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Historical fiction is a sub-genre of fiction
Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
 that often portrays fictional accounts or dramatization of historical figures or events. Writers of stories in this genre, while penning fiction, nominally attempt to capture the spirit, manners, and social conditions of the persons or time(s) presented in the story, with due attention paid to period detail and fidelity. Historical fiction is found in books
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....
, magazines, art, television, movies, games, theater, and other media.

orical fiction presents readers with a story that takes place during a notable period in history, and usually during a significant event in that period.






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Historical fiction is a sub-genre of fiction
Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
 that often portrays fictional accounts or dramatization of historical figures or events. Writers of stories in this genre, while penning fiction, nominally attempt to capture the spirit, manners, and social conditions of the persons or time(s) presented in the story, with due attention paid to period detail and fidelity. Historical fiction is found in books
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....
, magazines, art, television, movies, games, theater, and other media.

Definition

Historical fiction presents readers with a story that takes place during a notable period in history, and usually during a significant event in that period. Historical fiction often presents actual events from the point of view of people living in that time period.

In some historical fiction, famous events appear from points of view not recorded in history, showing historical figures dealing with actual events while depicting them in a way that is not recorded in history. Other times, the historical event complements a story's narrative, occurring in the background while characters deal with events (personal or otherwise) wholly unrelated to recorded history. Sometimes, the names of people and places have been in some way altered. As this is fiction, artistic license
Artistic License

The Artistic License refers most commonly to the original Artistic License , a software license used for certain free software packages, most notably the standard Perl implementation and most CPAN modules, which are dual-licensed under the Artistic License and the GNU General Public License ....
 is permitted in regard to presentation and subject matter, so long as it does not deviate in significant ways from established history. If events should deviate significantly, the story may then fall into the genre of alternate history, which is known for speculating on what could have happened if a significant historical event had gone differently. On a similar note, events occurring in historical fiction must adhere to the laws of physics. Stories that extend into the magical or fantastic are often considered a historical fantasy
Historical fantasy

Historical fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, related to historical fiction. It includes stories set in a specified historical period but with some element of fantasy added to the world, such as supernatural events, magic or a mythical creature hidden in the cracks....
.

Literature


Historical literature includes the works of authors that epitomize a specific period in history. Historical literature has been written since at least the 11th century BC.

  • Egyptian Story of Wenamun
    Story of Wenamun

    The Story of Wenamun is a Literature text written in hieratic in the Egyptian language language. It is only known from one incomplete copy discovered in 1890 at al-Hibah, Egypt, and subsequently purchased in 1891 in Cairo by the Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Goleni?cev ....
     (11th century BC)
  • Augustan History (4th century AD)
  • The Waverley Novels, by Sir Walter Scott (over 40 distinct books)
  • Pharaoh
    Pharaoh (novel)

    Pharaoh is the fourth and last major novel by the Polish writer Boleslaw Prus. Composed over a year's time in 1894–1895, it was the sole historical novel by an author who had previously disapproved of historical novels as inevitable distortions of history....
    , by Boleslaw Prus
    Boleslaw Prus

    Boleslaw Prus , whose actual name was Aleksander Glowacki, was a Poland journalist and novelist who is known especially for his novels The Doll and Pharaoh ....
  • Mr. Tucket
    Mr. Tucket

    Mr. Tucket is the first novel in The Tucket Adventures by Gary Paulsen. It is about 14 year old Francis Tucket who strays from his family's wagon on the Oregon Trail and is captured by the Pawnee....
    , by Gary Paulsen
    Gary Paulsen

    BiographyBorn in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1939, he was raised by his grandmother and aunts. Paulsen used his work as a magazine proofreader to learn the craft of writing....
  • Memoirs of Hadrian
    Memoirs of Hadrian

    Memoirs of Hadrian is a novel by the France writer Marguerite Yourcenar about the life and death of Roman Emperor Hadrian. The book was first published in France in French language in 1951 in literature as M?moires d'Hadrien, and was an immediate success, meeting with enormous critical acclaim....
    , by Marguerite Yourcenar
    Marguerite Yourcenar

    Marguerite Yourcenar was a French novelist. She was the first woman elected to the Acad?mie fran?aise in 1980, and the seventeenth to occupy Seat 3....
  • I, Claudius
    I, Claudius

    For other uses see I, Claudius .I, Claudius is a novel by England writer Robert Graves, first published in 1934 in literature, that deals sympathetically with the life of the Roman Emperor Claudius and cynically with the history of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula...
    , by Robert Graves
    Robert Graves

    Robert Ranke Graves was an England poet, translator and novelist. During his long life, he produced more than 140 works. He was the son of the Anglo-Irish writer Alfred Perceval Graves and Amalie von Ranke, a niece of the famous German historian Leopold von Ranke....
  • The Bull from the Sea
    The Bull from the Sea

    The Bull from the Sea is the sequel to Mary Renault's The King Must Die. It continues the story of the Greek mythology hero Theseus after his return from Crete....
    , by Mary Renault
    Mary Renault

    Mary Renault born Mary Challans, was an England writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece. In addition to vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great, she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander....
  • The Man on a Donkey, by H. F. M. Prescott
    H. F. M. Prescott

    Hilda Francis Margaret Prescott, more usually known as H. F. M. Prescott , was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, author, academic, and historian....


