Countless video games are set in 19th-century England or inspired by famous English 19th-century literary works. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is partially set in the 19th century and features historical events from the Industrial Revolution and Victorian period; Jules Verne’s literary works influence the BioShock series; Bloodborne includes details from the pages of H. P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker, and Castlevania makes direct allusions to the nineteenth-century vampire classics Dracula and Carmilla. Additional 19th-century set games include Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Red Dead Redemption, and Hogwarts: Legacy.
These games are understandable and approachable for players, even if they do not know the history of the period or the literary works referenced. Within this genre of games, though, there is a smaller subgenre intended for people who have read 19th-century novels and poems, and this literary-based subgenre is only understandable—and, perhaps, enjoyable—to this intended audience.
In March 2022, Oliver Darkshire, who runs the Twitter/X account for the antiquarian bookseller Sotheran’s Rare Books, created a one-page RPG that spread online titled “Trapped in a Cabin with Lord Byron”. This game, based on the true historical events that led to Mary Shelley writing her famous novel Frankenstein, has players attempt to write a story themselves while trapped in Byron’s vacation home. In the summer of 1816, Mary and Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori joined Byron in Geneva but were forced to stay indoors due to inclement weather. To pass the time, they decided to hold a competition to see who could write the best ghost story – a competition which Mary Shelley won with her creation of Frankenstein.
Darkshire’s RPG invites players to navigate 19th-century standards of propriety as they compete to write their own ghost stories. Each turn, players roll a six-sided die to trigger a Byron event, affecting their Scandal, Masterpiece, and Stress levels. The goal is to write a masterpiece without letting the other levels reach ten points. If the player’s Scandal reaches ten points, they are no longer fit to enter society due to damage to their reputation. If their Stress reaches ten points, then they lose their patience with Byron and his escapades and either kill him or fall into a state of insanity. In either situation, the player is unable to continue and must concede.
Trapped in a Cabin with Lord Byron is a brief RPG that can be completed in just a few turns, but it is a pleasurable and historically accurate game full of allusions for 19th-century literary aficionados to enjoy. However, it is also a game that is inherently exclusionary and unintelligible to players who are unfamiliar with canonical 19th-century authors like Byron or the Shelleys. It can even exclude people who enjoy 19th-century literature if they are unfamiliar with Lord Byron’s quirks, such as his having a pet bear, his penchant for drinking wine out of a human skull, or his incestuous relationship with his half-sister. These quirks – and many others – are all referenced throughout the game in each of the Byron events with no context provided.
Players may laugh as they are told they gain Scandal points because Byron is parading his bear around or because he found a new skull. These points seem nonsensical and, therefore, become humorous. However, the game assumes that the player knows that Byron once had a pet bear that he brought to university with him in defiance of the rule that students were forbidden from having a dog. Writing to a friend in 1807, Byron shared, “I have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a tame bear. When I brought him here, they asked me what to do with him, and my reply was, ‘he should sit for a fellowship.'”
Trapped in a Cabin with Lord Byron assumes the player has this precursory knowledge of Byron and his exploits. Games based on 19th-century authors and novels, such as this one, often are exclusionary, making references to minute historical or literary details. The card game Marrying Mr. Darcy, based on the various marriage plots in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, falls victim to the same shortcomings. In this game, players assume the role of one of Austen’s heroines as she attempts to find a suitable match to marry. The game is playable even if the player has not read Pride and Prejudice; however, many of its references and bits of humor will go unnoticed by someone unfamiliar with Austen’s writing.
Like Darkshire’s game, Marrying Mr. Darcy frequently references 19th-century popular culture, specifically Jane Austen and her novels. A player familiar with her writings will better understand why characters have been given their particular stats, and they will be more likely to find humor in unnatural pairings. For example, having Elizabeth Bennet try to marry Mr. William Collins may seem like a straightforward plan to someone who has not read Pride and Prejudice. Still, it will be a hilarious choice to someone familiar with the novel and Elizabeth’s dismissal of Mr. Collins’ proposal.
In addition to tabletop games such as these two, there are video games based on 19th-century literature, such as the single-player game Jane Austen’s 8-bit Adventure and the now-defunct MMORPG Ever, Jane. In the former, the player assumes the role of Jane Austen and searches for her lost library, fighting men from her novels along the way. In the latter, the player entered one of Jane Austen’s novels and navigated Regency-era society. These games, like Trapped in a Cabin with Lord Byron and Marrying Mr. Darcy, allow players to enter their favorite novels and interact with famous authors. While Jane Austen’s 8-bit Adventure may not encourage the same communal approach to 19th-century novels, Ever, Jane, as an MMORPG, certainly invites socializing.
These games have an important thing in common: They afford fans of 19th-century literature the space to interact with their favorite authors and books in a distinctly communal environment. They encourage literary fans to come together and discuss some of their favorite books. Twenty-first-century readers can laugh about a humorous moment in the book or pine over a brooding hero as they play these games together, making their reading a social activity rather than a solitary one.
It is fitting that these games transform reading into a form of socializing, as reading in the 19th century was communal. As printing technologies evolved throughout the century, books were made more readily available to a wider audience. More advanced printing technology meant more books could be printed for a lower price, increasing accessibility to published works across Britain. Reading quickly became the predominant form of popular media in the 19th century, and novels and poems were read widely by people from varying social classes. While 19th-century readers might read their books alone, they also read aloud in social settings. Families might sit together in the evening as one member read aloud from a book. People recited their favorite lines of poetry at parties and other gatherings. Readers gathered in salons and coffee shops to discuss novels, essays, and poems. Indeed, reading in this period was a social event that allowed people to bond.
These literary-based games have caused a shift in how people interact with 19th-century literature. Rather than reading the works of Lord Byron and Jane Austen in a solitary manner, these games encourage interactive and communal participation in the literary world. While they require some literary and historical familiarity to enjoy them fully, they also offer a unique way to explore works of literature in the modern day. Their interactive and social nature mirrors 19th-century reading practices that encouraged the communal appreciation of written works. As such, contemporary players can discuss their favorite literary works just as 19th-century readers once gathered. In a way, these games – though exclusionary – bridge past and present approaches to reading, allowing 19th-century works to live on as they were originally intended to be read: in the company of others.