# Your Favorite Fictionalized Biographies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363 "2003-08-29T03:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/1 "2003-08-29T03:43:04Z")
Who doesn’t love a “favorite books” thread? I always learn about so many great books. I’ve only recently delved into this genre, and I’m looking for recommendations. What authors do you feel best brought one of your favorite historical figures to life? I enjoyed Margaret George’s \*The Autobigraphy of Henry VIII. \* It had a few problems with accuracy, but was an entertaining read nevertheless. Speaking of the Turdors, I also enjoyed _The Other Boleyn Girl_ by Phillipa Gregory. Again, if you’re a stickler for 100% accuracy, this book is probably not for you, but I really enjoyed the lively description of the sexual politics of Henry’s court. \*Child of the Morning \* about Hatchepsut, the female Pharoah was also enjoyable, as was _The Book of Eleanor_ by Pamela Kaufman. While the Tudor era is my favorite, I’m open to just about anything. What do you guys recommend? ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/2 "2003-08-30T02:19:21Z")
Wow . . . guess I’m the only one who reads these things. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/3 "2003-08-30T02:26:21Z")
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles _I, Victoria_ was fascinating. It was definitely what Queen Victoria herself would have written, had she written an autobiography. For young children, the Royal Diaries series is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![noodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/278dde/32.png) [@noodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noodler)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/4 "2003-08-30T02:27:17Z")
hmm…can’t really call it my favorite fictionalized biography since its only one that I’ve read. But “I, Claudius” and it’s sequel “Claudius the God” are some of my favorite books period. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/5 "2003-08-30T03:48:50Z")
Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone by James Baldwin, although that is more of a fictionalized autobiography. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/6 "2003-08-30T11:22:01Z")
Colleen McCullough wrote a tremendous series about Julius Caesar. She spent 12 years doing research before she started writing. It was funny, I picked up the first one, _The First Man of Rome_, basically because it was written by McCullough and I loved _The Thorn Birds_ so much. So I’m reading, thinking it’s a wonderfully written epic about ancient Rome. Then, just on a whim, I start typing in Gaius Marius and Sulla into my Encarta CD. Imagine my surprise when I realize they were real people! It was like bumping into a celebrity on the street. Anyway, this series starts about a generation before Caesar, and carries on through his death. I highly recommend it. One tip…don’t stop reading it, or you’re going to lose track of the Marcus Ameliuses and the Bibluses and the Crassuses. And I don’t know how accurate it is, but _Shogun_ by James Clavell was based on a real person. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/7 "2003-08-30T11:38:13Z")
I did like Yourcenar’s _Memoirs of Hadrian_, but on the whole I’m not a big fan of fictionalized biographies. If I want to learn about a person, I prefer the actual facts; if I want enjoyment I don’t want the facts to spoil the fun. Dammit. It just felt like there had to be a ‘dammit’ at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/8 "2003-08-30T11:58:57Z")
_Firedrake’s Eye_ by Patricia Finney Queen Elizabeth I. Highly entertaining. **The Alexander Trilogy** _Fire From Heaven_ _The Persian Boy_ _Funeral Games_ by Mary Renault IMHO, nobody “does” Alexander the Great better than Ms. Renault. Especially enjoyed _The Persian Boy._ ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/9 "2003-09-02T17:26:29Z")
_Cloudsplitter_, by Russell Banks, is the story of abolitionist John Brown as told through the eyes of his son. It is a huge blockbuster book, one that is better than any non-fiction work of history I’ve read on what living in the U.S. was like in the years before the Civil War. Gore Vidal’s series of books on U.S. history are also very good, if not to everyone’s taste. Some of them, like _Burr_, concentrate on one individual, others look at a historical era as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/10 "2003-09-03T11:50:50Z")
Its hard to decide between the three I read by Gary Jennings “Aztec” Done in the first person as an Aztec merchant relating the life he and his people lead to the “Inquisitioner” The more interesting his tale, the longer he might live. He lives long. Then there was “Raptor” the story of a child raised as a girl in a convent during the middle ages. at puberty, it is discovered “she” has what’s known in medicine as sexual ambiguity, a polite way of saying hermaphrodite. She, of course is turned out to servive or not. He/she travels over Europe. That’s a fun one. “The Journeyer” is the _autobiography_ of Marco Polo… wonderful ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-fictionalized-biographies/198363/11 "2003-09-03T12:13:16Z")
_I, Claudius_ and _Claudius the God_ by Robert Graves. A fictionalized autobiography written by Emperor Claudius in Ancient Rome. Talks about his life and the life of the Emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula before him, as well as a bunch of others in the Julio-Claudian family. These are my favorite books ever (next to my top favorite, _1984_).