What are your favorite (or least favorite) historical fiction novels?

I’ve been craving some good historical fiction lately but haven’t found any. I’ve found some bad/mediocre stuff–
David Ebershoff’s The Nineteenth Wife- just absolutely dreadful book about Brigham Young’s apostate wife and a modern day twink refugee from polygamy. Brigham Young is one of those characters that it’s damned near impossible to make dull but Ebershoff manages, and the modern day storyline is so underplayed it fails to grasp interest. (If interested you can read in great detail what I disliked about the novel on Amazon, review 57 [coincidentally the number of children BY sired]).

Something whose title eludes me by Johanna Lindsey- wasn’t familiar with her, she’s apparently just a romance novelist (this is why dust covers are good I suppose), but it was pure dreck. Made it only a few pages.

Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George- I won’t say it was bad, I’ll say it didn’t hold my interest and I didn’t finish it. A large part may just be that Henry VIII is like A CHRISTMAS CAROL- it’s been so done to death in novels, history books, films, musicals, classrooms, TV shows and probably the occasional dog show that there’s no suspense whatever. Maybe if the Bullen does give birth to little Henry IX it will be worth reading, or if perhaps Henry appoints the up and coming courtier Edmund, Lord Blackadder as his chancellor with Baldrick as court composer it might work.

RISE TO REBELLION by Jeff Shaara- a novel about the Revolution by Jeff Shaara that just never once comes alive and often reads far more like a not particularly great history text than a novel. Of course (this may be sacrilege) I wasn’t a huge fan of KILLER ANGELS [by his father, though I think Jeff claims to have helped]- well written, but I thought the characterizations and some “feel” of the time place was off.

My all time favorites list of historical fiction novels would include:

LINCOLN and BURR by Gore Vidal (these I liked, though I have to admit that most of Vidal’s other historical fiction I haven’t)

I, CLAUDIUS/CLAUDIUS THE GOD- yeah, I know it’s pretty certain the real Claudius wasn’t like that, but great books nonetheless.

THE AWAKENING LAND TRILOGY by Conrad Richter- about the matriarch of a family on the Ohio frontier from 1790s to 1860s, and simply spectacular (I’ve gone into its merits before)

GONE WITH THE WIND- if you’ve seen the movie but haven’t read the book, the book is much better as historical fiction than the movie, which is deservedly beloved but more mythological.

FIRE FROM HEAVEN/THE PERSIAN BOY by Mary Renault (two of the novels in her Alexander the Great cycle. Has it’s “too girly” moments, but then the narrator of one is a eunuch and the main character of the other is a boy, so…

WINDS OF WAR/WAR AND REMEMBRANCE by Herman Wouk- 3,000 pages and not a sentence wasted (and amazingly the miniseries took the budget and the time to capture it).


What would be on your list of favorites/least favorites? (I’ll admit selfish reasons: I’m hoping to find something I hadn’t heard of and be able to say “wow!” after reading it.)

I second Winds of War/War and Remembrance

I always recommend Then Knight, Death, and the Devil by Ella Leffland. It’s basically a biography of Hermann Goering, but by writing it as a novel she’s able to imagine his inner life.

I like the Henryk Sienkiewicz trilogy (With Fire and Sword, The Deluge and Fire in the Steppe (Pan Wolodyjowski)). Sienkiewicz won the Nobel prize for literature, but outside of Poland he’s mostly known for Quo Vadis. Set in the mid to late 17th century, the trilogy was written to recall past glories for a Polish people divided by the partitions that wiped their state off the map for over 100 years.

Unfortunately, historical fiction is generally pretty dire. A lot of authors can’t get inside the mindset of the time period, and their characters become modern people in SCA dress (Sharon Kay Penman) and/or they ‘fall in love’ with a historical person and want to ‘right all the wongs’ and in the process erase any conflict or depth from the story (Colleen McCullogh, Penman again).

That being said, Mary Renault’s Alexander Trilogy is worth reading for the beauty of her prose if nothing else.

Does she? He’s a super interesting character to me (such a jovial and all around fun guy- well, except for the setting up concentration camps and profiting from the Holocaust and bombing the hell out of France and England and Poland parts). His first wife, the drug addiction, then his excesses… I was wondering if that had been captured by a novelist.

Left out:

Neal Stephenson’s QUICKSILVER is great and he does take you into the mindset. I love some of the little touches- the Duke of York (later James II) seeking mercury for his VD, or the man intrigued at what mysterious fluid the alchemist Enoch Root is brewing [turns out it’s tea, which the English haven’t really become accustomed to yet]). I haven’t yet been ambitious enough to read its sequels though, just because I’m not a particularly fast reader and they’re so long.

That’s the problem with most historical fiction: the presentism aspect, or the “Dr. Quinnization”. One reason I like GWTW as historical fiction is that Scarlett is never once bothered by slavery, because that character (pampered self centered brat from a rich family) wouldn’t have been- she’s not a particularly deep thinker and she doesn’t even notice the suffering in her own family when she doesn’t want to, let alone that of slaves and “po white trash”.

