historical fiction

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So, anybody know any good historical fiction? I'm open to all comers, but I guess I'm particularly interested in pre-20th Century European stuff. And nazis, I just read "tours of the black clock" and was surprised to find myself interested in nazi germany...

I also want something that is definitely historically accurate, and really gives a sense of how the world was back then. Also probably something at least vaguely "literary"; no fluff, please.

― stewart downes (sdownes), Thursday, 18 August 2005 18:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Flaubert - "Sentimental Education"

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 18:44 (eighteen years ago) link

All fiction that is about contemporary society eventually becomes historical fiction, no?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 18 August 2005 19:36 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah i was gonna say nate's choice is kinda not what i had in mind here, but i guess it works.

― John (jdahlem), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:24 (eighteen years ago) link

also "pre 20th cent. europe" is sorta ridiculously broad

― John (jdahlem), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Hilary Mantel, A Place Of Greater Safety - it's a novel about the lives of several prominant Republicans during the French Revolution, including Robespierre and Danton.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 19 August 2005 05:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Peter Carey's Jack Maggs gives a pretty good picture of Victorian England and is written in the style of Charles Dickens, but for a more modern audience. Having read several books about seventeenth century Dutch history, I can recommend anything by Andre Brink, or, for a quick read that's fun and still historically accurate, I recommend mid-list favourite Deborah Moggach and her book Tulip Fever. You might also try Michael Pye's The Drowning Room which gives a good picture of what it was like to be a Dutch settler in America.

You might also try Beryl Bainbridge's According to Queenie for info on Samuel Johnson and his ilk, or Master Georgie if you fancy the Crimean War.

I will also chuck in my usual recommendation for Patrick O'Brian. You can't get better research than his, and if you like a few sea battles, he's your only man.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 19 August 2005 05:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh my god, I gotta check out that Mantel book. I knew it existed, but I then forgot. I have something of a French Revolution jones, so it seems like I have no choice but to read it. It's long though, isn't it?

I'll check out that carey book too, he seems critically acclaimed and whatnot.

Anybody read "Haussmann, or the Distinction" by paul lafarge?

― stewart downes (sdownes), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I have a copy of Jack Maggs somewhere, but haven't actually read it.

My Penguin paperback of A Place Of Greater Safety is almost 900 pages long, including the 8-page dramatis personae at the start.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 19 August 2005 15:36 (eighteen years ago) link

For ancient Greek and Roman history (if that counts as "European"), you can't beat Mary Renault or Robert Graves.

― Elise, Friday, 19 August 2005 17:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Roddy Doyle, The Last Round-Up (2 vols so far)

― the finefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 18:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles is a great read. Takes place in mid-1500s Europe, mainly Scotland, England and France with forays to Turkey and Russia and a couple other places. The first book, Game of Kings, is a bit hard to get into, unfortunately, but it's well worth your time and effort.

― SJ Lefty, Friday, 19 August 2005 23:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Some thoughts:

19th Century - Try the Flashman series. Great fun with some serious historical research. As a note of warning, to enjoy this series you must enjoy anti-heroes and must be willing to deal with political incorrectness.

17th-18th Century - Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, Confusion and the System of the World)- 2500 pages+ of brilliance with a cast of characters including Isacc Newtown, Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren.

17th Century - Iain Pears Instance of the Fingerpost, Rashomon style murder mystery set in Restoration England with a very good twist in the tale.

― oblomov, Saturday, 20 August 2005 02:50 (eighteen years ago) link

For ancient Greek and Roman history (if that counts as "European"), you can't beat Mary Renault or Robert Graves.

Seconding the Mary Renault, over here.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Saturday, 20 August 2005 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" is pretty entertaining.

― Mark Klobas, Sunday, 21 August 2005 02:42 (eighteen years ago) link

I can't believe no one has mentioned Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. And while I'm here, let me recommend Nectar from a Stone by Jane Guill.

― SRH (Skrik), Monday, 22 August 2005 11:50 (eighteen years ago) link

And don't forget R~~ichie~~. L. Blackmore's Lorna Doone.

― SRH (Skrik), Monday, 22 August 2005 11:51 (eighteen years ago) link

I Malavoglia (English translation: The House by the Medlar Tree) - a late 19th century Italian classic; I Promessi Sposi (English Translation: The Betrothed) - the classic of Italian literature bar none, written in the 19th Century about the 17th Century.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 22 August 2005 12:38 (eighteen years ago) link

I really enjoyed "The Quincunx" by Charles Palliser, which is set in Victorian London.

― LadyLazarus, Wednesday, 31 August 2005 12:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Some people enjoy Rafael Sabatini's historical yarns rather more than I do. He wrote, most famously, Captain Blood and Scaramouche. I confess I've never quite cottoned to his books, but I can't put my finger on why this is so. He wasn't a bad writer (like Jean Auel, for instance).

― Aimless (Aimless), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link

two years pass...

Rose Macaulay's 'They Were Defeated' - set a few years before the English Civil War with plenty of interesting characters popping up - John Milton, Henry More, John Cleveland, Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick. Lots of 17th Century poetry in it, but still hugely readable.

― stroker ace, Monday, 18 August 2008 09:56 (fifteen years ago) link

Some Canadian historical fiction I've enjoyed recently: Icefields by Thomas Wharton and The Outlander by Gil Adamson.

― franny glass, Monday, 18 August 2008 15:09 (fifteen years ago) link

six years pass...

been on a kick lately: just finished nicola griffith's "hild" which i really loved.

also did luther blissett's Q (mostly very good) and its sequal "altai" (less good)

what should i do next, the dunnett series?

― max, Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:31 (nine years ago) link

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