Authors

  • Dianne Ascroft: Hitler and Mars Bars - Fiction set against the backdrop of Irish Red Cross project, Operation Shamrock.
  • Jean M. Auel
    Jean M. Auel

    Jean M. Auel , n?e Jean Marie Untinen is an United States and Finland writer. She is best known for her Earth's Children books, a series of historical fiction novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals....
    : The Earth's Children
    Earth's Children

    Earth's Children is a book series of historical fiction novels written by Jean M. Auel. There are five novels in the series so far and a sixth is being written....
     - Series set in pre-historic Europe
  • Adam Bagdasarian
    Adam Bagdasarian

    Adam Bagdasarian is an Armenian-Americans writer for teenagers and young adults. His first novel, Forgotten Fire, became a National Book Award Finalist....
    : Forgotten Fire
  • L. E. Butler: Relief
  • Caleb Carr
    Caleb Carr

    Caleb Carr is an United States novelist and military historian. The son of Lucien Carr, a former UPI editor and a key Beat generation figure, he was born in Manhattan and lived for much of his life on the Lower East Side....
    : Wrote The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness
  • Willa Cather
    Willa Cather

    Willa Sibert Cather was an United States author who grew up in Nebraska. She is best known for her depictions of frontier life on the Great Plains in novels such as O Pioneers!, My ?ntonia, and The Song of the Lark....
    : Death Comes for the Archbishop
    Death Comes for the Archbishop

    Death Comes for the Archbishop is a 1927 novel by Willa Cather. It concerns the attempts of a Catholic bishop and a priest to establish a diocese in New Mexico Territory....
    , Shadows on the Rock
    Shadows on the Rock

    Shadows on the Rock is a novel by the American literature writer Willa Cather. The novel is set in 17th century Quebec describing the quiet, isolated life of Cecile Auclair and her father, the town apothecary....
    , [My Antonia]]
  • James Clavell
    James Clavell

    James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell was a United Kingdom novelist, screenwriter, Film director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war....
    : The Asian Saga
    The Asian Saga

    The Asian Saga is a series of six novels written by James Clavell between 1962 and 1993. The novels all center on Europeans in Asia, and together they explore the impact on East and West of the meeting of these two distinct civilizations....
  • Bernard Cornwell
    Bernard Cornwell

    Bernard Cornwell Order of the British Empire is an England author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe ....
    : Sharpe series
    Richard Sharpe (fictional character)

    Richard Sharpe is the central character in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series of historical fiction stories. These formed the basis for an ITV Sharpe wherein the eponymous character was played by Sean Bean....
     set in 19th century Europe and India, and other works set elsewhere.
  • Naomi C. Desiderio: Hell at Sea is set aboard a German U-Boat during WWII.
  • E. L. Doctorow
    E. L. Doctorow

    Edgar Lawrence Doctorow is an USA author whose critically acclaimed and award-winning fiction ranges through his country?s social history from the American Civil War to the present....
    : Ragtime
    Ragtime (novel)

    Ragtime is a 1975 in literature novel by E. L. Doctorow. This work of historical fiction is mostly set in New York City from about 1900 until the United States entry into World War I in 1917....
  • Suzannah Dunn: The Queen's Sorrow and others
  • Umberto Eco
    Umberto Eco

    Umberto Eco is an Italy medievalist, Semiotics, philosopher, Literary criticism and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory....
    : The Name of the Rose
    The Name of the Rose

    The Name of the Rose, a novel by Umberto Eco, is a historical whodunnit ? a murder mystery set in an Italy monastery in the year 1327. It is an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory....
     (Il nome della rosa, 1980)
  • Shusaku Endo
    Shusaku Endo

    Shusaku Endo was a renowned 20th century Japanese author who wrote from the unusual perspective of being both Japanese person and Roman Catholic Church....
    : Silence
    Silence (novel)

    is a 1966 novel of historical fiction by Japanese author Shusaku Endo drawn from the oral histories of Kakure Kirishitan and Hanare Kirishitan communities in Japan....
  • Karen Essex
    Karen Essex

