Historical fiction  

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Historical fiction is a sub-genre of fiction that often portrays alternate accounts or dramatization of historical figures or events. Stories in this genre, while fictional, make an honest attempt at capturing the spirit, manners, and social conditions of the person or time they represent with attention paid to detail and fidelity.

Definition

Historical fiction presents readers with a story that takes place during a notable period in history, and usually during a significant event in that period. Historical fiction often presents actual events from the point of view of people living in that time period.

In some historical fiction, famous events appear from points of view not recorded in history, showing historical figures dealing with actual events while depicting them in a way that is not recorded in history. Other times, the historical event complements a story's narrative, occurring in the background while characters deal with events (personal or otherwise) wholly unrelated to recorded history. Sometimes, historical fiction can be for the most part true, but the names of people and places have been in some way altered.

As this is fiction, artistic license is permitted in regard to presentation and subject matter, so long as it does not deviate in significant ways from established history. If events should deviate significantly, the story may then fall into the genre of alternate history, which is known for speculating on what could have happened if a significant historical event had gone differently. On a similar note, events occurring in historical fiction must adhere to the laws of physics. Stories that extend into the magical or fantastic are often considered historical fantasy.

Overview

Historical fiction may center on historical or on fictional characters, but usually represents an honest attempt based on considerable research (or at least serious reading) to tell a story set in the historical past as understood by the author's contemporaries. Those historical settings may not stand up to the enhanced knowledge of later historians.

An early example is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th-century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history.

The historical novel was popularized in the 19th century by artists classified as Romantics. Many regard Sir Walter Scott as the first to have used this technique, in his novels of Scottish history such as Waverley (1814) and Rob Roy (1818). His Ivanhoe (1820) gains credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages. Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) furnishes another early example of the historical novel as does Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

Many early historical novels played an important role in the rise of European popular interest in the history of the Middle Ages. Hugo's Hunchback often receives credit for fueling the movement to save Gothic architecture in France, leading to the establishment of the Monuments historiques, the French governmental authority for historic preservation.

Historical fiction has also served to encourage movements of romantic nationalism. A series of novels by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski on the history of Poland popularized the country's history after it had lost its independence in the Partitions of Poland. Subsequently the Polish winner of the 1905 Nobel Prize in literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz, wrote several immensely popular novels set in conflicts between the Poles and predatory Teutonic Knights, rebelling Cossacks and invading Swedes. (He also penned a once wildly popular novel about Nero's Rome and the early Christians, Quo Vadis, which has been filmed several times.)

Scott's Waverley novels ignited interest in Scottish history and still illuminate it. Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter fulfilled a similar function for Norwegian history; Undset later won a Nobel Prize for Literature (1928).

The genre of the historical novel has also permitted some authors, such as the Polish novelist Bolesław Prus in his sole historical novel, Pharaoh, to distance themselves from their own time and place in order to gain perspective on society and on the human condition, or to escape the depredations of the censor.

In some historical novels the main historic events take place mostly off-stage, while the characters inhabit the world in which those events are occurring. Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped recounts mostly private adventures set against the backdrop of the Jacobite troubles in Scotland. Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge is set amid the Gordon Riots, and A Tale of Two Cities in the French Revolution.

Other authors give historic characters a fictional setting, as in Alexandre Dumas' Queen Margot and Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon.

Historical fiction can serve satirical purposes. An example is George MacDonald Fraser's tales of the dashing cad, poltroon, and bounder Sir Harry Paget Flashman.

The historical novel has continued to remain popular with authors to this day as with the wildly popular Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series. The most striking development in British/Irish writing in the past 25 years has been the renewed interest in the First World War. Works include William Boyd's An Ice-Cream War; Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong and The Girl at the Lion d'Or (concerned with the War's consequences); Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy and Sebastian Barry's A Long Long Way.

Literature

Historical literature includes the works of authors that epitomize a specific period in history. Historical literature has been written since at least the 11th century BCE.