That was a very pleasant surprise about HBO series (parroting another thread): Io loved the way HBO’s ROME dealt with slavery, polytheism, cheap whores and constant barbarism as just natural parts of existence. “Of course life’s not fair and people aren’t equal and the gods couldn’t care less, what an absurd idea!” And I loved the fact DEADWOOD’s whores are dirty, not beautiful, and not just “dance hall” girls but women who have unprotected sex with nasty looking men and their boss keeps most of the money- much more believable than Miss Kitty’s dance hall girls (though I’m guessing Miss Kitty could cut a ho who held out on her).

If you want a big fat historical novel there’s always A Suitable Boy, about India during the time just before and just after the partition. I thought it was pretty good. There’s a romance in there, but it’s not just a romance.

Also big and fat and same time period, Leon Uris’s Exodus.

What time period do you like?

(I know a lot of people who regard GWTW as a period romance. It is not a romance, at least, not as defined by, say, Harlequin.)

Shogun by James Clavell

Druids by Morgan Llywellyn

Huh, four replies and no one’s mentioned Aubrey/Maturin yet? I’m shocked. It’s the kind of writing that makes me want to start reading historical fiction. Although, I’ll admit that Maturin, at least, is considerably more liberal than his peers, and Aubrey is somewhat nicer to his sailors than his peers, I think O’Brian does a good job of justifying it (Aubrey’s more concerned with morale than the suffering of his men, and Maturin is repeatedly pointed out to be radical, and besides, he dissects orphans, he’s not too liberal).

The Flashman novels are very enjoyable, and George MacDonald Fraser researched them all very thoroughly- and it shows. Flashy is also definitely a man of his time and has a number of attitudes that were perfectly acceptable Back Then but would now cause gasps of horror or worse nowadays.

I do agree with what others have said about “Presentism” but I’ve always felt that was more to do with what people want to read rather than a failing on the Author’s part- Gone With The Wind was still written in the days of Jim Crow laws and the like, with a huge number of (white) people not having a problem with the sentiments Ms. O’Hara expresses.

Try writing that sort of character as a “Sympathetic” or “Hero/ine” figure nowadays- and NOT have them “see the error of their ways” at the end- and see how far you get. I don’t see it being on the Bestseller Lists for the next 142 weeks, that’s for sure.

I enjoy William Dietrich’s books; The Scourge of God features Attila and Hadrian’s Wall is self-explanatory!
His most recent books (Napoleon’s Pyramids & The Rosetta Key) are a pair about Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt but I’ve not finished the 2nd one yet… They’re less firmly based in fact and involve much running around and esoteric knowledge of the ancients!

Simon Scarrow is good too, if you want Roman period recommendations. Most of his books are in a series that starts with Under the Eagle, featuring a raw recruit and a grizzled Centurian at the time of the Invasion of Britain…

And it’s made clear that Maturin, although a brilliant physician by the standards of his age, is a dangerous quack by our standards. He doesn’t have all kinds of astonishing ahead of his time ideas, and is always working with dirty instruments and prescribing bizarre nostrums.

Yes, Flashie was a creature of his age. But even some of his contemporaries considered him a cad & a bounder. (Too bad about that one movie with Malcolm McDowell; perhaps somebody could try again?)

Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet tells about the last days of the Raj, as seen by a diverse group of characters–from all ethnicities & all classes. Rich & haunting–time to read it again, I think…

I just revisited Claudius’s Rome with great delight. Next, perhaps I’ll let Mr Graves return me to the Byzantium of Count Belisarius. Or, considering the season, rediscover the true story of King Jesus. It’s always fun to read bad things about a poet I never liked–see Wife to Mr Milton. *Homer’s Daughter *is more legend than history, but great fun. Ingrid Bergman almost starred in a movie–but it was never made because Hollywood “forgave” her & she returned from exile in Europe.

Perhaps you are not tempted by historical romances. Definitely, don’t be tempted by Diana Gabaldon’s series. Soggy & slow–I got bogged down. Sergeanne Golon’s Angélique series needs to be released again in English, to demonstrate how sex, violence, romance & lashings of history should be combined.

Ditton on Diana Gabaldon’s books- I got through the first two as fairly decent entertainment but could not finish the third- just stopped caring.

I love Larry McMurtry’s works- all of the western novels including the Lonesome Dove series. By far, my favorite historical fiction of all time is English Passengers by Matthew Kneale (Thank you SDMB for the recommendation!). Gone with The Wind is great too- I recently re-read it, I think I originally read it as a clueless twenty year old- picking it up 15 years later and it was a different experience entirely.

Dittos to The Raj Quartet of novels by Paul Scott. Really worth reading.

and here I am mentioning the Kristin Lavransdatter novels again - for those of you who want to visit medieval Norway.

My favorites, most of which have already been mentioned:

Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels.

