John Fowles, French Lieutenants Women, really gets the details of how society has changed from the 19th century to the twentieth century.

I would recommend 19the century great novels, that really was a golden age of literature, so many great works came out in the period near the mid of the century.

Also George Eliot, in the current context, would recommend her novel Romola, set in Florence, perhaps the finest treatment of Savanarola in the whole of fiction.