Historical Fiction

[Kilgore_Trout]

What are some of your favorite pieces of literature that fall into this genre?

[johann cruyff]

Well,I've recently read Boleslaw Prus' novel Pharaoh which I picked up specifically because I heard it was a great historical novel.Can't say that I liked it.

I do like some of the stuff Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote though - actually,do his works even qualify as historical fiction?

[kasie]

What are some of your favorite pieces of literature that fall into this genre?

Could you elucidate, please?

Do you mean books that are written today but are set in the past and are written to show an historical event and throw light or put a new perspective on it? (Which is what I think you mean.) Or do you mean books that were popular in the past and have been revived for some reason?

One of my favourites and one of the first of the genre that I read many years ago falls into both categories: Charles Reade The Cloister and The Hearth.

[papayahed]

The Eight - Katherine Neville
Angel of Darkness - Caleb Carr and the other one he wrote that I can't remember the name.

[PeterL]

Arundel and Rabble in Arms by Kenneth Roberts

[curlyqlink]

I read Robert Harris' Imperium recently, and it is pretty good. It's "a novel of ancient Rome". My all time favorite historical novels are the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Great characterization, elegantly written, and ripping good stories.

[pensieve]

The best historical fiction I have read is written by Margaret George. I haven't read everything she's written yet, but Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles and The Autobiography of Henry VIII were outstanding.

[JuLe]

What about non-official historic books? I actually mean biographies\autobiographies which are usually set on a certain historical background. I really enjoy these, mostly because they allow you to sense the period, and also (if these are biographies of poets\writers) highlight how it was like to write in that time, or how these historic events influenced the writers and etc.

[jgweed]

One might mention in passing Bulwer-Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii.
I much prefer reading actual histories that read like novels, for example Carlyle's French Revolution, or the great Macaulay's The History of England from the Accession of James the Second .