• Egyptian Story of Wenamun
• The Waverley Novels, by Sir Walter Scott (over 40 distinct books)
• Pharaoh, by Bolesław Prus
• Mr. Tucket, by Gary Paulsen
• Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar
• I, Claudius, by Robert Graves
• The Bull from the Sea, by Mary Renault
• The Man on a Donkey, by HFM Prescott

Authors

• Dianne Ascroft: Hitler and Mars Bars Fiction set against the backdrop of Irish Red Cross project, Operation Shamrock
• Jean M. Auel: The Earth's Children Series set in pre-historic Europe
• Adam Bagdasarian: Forgotten Fire
• L.E. Butler: Relief
• Caleb Carr: Wrote The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness
• James Clavell: The Asian Saga
• Bernard Cornwell: Sharpe series set in 19th century Europe and India, and other works set elsewhere.
• E.L. Doctorow: Ragtime
• Suzannah Dunn: The Queen's Sorrow and others
• Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa, 1980)
• Shusaku Endo: Silence
• George Macdonald Fraser: The Flashman Series
• C. S. Forester: Hornblower series and others
• Philippa Gregory: The Other Boleyn Girl, The Constant Princess set in the Tudor era; Earthly Joys set in 17th century England, and other works.
• Noah Gordon: The Physician / The Shaman
• Conn Iggulden: Emperor series and Conqueror series
• Gary Jennings: Aztec (book), The Journeyer
• Morgan Llywelyn: author of books set mostly in Ireland.
• Lloyd Lofthouse: Used Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet as protagonist for My Splendid Concubine
• Colleen McCullough: Masters of Rome series of novels about the last years of the Roman Republic
• James Michener: 40+ epic novels, first famous work was Tales of the South Pacific.
• Anchee Min: Chinese-themed sagas Empress Orchid, The Last Empress (novel)
• William Napier: Wrote Attila trilogy
• Patrick O'Brian: Series of novels featuring Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Seen as one of the greatest recent exponents of the genre
• Arturo Pérez-Reverte: Spanish author of a number of historical novels, including the Captain Alatriste series. His books are written in Spanish, but a number have been translated into English.
• Naomi C. Desiderio: "Hell at Sea" is set aboard a German U-Boat during WWII.
• Jean Plaidy: several books, mostly about European queens and princesses
• HFM Prescott: author of The Man on a Donkey set during the dissolution of the monasteries.
• Linda Proud: author of The Botticelli Trilogy set in Renaissance Florence.
• Boleslaw Prus: Pharaoh
• Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front, The Night in Lisbon.
• Mary Renault: wrote many novels set in ancient Greece
• Ann Rinaldi: 40+ young adult historical fiction novels, primarily set in the United States.
• Edward Rutherford: several epic novels including Sarum, Russka, and London
• Simon Scarrow: Eagle series of Roman military fiction
• Henryk Sienkiewicz: Quo Vadis (novel)
• Anne Easter Smith: Wars of the Roses series
• Wilbur Smith: Ancient Egypt Series
• Indu Sundaresan: The Twentieth Wife and sequel The Feast of Roses, fictionalized story of the Mughal empress Noor Jehan, set in 16th and 17th century Mughal Empire, India.
• Beverly Swerling: City of Dreams, City of Glory, Shadowbrook, and the forthcoming City of God" -- novels set in early days of the Mid-Atlantic States
• Harry Turtledove: Alternate history fiction
• Mark Twain: various works of historical fiction about the American South.
• Mika Waltari: numerous works of historical fiction, best known for his magnum opus The Egyptian (Template:Lang-fi)
• Jack Whyte: Camulod Chronicles / A Dream of Eagles, set in early fifth century Britain; also Templar Trilogy
• Marguerite Yourcenar: author of Memoirs of Hadrian.

Media and culture

Works of historical fiction are not reserved exclusively to literature. Many films have been created which attempt to use a historic event or setting as a backdrop and actors portray fictional or historic figures set in these events. Below are a few notable examples.

