the budding glamour of Hollywood to madcap Wild West shows. The result is a spellbinding novel about dreams, ambition, and the birth of modern America.

The Book Girls say... This book gets mixed reviews - people either say it's one of the best books they've ever read or they find it too hard to get into. Angela has added this to her audio book queue, so we'll update you on our thoughts.

By Ernest Hemingway
Setting: Italy, 1917
First published 1929

This classic novel is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front during World War I, and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. 

By Sofía Segovia
Setting: Mexico, 1918
First published 2015

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, this novel tells the story of a mysterious child that was found as a baby abandoned under a bridge and covered in a blanket of bees. Some locals believe the child is "kissed by the devil," but he is adopted by the Morales family that discovers his special gift - the ability to see visions of all that’s yet to come.

By Frances Hodgson Burnett
Setting: Yorkshire, England 1910
First published in novel form 1911

The Secret Garden is often considered one of the best children's books of the twentieth century, but it appeals to both young and old alike. Mary is living in India with her uncaring parents when they are both killed in a cholera epidemic. She is sent to live with an uncle at his house in England. There she meets and helps her uncle's sickly son, Colin, recover his health.