Historical Fiction Frustrations.

[hippywife]

Historical fiction is my favorite genre. Over the years, I've read every one that James Michener wrote, as well as all of Margaret George's books and a few of Michelle Moran's, all of Wendell Berry's Port William Series, Ivan Doig's Two Medicine Trilogy, as well as others he's written, and Ken Follet's Knightsbridge Series. These are the kind of reads I really love! (I read all of Jane Auel's Earth's Children series, but could have done without the last couple or so, for reasons below.)

I'm struggling now to find really well written historical fiction. When I look at the offerings on Libby in particular, but also other lists, they throw all kinds of bodice rippers into that category, so many that they seem the majority. I feel they should be listed as romance novels or a new genre developed, such as period dramas or something of that nature. I despise romance novels, as well as any books where the romance between the main characters is either the focus of the story or central to the plot.

I recently found and read Jane Smiley's trilogy The Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga, which I enjoyed very much. Last night, I started re-reading Lonesome Dove. I first read it when it originally came out in paperback and I now want to read the series, so thought I should re-read LD first since it's been so long.

Anyone else experiencing this frustration or have any recommendations for really good historical fiction (excluding Shogun or anything like it, or any where war is the primary focus.) Thanks for any help in this area.

ETA: I've also read all of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome Series. Can't believe I forgot that one!

ETA2: Have also read a few of Edward Rutherfurd's books, too.

[RockCreek]

1. Agree!

And many are filled with historical inaccuracies and/ or people acting like modern characters would if transplanted into that period. I will have to think about recommendations. I have found that I now like Alt-history fiction. It makes whatever anachronisms occur palatable - - and sometimes even purposeful by the author!

[Diamond_Dog]

2. I'm not entirely sure

if this is considered historical fiction, but I really enjoyed “Pope Joan” by Donna Woolfolk Cross.

https://www.amazon.com/Pope-Joan-Donna-Woolfolk-Cross/dp/0307452360

[hippywife]

19. That might be interesting. Thanks! nt

[eShirl]

3. Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series was excellent

And I say that as a lover of ancient history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Rome

[hippywife]

6. I can't believe I forgot that one!

Yes, I read and loved all of those, as well. Good suggestion!

[kimbutgar]

23. Excellent series

Read three of them.

[viva la]

4. Bernard Cornwell has a lot -- a LOT- of well-researched historical series

There's a long one set in the Arthurian age== well, if it's a time of war in British history, he has a series. They're good. He wrote the Sharpe books set in the Napoleonic war too.
Conn Iggulden is another who writes good "warrior" fiction.
Sharon Kay Penman has some big sweeping epics I always enjoyed.


I don't know how they can research and write so much. It's amazing.

[hippywife]

9. A lot of them, including Michener

had many people assisting him with research.

I'm not looking for war histories, tho. I abhor war, and while they've often figured into some of the books I've read, I don't enjoy books where it's the focus.

[viva la]

15. That's the problem with British historical fiction...

so much war!
But I guess no one writes big bristling historical novels about, you know, Shakespeare writing his sonnets.

[Ocelot II]

5. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, One Hundred Years of Solitude

by Gabriel García Márquez, and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel are some good ones. I also loathe romance novels, and as a fan of mystery/crime novels I've found way too many that were really romances with the mystery providing just a framework for all the annoying bodice-ripping.

[hippywife]

8. I've read Wolf Hall

but for some reason didn't find it compelling enough to continue with the subsequent books. Have also read The Name of the Rose a long time ago.

I have a really hard time getting into Márquez or Isabel Allende.

[Ocelot II]

11. But at least they're not romance novels!

There's also Kristin Lavransdatter (the recent Tiina Nunally translation, not the old one), which got a Nobel Prize for literature, and is a really interesting description of life in the 14th century. There's some romance in it but it's definitely not a romance novel.

[viva la]

18. Wolf Hall is wonderful--

But I had trouble keeping characters apart. You know-- Tudor times. All the women are named Jane or Ann or Margaret, and all the men are Thomas or Henry or Richard.

My mind isn't retentive enough.

If you like historical mysteries, the Brother Cadfael books are really good. It's set against the British Civil War, but there's not much violence (except for of course the murders), because it's set in a monastery. The office politics, however, are brutal.

[Scrivener7]

7. Just read The Silence of the Girls and was pleasantly surprised despite the weird title.

Based on the Iliad from the perspective of Briseis.

[hippywife]

12. Thanks, I'll check it out. nt

[vanlassie]

10. I love The Circle of Ceridwen series for its historical

accuracy coupled with engaging story. The author is Octavia Randolph. It’s Vikings vs Saxons, ninth century. Octavia moved to Gotland after a few books in this now 8 book saga. She regularly posts educational videos on Facebook of her surroundings as she continues to study the place and time.

[hippywife]

13. Thanks for the rec.

But not into the whole warfare thing as the focus of a book.

[vanlassie]

24. Yea, it's not, actually.

[hippywife]

26. That was the impression I got

from your description as Vikings vs. Saxons. I'll look at it. Thanks!

[CrispyQ]

14. I totally agree!

There needs to be a sub-genre called historical romance.

[hippywife]

16. I'd be against

even including the word 'historical' into such a genre. They take place in a period other than the present or contemporary eras, but they're in no way historical.

[Jilly_in_VA]

17. They're old, but

anything by Anya Seton is good, IMHO. She did her research well. And while there is romance, I think the historical parts are extremely accurate and the romance fits in where it should. I like Philippa Gregory's books; you may not. Her theory of the way women were used as sexual pawns in Tudor times is intriguing and possibly accurate. R.F. Delderfield's A Horseman Riding By series is one of my favorites also, spannin the late Victorian to just pre-WWII times in Devonshire. I like alt-history too, and The Virgin's Spy etc. series by Laura Anderson is quite fun.

