| Re: Historical Novels
Not a huge fan of historical fiction but some of the better ones I've read would be:
Schindler's Ark/List by Thomas Keneally. First released as Schindler's Ark outside of America, since the movie it's reprinted as Schindler's List everywhere, I seem to have mentoined this one a few times here lately. A really great book that gives a fuller impression of the man Oskar Schindler than the movie does.
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. A retelling of the life of Ned Kelly, a famous Australian bushranger/outlaw. Although I believe he did alot of reseach, I'm guessing this is very much a fictional account that holds true to the major events, atleast as far as they are known. Good read but from memory the majority of story is in the form of a letter from Ned to his daughter, with grammer, terminology etc to match so particuarly people from outside Australia may struggle a little with some references. Having said that I've enjoyed reading books where some of the cultural references go over my head so maybe not a huge problem.
Druids by Morgan Llwelyn. A lot more fictional than the first two it tells of the last days of the Gauls resisting the Roman Empire from the point of view of a young druid and his warrior friend. Not a great read (IMO) but entertaining enough.
Edward Rutherford seems to do alot of historical fiction, I've got his Dublin here to read at some point but I've heard mixed reviews about it so I'd be interested to here what anyone else thought of it. |