What is a Historical Novel?
A historical novel is a work of fiction that takes place in the past. The term “historical” refers to the time period in which the story occurs, but it doesn’t mean that historical novels are boring or stuffy. They can be entertaining, funny, scary, and sad like any other book! Historical novels do have several distinguishing features:
- They are based on actual events. An author may use an event to inspire his or her story, like Fannie Flagg used the real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby as inspiration for Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. However, a fictional character might experience this event instead of Lindbergh himself.
- They include real historical figures. Many historical novels include real people who lived during the era in which they took place. For instance, Thomas Mallon’s Henry and Clara tells a heartbreaking love story set during Lincoln’s presidency using two real-life friends of Lincoln—Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris—as characters in his fictional work.
- They have fictional stories. A good historical novel will reveal facts about what life was really like during a certain era without sacrificing its entertainment value to do so. For example, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is wildly popular because it successfully transports readers into 18th-century Scotland with all its mystery and adventure—and romance between Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser—while also revealing what life was really like for Scottish Highlanders at that time.
- They can be set in any era of history! Your great-grandparents were alive less than 100 years ago; Julius Caesar lived more than 2,000 years ago; dinosaurs lived millions of years ago; dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago; Jesus Christ lived 2,000 years ago; Abraham Lincoln lived less than 200 years ago. Get it? There’s so much history! That means you can read about almost any period you can imagine!
A good historical novel can complement even the most boring of history courses; they give the reader insight into a world that is too far away in time for us to understand. By humanizing characters, narrating their daily lives, or significant events in their lives, writers of historical novels bring us closer to the historical context we are supposed to be learning about.
Of course, if one is telling a story rather than simply recording historical facts, a bit of the historical accuracy does slip away. So it’s always a good idea to use actual history books to confirm any facts that these books relate to us. Historical fiction serves to build a historical connection to a time period. But if you’re looking for help in history, there are many portals online that can tell you if the facts in the historical novel you’re reading are accurate or not.
The Book Thief
The Book Thief is a popular choice for many American middle school literature classes. This historical novel, by Australian author Markus Zusak, tells the story of Liesel Meminger and her family in Nazi Germany during World War II. The reader gets a sense of the war-torn times through Liesel’s life as she encounters book burnings, strikes and riots, bombing raids on Munich, and the Führer’s presence in town.
Liesel reads to her foster father when he returns from work at night. She reads to Max, who lives with them after escaping a Nazi death camp and needs a distraction from his nightmares. She even tells stories to Hans Hubermann, one of the few willing to risk their lives by hiding Jews in their homes.
If you enjoy being swept up in an emotional narrative or even if you’re just curious about how Hitler came into power, this novel will give you plenty to think about, but it might not be for everyone.
In addition to its slow pacing in parts that may bore some readers, there is also some swearing (in German) and violent scenes that make it unsuitable for children younger than 13 or 14 years old. However, with some guidance, anyone can read it and understand the context it speaks of.
Kindred
Kindred is a novel by Octavia E. Butler that can relate to you the realities of slavery in the United States from a perspective that is at once alternate and historical, as it is based on the real-life experiences of Butler’s great, great grandmother. It follows Dana Franklin, a modern African-American woman who travels back in time to the antebellum South.
The author’s blend of science fiction and history allows her to take an extreme angle when examining how racism was internalized by slaves, how they were powerless but still fought back in small ways, and how those who were free could not escape the system even when they lived far away from plantations.
Kindred also serves as an interesting example of how hard it is to completely overcome racism—despite living in a world where she knows slavery will be abolished and feels she has internalized that freedom for herself, Dana still struggles at times with having to see herself as inferior to her white masters.
The Pillars of the Earth
The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, is an epic novel that follows the building of a cathedral in 12th-century England. This captivating novel weaves together multiple different storylines and characters to keep you interested and invested in this historical period.
The book features a cast of fascinating characters like Tom Builder and his family, who are stonemasons; Ellen, an enigmatic woman who becomes entangled with three different men; Elfric, a man who doesn’t want to build the cathedral; Waleran Bigod, the mastermind behind obstructing the cathedral’s construction; and Jack Jackson, a man whose interest in art and architecture changes him into someone he never thought he could be.
This epic novel is perfect for you if you enjoy historical fiction that dives deeply into its source material about medieval times but also has a great story that keeps you reading for hours on end.
The Color Purple
You can’t go wrong with the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Color Purple. Told through letters, Alice Walker’s story details the life of Celie, a young African American woman living in early 20th century Georgia.
An inspiring novel that addresses themes of sexism, racism, and domestic violence, The Color Purple also serves as an informative historical text on black life in the Jim Crow South. While it is fictionalized, Walker’s raw portrayal of these themes provides insight into what it was like to be an African American girl during this time.
Historical fiction can be educational without being boring — and many authors accomplish this by blending real people and events with fictional characters and plots.
People of the Book
In this book, the object in question is a rare Jewish prayer book that finds its way into the hands of a young Australian book conservator. The story is told through a series of flashbacks and focuses on the lives affected by the prayer book, which includes Jews escaping Hitler’s Germany, an English nobleman during World War II, and people living during the Spanish Inquisition.
In this unique blend of history and fiction, Geraldine Brooks tells a compelling story of how one item can connect people from different times and places. While it’s not entirely accurate in terms of history (Brooks takes several liberties with her storytelling), there are plenty of details to keep you fascinated.
Books Can Teach Us History
Books can teach us history by helping us understand the past and present, and they can also help us understand the people and cultures of the world. Books can also teach us about different perspectives, which is important for understanding history.
The best historical novels are able to provide insights into how our world came to be the way it is today. By examining how events from the past have shaped our present, we become better able to understand why things happen as they do today — or at least to think about them in new ways.