Sharon Kay Penman’s novels on medieval England: The Sunne in Splendour, about Richard III; her Welsh trilogy, which begins with the marriage of King John’s illegitimate daughter to Llywelyn Fawr of Wales; and of course her books on Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

I love Diana Gabaldon’s **Outlander **series. It’s time travel and romance, but it’s also entertaining historical fiction, beginning in Scotland during the Jacobite rebellion in the 1740’s and ending up (so far) in America just before the Revolutionary War.

Katherine, by Anya Seton - about Katherine Swynford, the mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt.

I, Claudius and Claudius the God are fantastic. For more Roman history, the first few books of Steven Saylor’s Roma Sub Rosa mysteries are good. They begin at the end of Sulla’s dictatorship and are moving toward Caesar’s assassination, although the writing is getting weaker as the series progresses.

I like Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series (the early books, anyway), about a common British soldier who is given a commission after saving Wellington’s life in India (it was very unusual for soldiers to be promoted out of the ranks). Covers a lot of the land battles of the Napoleonic wars.

I like Flashman, too.

I’ve just discovered Mary Renault. I liked Fire from Heaven, and I have a copy of The Persian Boy waiting on me.
Least favorite:
Anything by Philippa Gregory, who is popular right now but who writes vilely about Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I.

Favorites, not necessary for accuracy either-

Taylor Caldwell’s (the screams begin immediately!)-

A PILLAR OF IRON- Cicero as John Bircher.

DEAR & GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN- Luke, whose Centurion adopted dad was a Bircher.

CAPTAINS & THE KINGS- 19th century Kennedy-esque dynasty works with & falls prey to the Conspiracy detested by the Birchers.

Anthony Burgess’s THE KINGDOM OF THE WICKED - The Acts of the Apostles interwoven with the Ceasars from Tiberias to Nero as seen by the man who gave us A Clockwork Orange.

Do you think a petition would help? I’d love to re-read Angelique but I can’t afford them now.

Another vote for Kristin Lavrandsdatter, Katherine, English Passengers, and the Lonesome Dove series.

If you’re not looking for novels with a wide scope and actual historical figures, some of my other favorites are:

Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio by Ian Pears
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

Years ago I read a lot of Thomas Costain – The Tontine and The Last Plantaganets are pretty good.

One of my all-time favorites is an oldie (but back in printie): Concience of the King by Alfred Duggan: http://www.amazon.com/Conscience-Phoenix-Press-Alfred-Duggan/dp/0304366463/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228494844&sr=1-7

In fact, pretty well everything by Duggan is great.

Amusing note: this book is a fictional autobiography of the first Saxon king of Wessex, and ancestor of all subsequent Kings of England … one of the points stressed is that he’s “descended” from the god Wotan.

After reading this I was in England and, at the Tower gift shop, I spotted a poster with the family tree of the Kings & Queens of England … and sure enough, right at the top in small print was “Wotan”. To this day, apparently, the Saxon god remains the origin of the UK’s head of state. :smiley:

Speaking of Aubrey/Maturin, there’s also CS Forster’s Horatio Hornblower series, all ten and a half books of it (much to my dismay, Hornblower and The Crisis ends abruptly with the author’s death just as the story got interesting).

It’s got a bit of the Presentism thing going on, as Captain Hornblower was written to appeal to a 1940’s American audience (Hornblower dislikes corporal punishment, is the son of a surgeon rather than being noble-born, and is considerably more liberal thinking than his fellow officers, something that he gets needled playfully for throughout the books) but it does effectively show what life is like on a wooden ship all alone at sea, where they have to content with limited rations, water that turns solid with stuff growing in it, the constant risk of the elements, disease, mutiny, the occasional insane officer, oh right, and they’re also fighting the French in a brutal longrunning war :smiley:

Hornblower is more of a thinking man’s hero than a straight up swashbuckling hero, but he has his faithful sidekick, Lieutenant Bush, to be the big manly heroic type. The books also got turned into TV movies (available on DVD!), although the plots only stay movie-close at first, and drift farther off as the series.

My favorite book of the series is A Ship of The Line, unique in that it’s one of only two of the Hornblower books to have a sad ending (It’s the middle part of a three-book story, so they had to go all Empire Strikes Back on it, although I’m pretty sure Napoleon does not turn out to be Captain Hornblower’s father)

Preach it, sister. I read a lot of history, but I’m very picky about the historical fiction I read, because this kind of stuff makes me want to throw the book across the room. I think the worst offender was Ahab’s Wife where the main character–a 19th century white woman–is all, “But it’s wrong to be mean to Indians. And whales are our friends!” I couldn’t finish the book.

On her blog, Susan Higginbotham has ten rules for writing historical fiction which crack me up. This one is my favorite: “No matter how prevalent the practice at the time or how wealthy or high-born the heroine is, she must be shocked and appalled at the idea of having a marriage arranged for her.”

I love O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, and I enjoyed Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series (though I don’t know enough about that period to be as bothered by inaccuracies). I want to read more Mary Renault, too.