Film and television

• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - George Lucas' TV series involves the fictional character Indiana Jones with many major people and events of the early 20th Century, with a focus on World War I.
• The Tudors - A dramatic television series observing the reign of Henry VIII.
• Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima directed by Clint Eastwood
• Memoirs of a Geisha - A fictional account of the life of a Geisha set in World War II Japan. Based on the book of the same name.
• Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis - A simple man is woven into major American historical events from the 1950s to the turn of the century.
• The Queen (film) directed by Stephen Frears
• JFK (film), W (film) and Nixon (film) directed by Oliver Stone
• Leatherheads

Authors of the past

• G. A. Henty
• Rosemary Sutcliff
• Mika Waltari
• General Lew Wallace

Living authors

• Ann Rinaldi, writing YA historical fiction; (Time Enough For Drums, A Break with Charity. She writes usually with female protagonists in the first person, set in Colonial - Civil War era America or WW1 era. Critically acclaimed and admired.
• Mark Turnbull, author of Decision Most Deadly, a novel set in London during 1641, as England plunged into civil war.
• Writing as "William Irish," Cornell Woolrich published Waltz into Darkness (1947), set in 1880 New Orleans. Interestingly, both film versions — François Truffaut's La Sirène du Mississippi (Mississippi Mermaid, 1969) and Michael Cristofer's Original Sin (2001) — place the action at a later time (and elsewhere).
• George Leonardos Author of historical Novels, such the trilogy for the Byzantine The Palaeologian Dynasty. The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, "Mara, The Christian Sultana", the stepmother of Mehmed II the Conqueror, "Barbarossa the Pirate", "The Sleeping Beauty of Mystras etc.
• Linda Proud has been acclaimed for the depth of her research in recreating Renaissance Florence, particularly the philosophical currents that informed the work of Botticelli, in A Tabernacle for the Sun, Pallas and the Centaur and The Rebirth of Venus.
• Albert A. Bell, Jr. writes mysteries set in the Roman Empire with Pliny the younger as sleuth and Tacitus as sidekick. See All Roads Lead to Murder.
• T.C. Boyle's The Road to Wellville (1993), set in 1907, tells the story of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of cornflakes, and his Battle Creek Sanitarium.
• Colleen McCullough has written the famous Masters of Rome series which deals with the end of the great Roman Republic and great personalities like Caesar, Gaius Marius and Sulla.
• John Jakes has written the best-selling North and South Trilogy on the life and times of members of two families during the American Civil war and also The Kent Family Chronicles.
• Gillian Bradshaw, a classical scholar, writes historical fiction set in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Duchy of Brittany, the Byzantine Empire, Saka and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Imperial Rome, Sub-Roman Britain and Roman Britain.
• Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day (1989), set in 1956, explains in flashbacks the dubious history of (fictitious) 1930s Darlington Hall and its association with Nazi Germany.
• Patrick Redmond's The Wishing Game (1999) provides a thrilling depiction of life in a strict and uncanny boarding school in 1950s rural Norfolk, England.
• Julie Myerson's novel Laura Blundy (2000) is set in Victorian London.
• Bernard Cornwell is one of today's best-known historical novelists, with his Sharpe and The Warlord Chronicles.
• Conn Iggulden is also a well known historical-fiction author of the widely acclaimed Emperor series, The Conqueror series and the Dangerous Book for Boys, although it should be noted that the Emperor series is best known for its gross historical inaccuracies.
• Jonathan Coe's novel The Rotters' Club (2001) evokes 1970s Britain.
• Cecelia Holland has written over twenty novels set in various parts of Europe, Asia and the United States in many periods.
• The bulk of Gore Vidal's novels have historical settings, including Burr, which has gained a wider readership than any biography of Aaron Burr.
• Neal Stephenson's series The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World), published in 2003 and 2004, deals with the rise of the scientific worldview and the beginnings of modern capitalism in late 17th and early 18th century Europe.
• The James Reasoner Civil War Series is a 10-volume set of historical novels set in Culpeper, Virginia.