Bodice-rippers are a whole other category and I agree should be put there. When I was in nursing school we passed those from one hand to another. They were such a relief from what we had to read and do! I don't read them any more, nor do I (or ever have I) read Regency romance, which I find icky.

Oh, my favorite historical? Easy, but nobody knows it now, even though it won a Pulitzer for fiction in 1933. Lamb in His Bosom, by Caroline Miller. I stumbled across it many years ago in a bookshop and wore out a paperback copy before I found a hardback in a thrift shop. It chronicles the life of a woman in backwoods Georgia before the Civil War. Amazing read. Second favorite? Song of Songs, by Beverly Hughesdon, the story of a young woman who grows up in an upper-class English family in Edwardian times and volunteers as a VAD nurse in WWI. Amazing, and definitely NOT a bodice-ripper!

[Scrivener7]

20. How about Edward Rutherford? He does big fabulous books

that do the whole history of a place.

Island at the Center of the World was about the Dutch New York colony and was very good.

[hippywife]

21. Thanks,

I mentioned him at the end of my OP. I've read a couple of his, and will probably read more at some point.

Added that second book to my TBR, even though it's non-fiction.

[kimbutgar]

22. Have you read any Gary Jennings books?

His history of the Aztec is fascinating but my favorite is The Journeyer about the travels of Marco Polo From Venice to China. I learned so much geographical history the book has stayed with me.

The Aztec series are also fascinating and I have been to three of the Aztec pyramids after reading those books.

[hippywife]

25. Yes, I read Aztec because a friend sent it to me after she finished.

I found him a little too on the gory and sensationalist side for me so I never ventured into any of this other books. Thanks, tho!

[madamesilverspurs]

27. Good stuff!

The Michener Library at the University of Northern Colorado houses his research materials for Centennial; his hand-written pages engender great appreciation for the secretary who had to transcribe them. He was the first writer, for me, whose work invited re-reading. He also shares space on the list of those whose compelling narratives had me pulling all-nighters; Wouk's Winds of War and War and Remembrance are on that same shelf. Auel's last book was, at best, disappointing, in that she just seemed to lose interest in writing it.

Follet's "Century" trilogy was my most recent big read, informative and often disarmingly prescient. These days, reading has become tricky as my arms tend to fall asleep while holding a book, and I tend to nod off while reading online for more than a few minutes at a time.

Years ago, when I was laid up for a few months, a friend brought me a box of books from a yard sale. It was a set of small paperbacks, a series depicting (ostensibly) the westward expansion of the country, each book named for the state in which the story took place. They were very easy reading, most could be done in a day. But the lack of basic research was sometimes distracting; case in point, when a child begged her daddy to stop the covered wagon so she could get out and play with the prairie dog "puppy" that had been chasing them. Seriously.


.

[hippywife]

30. I've re-read a few of Michener's.

Mostly The Source. I've probably read that one a half dozen times in the past 25 years. Every time I read it, something new stood out for me and the story took on more of a flow. I probably could read it again and still enjoy it.

That was my favorite of his, followed by The Covenant, Alaska and Space. Incredible amount of research and detail in all of his books.

[malthaussen]

28. You could try Dorothy Dunnett...

... the Lymond Chronicles and the House of Niccolo series are set in the Renaissance. She uses a lot of dialect in the first, so it's a tough read. Lindsey Davis combines the genres of historical fiction and the detective series in her books about Marcus Didius Falco, set during Vespasian's reign. My favorite for the Matter of Britain is The Pendragon by Catherine Christian, which sets Arthur during the period of the breakup of the Roman Empire in Britain. I also like Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which along with Necronomicon combine history and information theory.

I like to read novels written in certain eras to get a feel for the times, even though the books are not "historical fiction" per se. The novel really got going in the 18th century (a lot of them were bodice-rippers of a sort), although there are a few examples that antedate that period.

R.F. Delderfield wrote a slew of historical novels, many of them adapted for the big or little screen. A lot of the themes of his work revolve around early 20th century social history subjects, especially adapting to society after the Great War and the increased de-ruralization of England. Then, of course, we have Nobel laureate John Galsworthy with The Forsyte Saga, which in a way combines that idea of historical and period writing.

One could go on. When it comes to historical fiction, there is no end to the number of books written.

-- Mal

[werdna]

29. WWII, WESTERN

James Benn's Billy Boyle mystery series, if you're interested in historically based WWII era novels. The author includes afterwards clarifying the history from the fiction. Well researched by the author.

A.B.Guthrie's The Big Sky and Thomas Berger's Little Big Man series about the changing American west. The latter two I referenced in a college History paper exploring historicity in fiction. I found that one of the author's reference an old book I found in the library stacks describing how plains peoples drove wildlife into a slaughter pen. The author lifted the description word-for-word.

[ShazamIam]

31. I love good historical fiction I just re-read, The Little Book, Selden Edwards, have you read it?

[japple]

32. Here are some authors that I like quite a bit. You might enjoy some of them.

After I find an author that I really like, I usually read everything they've written.

Paulette Jiles - all of her books
David Anthony Durham, Gabriel's Story, Walk Through Darkness
Charles Portis, esp True Grit, The Dog of the South
Leif Enger, Peace Like A River, So Brave, Young & Handsome, Virgil Wander
Lin Enger, The High Divide
Tracey Chevalier - all of her books
Geraldine Brooks, esp. People of the Book and March
Louise Erdrich - all of her books
Lance Weller, Wilderness
Mary Doria Russell - all of her books

I'm reading the Jane Smiley trilogy now on your recommendation.

[hippywife]

33. Thank you.

If they write historical fiction, I'll check them out.

[patricia92243]

34. The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek - about the blue people of Kentucky.

Well written and very interesting.