List of historical fiction by time period  

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This list of historical fiction is designed to provide examples of notable works of historical fiction (in literature, film, comics, etc.) organized by time period.

Novels

Set in Prehistory (c. 30,000 BC – 3000 BC)

• Earth's Children series by Jean Auel
• Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell
• Pillar of the Sky by Cecelia Holland
• Mammoth Trilogy by Stephen Baxter
• The Gathering Night by Margaret Elphinstone
• Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver
• First North Americans by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
• The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault
• The Inheritors by William Golding
• The Quest for Fire by J.-H. Rosny

Set in Classical Antiquity (c. 3000 BC – 500 AD)

• Pharaoh by Bolesław Prus
• The Egyptian and The Secret of the Kingdom by Mika Waltari
• River God by Wilbur Smith
• Child of the Morning by Pauline Gedge
• Men of Bronze by Scott Oden
• Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Troy Series by David Gemmel
• Homer's Daughter by Robert Graves
• Creation by Gore Vidal
• Gates of Fire, Last of the Amazons, The Virtues of War, The Afghan Campaign and Tides of War by Steven Pressfield
• Hannibal by Ross Leckie
• Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert
• Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Games by Mary Renault
• Child of a Dream, The Sands of Ammon, and The Ends of the Earth (Alexander Trilogy) by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
• Memnon by Scott Oden
• The Source by James A. Michener
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
• Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough
• Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor
• Imperium, Lustrum, and Dictator (Cicero Trilogy) by Robert Harris
• Emperor series by Conn Iggulden
• Kleopatra Pharaoh by Karen Essex
• The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George
• The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder
• Augustus by John Williams
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace
• King Jesus by Robert Graves
• The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
• Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice
• The Gospel According to the Son by Norman Mailer
• The Gospel According to Lazarus by Richard Zimler
• The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
• The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
• I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves
• Eagles of the Empire series and Gladiator series by Simon Scarrow
• Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz
• The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
• Pompeii by Robert Harris
• Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
• The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
• Helena by Evelyn Waugh
• Judge Dee by Robert Van Gulik
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong and retold by Eiji Yoshikawa
• Julian by Gore Vidal
• Raptor by Gary Jennings
• A Struggle for Rome by Felix Dahn

Set in the Middle Ages (c. AD 500 – 1500)

• A Dream of Eagles (aka Camulod Chronicles) by Jack Whyte (4th–6th)
• The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell (6th)
• Count Belisarius by Robert Graves (6th)
• Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (9th)
• The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell (9th–10th)
• Corban Loosestrife series by Cecelia Holland (10th)
• The Whale Road, The Wolf Sea and others (Oathsworn series) by Robert Low (late 10th)
• The Long Ships (Röde Orm) by Frans G. Bengtsson (late 10th)
• The Evening and the Morning (Kingsbridge series) by Ken Follett (late 10th)
• Lion of Ireland and Pride of Lions by Morgan Llywelyn (late 10th–early 11th)
• Vinland by George Mackay Brown (early 11th)
• The Physician by Noah Gordon (11th)
• Samarkand by Amin Maalouf (11th)
• The Jester by James Patterson and Andrew Gross (11th)
• The Last English King by Julian Rathbone (mid 11th)
• The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth (late 11th)
• King Raven series (Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck) by Stephen R. Lawhead (late 11th)
• When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood (Plantagenet series) by Sharon Kay Penman (12th)
• The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge series) by Ken Follett (12th)
• The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour (12th)
• The Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters (mid 12th)
• The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth (12th)
• Kay the Left-Handed by Leslie Barringer (12th)
• Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett (12th)
• Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike (12th)
• The Sign of the Chrysanthemum by Katherine Paterson (12th)
• Witiko by Adalbert Stifter
• New Tale of the Heike by Eiji Yoshikawa (late 12th)
• Ivanhoe, The Talisman and others (Waverley Novels) by Sir Walter Scott (late 12th)
• Insurrection by Robyn Young (13th)
• Wolf of the Plains, Lords of the Bow and others (Conqueror series) by Conn Iggulden (13th)
• Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning (Welsh Princes series) by Sharon Kay Penman (13th)
• Brethren, Crusade, and Requiem (Brethren Trilogy) by Robyn Young (13th)
• Poland by James A. Michener (mid 13th–early 15th)
• The Journeyer by Gary Jennings (late 13th–early 14th)
• The Lion of Flanders by Hendrik Conscience (late 13th–early 14th)
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (early 14th)
• Valperga by Mary Shelley (early 14th)
• Harlequin, Vagabond, Heretic and 1356 (The Grail Quest series) by Bernard Cornwell (14th)
• The Accursed Kings (Les Rois maudits) by Maurice Druon (14th)
• Katherine by Anya Seton (14th)
• World Without End (Kingsbridge series) by Ken Follett (14th)
• The Knights of the Cross (Krzyżacy) by Henryk Sienkiewicz (14th–early 15th)
• Cathedral of the Sea (La catedral del mar) by Ildefonso Falcones (late 14th)
• Morality Play by Barry Unsworth (late 14th)
• L'Anneau du pêcheur by Jean Raspail (late 14th–early 15th)
• Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell (early 15th)
• The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman (15th)
• The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
• The House of Niccolò series by Dorothy Dunnett (mid 15th)
• Quentin Durward by Walter Scott (15th)
• The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (late 15th)
• The Family by Mario Puzo (late 15th)
• Romola by George Eliot (late 15th)
• I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis (late 15th)

