James Fenimore Cooper’s five Leatherstocking Tales (1823-1841) follow Natty Bumppo, a white man raised by the Mohawk tribe in the mid-1700s. Ultimately, Ivanhoe must choose between family and country, or love.Īlthough best known for Frankenstein, Mary Shelley also jumped on the Historical Fiction bandwagon with Valperga (1823), a romantic history about a 14 th-century despot who conquers Florence in order to win the love of its countess. Set in 1194 near the end of the Crusades, the book’s titular hero returns to England only to find he has been disinherited for falling in love with the wrong woman. Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1819) was one of the first popular novels of the genre. It wasn’t until the early 1800s that Historical Fiction emerged as a contemporary literary genre.
The epic poem is considered a cornerstone of Greek and Persian history as well as a literary masterpiece. Herodotus’ The Histories (440 BC) celebrates the improbable victory of the Greek military against the invading Persians a century earlier. We can look to ancient literature for examples of authors putting their own spin on historic events.
Authors are always allowed artistic license, but the most satisfying works of Historical Fiction have been researched down to every scent, button, turn of phrase, and cloud in the sky. Of course the key to an author getting all of this right is research. But everything about them - their attitudes and look, the way they speak, and problems they face - should match the era. Characters can be pure fiction or based on real people (often, it’s both). The details and the action in the story can be a mix of actual events and ones from the author’s imagination as they fill in the gaps. Historical Fiction is set in a real place, during a culturally recognizable time. What makes a historical novel believable is its setting. Most book lovers agree that Historical Fiction is the closest we’ll get to actual time travel. The idea is to take readers out of the events of their lifetime. How far back in time does an author have to go for their work to be considered Historical Fiction? A good rule of thumb is a minimum of 50 years. Historical Fiction is a story that takes readers to a time and place in the past.
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