• Amita Kanekar's A Spoke in the Wheel is a novel about the Buddha and his disciples, that alternates between the time of the Buddha, i.e. about 566 BCE, and the time of Ashoka the Great, i.e. about 250 BCE.
• Marianne Curley. Her books Old Magic and the Guardians of Time Trilogy all take place partially in the past.
• Umberto Eco's novels, most notably his most famous, The Name of the Rose, are historical novels, taking place in Medieval or Early Modern Europe.
• Marie-Elena John is a Caribbean writer whose debut novel Unburnable gives a slice of social history of the Caribbean, focusing on the African origins of Caribbean culture.
• Arturo Pérez-Reverte is the Spanish author of the Captain Alatriste novels and other historical novels.
• Robert Harris has written four historical novels so far: Enigma, which is set during World War II As well as Pompeii, Imperium and Lustrum which are set in Ancient Rome.
• Courtney Thomas's Walls of Phantoms accurately documents the daily news events of 1989 - including providing the historical framework of what lead to these events - in this meticulously wrought epic.
• Anurag Kumar's Recalcitrance, set in the Great Uprising or Indian Mutiny of 1857
• Michael Goodspeed's Three to a Loaf, a carefully researched and highly readable Canadian spy novel illustrates the societies as well as the lives and attitudes of Allied and German soldiers locked in the cauldron of the Western Front.
• Thomas Pynchon's three novels Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon and Against the Day are historical, and they variously contrast outrageous personal, subjective, hallucinogenic or even supernatural events with very real, well-researched accuracies from the past.
• Tim Powers's novels, or many of them, for example Declare, are meticulously researched historical novels which slip supernatural factors into the aspects of the history which are un-documented or little known.
• S.J.A.Turney's 2009 debut, Marius' Mules, based on Julius Caesar's invasion of Gaul, viewed from the perspective of a Legionary commander.
• Sandra Worth is an award-winning author of historical novels set during England's 15th c. Wars of the Roses including The Rose of York trilogy (published 2003-2007), Lady of the Roses: A Novel of the Wars of the Roses (2008) and The King’s Daughter: A Novel of the First Tudor Queen, Elizabeth of York (2008).
• Rimi B. Chatterjee, set her second novel The City of Love in sixteenth century Malaysia, Burma and Bengal and dealt with spice traders, pirates, tantrics and sufis. Parts of her third novel Black Light are set in the fourth and second centuries BCE, the seventh century and the early twentieth century.
• Nerea Riesco set her second novel Ars Magica in Spain's early XVIIth century.
• Richard Zimler has an award-winning series of novels about different generations of a Portuguese-Jewish family of manuscript illuminators and kabbalists. The books are entitled The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (16th-century Lisbon), Hunting Midnight (19th century Porto and Charleston, South Carolina), Guardian of the Dawn (17th-century Goa) and The Seventh Gate (Berlin in the 1930s). He also has an historical mystery set in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940-41 entitled The Warsaw Anagrams.
• Julian Stockwin has an internationally-acclaimed series tracing one man's journey from pressed man to Admiral in the Age of Fighting Sail.

Theory and Criticism

The Marxist literary critic, essayist, and social theorist György Lukács wrote extensively on the aesthetic and political significance of the historical novel. In 1937's der historische Roman, published originally in Russian, Lukács developed critical readings of several historical novels by authors including Keller, Dickens, and Flaubert. For him, the advent of the "genuinely" historical novel at the beginning of the 19th century is to be read in terms of two developments, or processes. First, the development of a specific genre in a specific medium: the development of the historical novel's unique stylistic and narrative elements. Secondly, the development of a representative, organic artwork capable of capturing the fractures, contradictions, and problems of the particular productive mode of its time [i.e. developing, early, entrenched capitalism].

See also

Holocaust in fiction, historical film, prehistoric fiction, historical novel

• Georg Lukács
• Historical fiction
• List of historical novelists
• List of historical novels
• Historical whodunnit
• Historical romance
• Family saga
• Middle Ages in history
• Alternative history
• Historical fantasy
• sword and sandal