Set in the Early Modern Period (c. 1500 – 1760)

• Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger (early 16th)
• Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex (early 16th)
• Then and Now by W. Somerset Maugham
• Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory
• The Heart of Jade (El corazón de piedra verde) by Salvador de Madariaga (early 16th)
• The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler (early 16th)
• Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (16th)
• Aztec by Gary Jennings (16th)
• The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić (16th-20th)
• Matthew Shardlake series by C. J. Sansom (mid 16th)
• Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett (mid 16th)
• Brazil Red by Jean-Christophe Rufin (mid 16th)
• The Siege of Malta by Walter Scott (mid 16th)
• My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (late 16th)
• La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas (late 16th)
• Shōgun by James Clavell (late 16th)
• A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess (late 16th)
• Kenilworth by Walter Scott (late 16th)
• The Orenda by Joseph Boyden (early 17th)
• The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (early 17th)
• Black Robe by Brian Moore
• The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk (17th)
• Hunger's Brides by W. Paul Anderson (17th)
• Silence by Shūsaku Endō (17th)
• With Fire and Sword, The Deluge and Fire in the Steppe by Henryk Sienkiewicz (17th)
• Waverley, Rob Roy and others (Waverley Novels) by Walter Scott (17th)
• I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni (mid 17th)
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (mid 17th)
• Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (mid 17th)
• Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer (mid 17th)
• An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears (mid 17th)
• Seek the Fair Land by Walter Macken (mid 17th)
• Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (mid 17th)
• The Deer and the Cauldron by Jin Yong (late 17th)
• Shinjū, The Snow Empress and others (Sano Ichiro series) by Laura Joh Rowland (late 17th)
• Imprimatur by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti (late 17th)
• Leo Africanus and Balthasar's Odyssey by Amin Maalouf (16th / 17th)
• Hawaii, Chesapeake and Caribbean by James A. Michener
• Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (17th)
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (early 18th)
• Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper (18th)

Set during the Industrial Revolution and Napoleonic era (c. 1760 – 1850)

• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
• Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
• The Bastard, The Rebels and others (The Kent Family Chronicles) by John Jakes
• Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds
• Seventy-Six by John Neal
• Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth and Proceed, Sergeant Lamb by Robert Graves
• The Revolution at Sea saga by James L. Nelson
• The Fort by Bernard Cornwell
• Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
• Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
• La Sanfelice by Alexandre Dumas
• Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian
• Hornblower series by C. S. Forester
• Lord Ramage by Dudley Pope
• The Bolitho novels by Alexander Kent
• The Secret River by Kate Grenville
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
• Wellington and Napoleon Quartet by Simon Scarrow
• National Episodes by Benito Pérez Galdós
• Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (early 19th)
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• The Berrybender Narratives by Larry McMurtry
• The Revenant by Michael Punke
• The Awakening Land trilogy by Conrad Richter
• Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
• Burr by Gore Vidal
• Poldark series by Winston Graham
• A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
• Alaska by James A. Michener
• The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
• Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
• April Morning by Howard Fast
• The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
• Montevideo, or the new Troy by Alexandre Dumas
• The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally
• The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye (19th)

Set during recent history (c. 1850 – 1950)

