Historical Fiction

[hodor]

My favorite historical fiction would have to be The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet with The Count of Monte Cristo coming in a close second.

[Lacedaemonian]

The Warlord Chronicles trilogy and The Grail Quest trilogy by Bernard Cornwell are perhaps the best I have read. The Alexander trilogy by Valerio Massimo Manfredi is also a fantastic depiction of the life of Alexander the Great. I also enjoyed Manfredi's The Spartan which covered Thermopylae beautifully. Pompeii by Robert Harris, though not strong on the characters, was perfect in that you really felt that you were in Pompeii experiencing life anterior to the volcanic erruption. There are so many.

[Rane Longfox]

I have also attempted to read Manfredi's "The Spartan", but is paled in comparison to Steven Pressfield's "Gates of Fire", which deals with the same subject. Maybe you should try it Lacey?

[Lacedaemonian]

I own it and have read half but stopped for some unknown reason. Perhaps I will go back to it.

[Rane Longfox]

Its worth at least trying to read

[Teresa Edgerton]

Leon Garfield -- a mostly YA author who wrote books in historical settings rather than about historical events, but with so much period flavor you'd swear the man was writing in the nineteenth rather than the twentieth century if you didn't know better. Rather dark and Dickensian, but humorous, too. One of my favorite non genre authors.

[Stalker]

Umberto Eco is not purely an author that writes historical fiction, but his Name of the Rose is one of excellent examples of the above genre. I am always amazed the way he genially depicts the historical background down to the least detail. That is a real master!!!

[Alexa]

I forgot about that one. Thanks Stalker.

[Rosemary]

Originally Posted by hodor

My favorite historical fiction would have to be The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet with The Count of Monte Cristo coming in a close second.

Pillars of the Earth - I agree hodor, this is definately a brilliant story.
However I would put Edward Rutherfurd at the top of my list. He has written some marvellous pieces of work, starting with 'Old Sarum' (which begins in the Ice Age).
Has anyone read Caiseal Mor's work? I have the trilogy The Song of the Earth. Basically a Celtic saga set in Ireland, full of mythology, druids and the arrival of the Roman Catholics.
One very important thing that a few authors of historical fiction don't do is RESEARCH, research and more research. If you happen to be interested and knowledgable about history, then the slightest mistake in the book will be so glaringly obvious. It's enough to put you off reading the story.

Can anyone recall who wrote the series about the Welsh Kings?

[Culhwch]

I've just started reading Pillars of the Earth. I must say I'm not particularly enamoured with Follett's style and prose, but it is quite interesting and it's kept me reading. I've read about a hundred pages in the last two days, which is good for me lately. So we'll see how it goes.

[Rosemary]

Originally Posted by Culhwch

I've just started reading Pillars of the Earth. I must say I'm not particularly enamoured with Follett's style and prose, but it is quite interesting and it's kept me reading. I've read about a hundred pages in the last two days, which is good for me lately. So we'll see how it goes.

I hope you eventually enjoy reading Pillars of the Earth. Please let me know your thoughts on the book when you have finished reading it. My copy is well thumbed, not sure how many times I have read it. I understand that he wrote six drafts before the final product. He is also one of those authors who insist on massive amounts of research

[Rosemary]

Originally Posted by Mark Urpen

Anyone here read 'Lady of Hay' by Barbara Erskine? I was given this by my mother, who thought it was a fantasy. She wasn't far wrong. It had a similar theme to 'Daggerspell'. A group of characters are reborn over and over again, seemingly doomed to live out the same tragedy. The story is mainly split between the present (1980s I think) and 14th century middle England.

It's been a while since I read it, but I remember that I found it a fascinating read. The historical sections are all seen through the medium of a hypnotic technique called regression, which allows the character to explore her past lives. As she does so, the reader learns more of the repetitive tragedy that always ends with a murder. Her murder. The question is, can she stop history from repeating itself this time?

Barbara Erskine did a pretty good job of making this a sort of mixture of modern thriller and medieval historical fiction.

Hi Mark, I have read Lady of Hay, however it was a while ago now. I do know that I readlly enjoyed her style of writing and of course all the historical facts bound in amongst her story, very interesting. I'm not sure but I have a feeling that she did a follow up book. Will try and find a web site to check that out.

Has anyone read the series Angelique? Unable to recall the writers name however as it was many years ago when I first read them. It was set firstly in France during Louis IVX's reign. Angelique finally leaves France with the persecuted Hugonots and sails to Canada. Wonderful set of novels full of historical facts.

[murphy]

It's been years since I read Angelique, but my mother and I loved them. Your post got me wondering about the authors, so I went Googling. The books were written by Anne and Serge Golon and it seems that there were films also. I never saw any of the films, but since they were French, there would probably be subtitles.

[murphy]

I've been trying to track down some Angelique books so that I can reread them. Prices are exhorbitant. Will keep looking for them though, she was supposed to be rereleasing them, hopefully with better covers so that they don't look like an average bodice ripper.

[littlemissattitude]

I've seen the Angelique books, but have never read any of them. However, they do bring to mind another series, which I did read...avidly...when I was in junior high school. These were the Catherine books by Juliette Benzoni, in translation from the French. I had five of them, but I see from a little searching around on the 'net that there were 7 in the French. I don't know if I just missed two, or if two of them were never translated into English.

Typical bodice rippers that took place during the Hundred Years' War if I recall correctly. Anyway, they probably weren't that accurate historically, but I liked them anyway. Somewhere along the way I lost track of my copies of these books, but I surely wish I could find them again, if only to see how silly they really were. From what I can remember, the child Catherine (blonde and beautiful, of course) falls in love with a beautiful blonde young man who is soon killed, breaking her heart. Ah, but wait a bit, and she discovers that he has a twin brother who is his double except for having darker coloring. And thus begins a love/hate/love relationship that lasts through the various volumes.

Aw, heck, I was twelve or thirteen when I read these books. But I do remember them fondly.