Historical novel

A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. As such, the historical novel is distinguished from the alternate-history genre. The historical novel was popularized in the 19th century by artists classified as Romantics. Many regard Sir Walter Scott as the first to have used this technique, in his novels of Scottish history such as Waverley (1814) and Rob Roy (1818). His Ivanhoe (1820) gains credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages. Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) furnishes another early example of the historical novel.

Related Topics:
Novel - Author - Alternate-history - 19th century - Romantics - Sir Walter Scott - Technique - Scottish history - Waverley - Rob Roy - Ivanhoe - Middle Ages - Victor Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1831

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Historical fiction may center on historical or on fictional characters, but usually represents an honest attempt based on considerable research (or at least serious reading) to tell a story set in the historical past as understood by the author's contemporaries. Those historical settings may not stand up to the enhanced knowledge of later historians.

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Many early historical novels played an important role in the rise of European popular interest in the history of the Middle Ages. Hugo's Hunchback often receives credit for fueling the movement to save Gothic architecture in France, leading to the establishment of the Monuments historiques, the French governmental authority for historic preservation.

Related Topics:
Rise of European popular interest in the history - Middle Ages - Gothic architecture - France - Historic preservation

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Historical fiction has also served to encourage movements of romantic nationalism. The Polish winner of the 1905 Nobel Prize in literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz, wrote several novels set in conflicts between the Poles and predatory Teutonic Knights, rebellious Cossacks and invading Swedes. (He also penned a once wildly popular novel about Nero's Rome and the early Christians, Quo Vadis, since filmed several times.) Scott's Waverley novels ignited interest in Scottish history and still illuminate it. Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter fulfilled a similar function for Norwegian history and won a Nobel Prize for Literature as well (1928).

Related Topics:
Romantic nationalism - Polish - Nobel Prize in literature - Henryk Sienkiewicz - Teutonic Knights - Cossack - Swedes - Quo Vadis - Sigrid Undset - Kristin Lavransdatter - Norwegian history - Nobel Prize for Literature

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The genre of the historical novel has also permitted some authors, such as the Polish novelist Bolesław Prus in his sole historical novel, Pharaoh, to distance themselves from their own time and place in order to gain perspective on society and on the human condition, or to escape the depredations of the censor.

Related Topics:
Bolesław Prus - Pharaoh

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In some historical novels the main historic events take place mostly off-stage, while the characters inhabit the world in which those events are occurring. Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped recounts mostly private adventures set against the backdrop of the Jacobite troubles between England and Scotland. Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge is set amid the Gordon Riots, and A Tale of Two Cities in the French Revolution.

Related Topics:
Robert Louis Stevenson - Kidnapped - Jacobite - England - Scotland - Charles Dickens - Barnaby Rudge - Gordon Riots - A Tale of Two Cities - French Revolution

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Other authors give historic characters a fictional setting, as in Alexander Dumas' Queen Margot and Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon.

Related Topics:
Alexander Dumas - Queen Margot - Thomas Pynchon - Mason & Dixon

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Historical fiction can serve satirical purposes. An example is George MacDonald Fraser's tales of the dashing Harry Paget Flashman.

Related Topics:
Satirical purposes - George MacDonald Fraser - Harry Paget Flashman

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The historical novel has continued to remain popular with authors to this day. Examples of living authors include:

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• Writing as "William Irish," Cornell Woolrich published Waltz into Darkness (1947), set in 1880 New Orleans. Interestingly, both film versions — François Truffaut's La Sirène du Mississippi (Mississippi Mermaid, 1969) and Michael Cristofer's Original Sin (2001) — place the action at a later time (and elsewhere).
• T.C. Boyle's The Road to Wellville (1993), set in 1907, tells the story of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of cornflakes, and his Battle Creek Sanitarium.
• Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day (1989), set in 1956, explains in flashbacks the dubious history of (fictitious) 1930s Darlington Hall and its association with Nazi Germany.
• Patrick Redmond's The Wishing Game (1999) provides a thrilling depiction of life in a strict and uncanny boarding school in 1950s rural Norfolk, England.
• Julie Myerson's novel Laura Blundy (2000) is set in Victorian London.
• Bernard Cornwell is one of the best-known historical novelists now, with his Sharpe and Warlord Chronicles.
• Jonathan Coe's novel The Rotters' Club (2001) evokes 1970s Britain.
• Cecelia Holland has written over twenty novels set in various parts of Europe, Asia and the United States in many periods.
• The bulk of Gore Vidal's novels have historical settings, including Burr, which has gained a wider readership than any biography of Aaron Burr.
 
Historical novel: See also ►