• The Starbuck Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
• The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton
• Peony by Pearl S. Buck (1850s)
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
• Cézanne’s Quarry by Barbara Corrado Pope
• The Blood of Lorraine by Barbara Corrado Pope
• The Missing Italian Girl by Barbara Corrado Pope
• The Lambing Flat by Nerida Newton
• The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe
• Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck (1860s – 1900s)
• North and South trilogy by John Jakes
• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
• Shiloh by Shelby Foote
• Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Silk by Alessandro Baricco (1860s)
• Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry
• The Sackett series by Louis L'Amour
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hansen (1881–1882)
• Narratives of Empire series by Gore Vidal
• An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (1890s–1900s)
• Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The March by E. L. Doctorow
• Fall of Giants, Winter of the World, and Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett
• Centennial, The Covenant, Texas, and Journey by James A. Michener
• The Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser (19th)
• The Road to Wellville by T. C. Boyle
• The War of the End of the World (La guerra del fin del mundo) by Mario Vargas Llosa (late 19th)
• Tai-Pan and Gai-Jin by James Clavell
• The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness (Kreizler series) by Caleb Carr
• The L.A. Quartet and the Underworld USA Trilogy by James Ellroy
• The James Reasoner Civil War Series by James Reasoner
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Emigrants series by Vilhelm Moberg
• The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
• Drood by Dan Simmons
• The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus (WWI)
• A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle (1910s)
• Troubles by J. G. Farrell (1919–1921)
• The Haj by Leon Uris (1922–1950s)
• The Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk (WWII)
• Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally (WWII)
• Enigma by Robert Harris (WWII)
• The Warsaw Anagrams by Richard Zimler (WWII)
• Exodus by Leon Uris (1940s)

Theatre

Set 2000 BC – 600 AD

• Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
• Britannicus by Jean Racine
• Caligula by Albert Camus
• The Death of Pompey by Pierre Corneille
• Socrates on Trial by Andrew David Irvine
• Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw
• The Siege of Numantia by Miguel de Cervantes
• Salome by Oscar Wilde

Set 600 AD – 1550

• St Joan by George Bernard Shaw
• William Shakespeare's English history plays
• Edward II, Tamburlaine, and The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe
• Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello
• In Extremis: The Story of Abelard & Heloise and Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton
• The Jester's Supper by Sem Benelli
• Marie Tudor by Victor Hugo
• Götz von Berlichingen by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot

Set after 1550

• Egmont and Torquato Tasso by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Mary Stuart and Demetrius by Friedrich Schiller
• Cross and Sword by Paul Green
• Cromwell by Victor Hugo

Opera

Set 3000 BC – 600 AD

• Aida and Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi
• Akhnaten by Philip Glass
• Cléopâtre and Hérodiade by Jules Massenet
• Mosè in Egitto by Gioachino Rossini
• Giulio Cesare by George Frideric Handel
• Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz
• Sapho by Charles Gounod
• L'Olimpiade by Metastasio
• Germanicus by Georg Philipp Telemann

Set 600 AD – 1800

• Gustave III by Daniel Auber
• Henry VIII by Camille Saint-Saëns
• William Tell by Gioachino Rossini
• Les Huguenots and Le prophète by Giacomo Meyerbeer
• Fosca and Salvator Rosa by Antônio Carlos Gomes
• Fernand Cortez by Gaspare Spontini
• Thérèse by Jules Massenet
• Le roi l'a dit by Léo Delibes
• Tamerlano and Rodelinda by George Frideric Handel
• Les Abencérages by Luigi Cherubini
• Montezuma by Roger Sessions
• Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi

Films and television

Set in Prehistory (c. 30,000 BC – 3000 BC)

• 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968. First section.
• Iceman 2017

Poetry

• The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold: life of Gautama Buddha, 6th or 5th century BC
• The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus in Rome, 6th century BC
• Horatius by Thomas Babington Macaulay: Horatius Cocles vs Lars Porsena, Rome, 6th century BC
• Roderick the Last of the Goths by Robert Southey: reign of Roderic, 8th century Hispania
• King Alfred by John Fitchett: reign of Alfred the Great, 9th century England
• The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton: reign of Alfred the Great, 9th century England
• The Saga of King Olaf by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: reign of Olaf Tryggvason, 10th century Norway
• Madoc by Robert Southey: legend of Madoc, 12th century Wales
• Isabella, or the Pot of Basil and The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats: European Middle Ages
• Marmion by Sir Walter Scott: reign of Henry VIII of England & the Battle of Flodden, 1513
• The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Battle of Flores, 1591
• Bonnie Dundee by Sir Walter Scott: Viscount Dundee and the Jacobite rising of 1689
• Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: the Expulsion of the Acadians (1755–1764)
• Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: American Revolutionary War (1775)
• Battle of Niagara by John Neal: War of 1812

Comics

Prehistoric

• Rahan by Roger Lecureux and Jean-François Lecureux
• Akim by Roberto Renzi

Ancient

• 300 by Frank Miller
• Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower

Wuxia manhua

• Three Kingdoms by Yū Terashima
• Fung Wan by Ma Wing-shing
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Andy Seto
• The Ravages of Time by Chan Mou
• Threads of Time by Noh Mi-young
• Ying Xiong Wu Lei by Ma Wing Shing

Samurai manga

• Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki
• Azumi by Yū Koyama
• Path of the Assassin by Kazuo Koike

See also

• List of historical novels
• List of historical novelists
• Fiction set in ancient Greece
• Fiction set in ancient Rome