Let's go historical

[frenchani]

Being a historian, I'm very picky when it comes to historical fictions, either in books or on screen. Usually, when a book is accurate history-wise, it is lacking in terms of literary qualities...and vice-versa. It's difficult to find historical novels that are actually great books so it is not a genre that I read much.

BTW this post was prompted by

Comments

[owenthurman]

I like the genre, too, though I agree it's hard to find good work.

I liked The Man Who Laughs also. Nevertheless, I never can ignore that Hugo is so naïve about the nature of political idealism and movements. He treats everything but realpolitik with infantile disdain and has no feeling for the texture of compromise and coalitions. It's even worse in Ninety-Three. The quotidian and exotic parts TMWL are much better than the scenes of public life.

I really enjoyed Shōgun by Clavell. It somehow caught my imagination and that's why I love it, but objectively it manages the literature-accuracy tradeoff well. I know it's one of the all-time bestsellers in the genre, but I'm shallow enough to enjoy such things.

Sometimes I'll read a B. Traven or Carlos Fuentes novel and think of it as historical fiction because the spirit is so modern and the story is set many decades or a century ago. Turns out, they were both in the vanguard of style and ideas for many decades and lived through the most of events they write about.

I may check out some of the other items on the list; I've only ever even heard of three of these. El Siglo de las Luces sounds intriguing.

[frenchani]

Hugo was very politically committed and was even elected deputy several times-- although his political speeches are less known than his novels or poetry -- , but his political views evolved a lot through the XIXth Century. He started very conservative and a monarchist in his youth (pro Charles X even!), became a democrat in the 1850's and a reformist, and ended up a radical Republican, almost a socialist, in his 70's...hence Quatre-Vingt-Treize...