    Karen Essex is a historical novelist, a screenwriter, and journalist....
    : Author of Leonardo's Swans
    Leonardo's Swans

    Leonardo?s Swans is an international bestseller by Karen Essex, published by Doubleday in 2006. The novel tells the story of the rivalry between the powerful Este sisters, Beatrice and Isabella, princesses of the House of Ferrara, as they competed for the attentions of both the Duke of Milan and Leonardo da Vinci when the artist was cour...
    , Stealing Athena
    Stealing Athena

    Stealing Athena is an historical novel by Karen Essex, which chronicles the journey of the controversial Elgin Marbles or Parthenon Sculptures from their home atop the Acropolis in Athens to the present location, The British Museum....
    , Kleopatra and Pharaoh.
  • Ken Follett
    Ken Follett

    'Ken Follett' is a United Kingdom author of Thriller s and historical novels. He has sold a total of List of best-selling fiction authors and has authored numerous bestselling works, such as The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, A Dangerous Fortune, The Man from St....
    : most of his books are historical fiction, including his bestseller The Pillars of the Earth
    The Pillars of the Earth

    The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel by Ken Follett published in 1989 in literature about the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge, England....
    .
  • C. S. Forester
    C. S. Forester

    Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith , an England novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades....
    : Hornblower series
    Horatio Hornblower

    Admiral of the Fleet Horatio Hornblower, 1st Baron Hornblower, Order of the Bath, is a fictional protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester, and later the subject of films and television programs....
     and others
  • George Macdonald Fraser
    George MacDonald Fraser

    George MacDonald Fraser, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was a United Kingdom author of both historical novels and non-fiction books, as well as several screenplays....
    : The Flashman Series
  • Noah Gordon
    Noah Gordon

    Noah Gordon is an US novelist. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts.Some of the topics covered within his novels include history of medicine and medical ethics....
    : The Physician
    The Physician

    The Physician is a novel by Noah Gordon, 1986. It is about the life of an England boy of the 11th century, named Robert Jeremy Cole. It is part of the Cole Family trilogy....
     / The Shaman
  • Philippa Gregory
    Philippa Gregory

    Philippa Gregory is an England historical novelist....
     mckaddams: The Other Boleyn Girl
    The Other Boleyn Girl

    The Other Boleyn Girl is a historical fiction novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn....
    , The Constant Princess
    The Constant Princess

    The Constant Princess is a historical novel by Philippa Gregory, published in 2005. The novel depicts a fictionalized version of the life of Catherine of Aragon....
     set in the Tudor era; Earthly Joys set in 17th century England, and other works.
  • Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: The Morland Dynasty - Historical fiction series from the War of the Roses currently to World War II
  • Angela Elwell Hunt
    Angela Elwell Hunt

    Angela Elwell Hunt is a prolific author of Christian stories, including The Tale of Three Trees, The Debt, ''The Note, and The Nativity Story....
    : Legacies of the Ancient River series/The Keepers of the Ring series/The Heirs of Cahira O'Connor series/Magdalene
  • Jessica James: Author of Shades of Gray: A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia - Historical fiction set during the Civil War.
  • Gary Jennings
    Gary Jennings

    Gary Jennings was a USA author who wrote children's and adult novels. In 1980, after the successful novel Aztec , he specialized in writing adult historical fiction novels....
    : Aztec
    Aztec (book)

    Aztec is a historical fiction novel by Gary Jennings. It is the first of five novels in the Aztec series. The book is written as a series of letters from the Bishop of the See of New Spain to King Carlos of Spain containing a transcribed biography of Mixtli , an elderly Aztec man, by Spanish Catholic monks during the 16th century....
    , The Journeyer
    The Journeyer

    The Journeyer is a historical novel about Marco Polo, written by Gary Jennings and first published in 1984....
  • Morgan Llywelyn
    Morgan Llywelyn

    Morgan Llywelyn is an United States-born Ireland author of historical fantasy, historical fiction, and history non-fiction. Her fiction has received several awards and has sold more than 40 million copies, and she herself is recipient of the 1999 Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year Award from Celtic Women International....
    : author of books set mostly in Ireland
  • Lloyd Lofthouse: Used Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet
    Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet

    Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet Order of St Michael and St George , born in 1835 in Armagh, Ireland was a United Kingdom consular official in China, who served from 1863-1911 as the second Inspector General of China's Chinese Maritime Customs Service ....
     as protagonist for My Splendid Concubine
  • Colleen McCullough
    Colleen McCullough

    Colleen McCullough Order of Australia is an internationally acclaimed Australian author. McCullough was born in Wellington, New South Wales in central west New South Wales to James and Laurie McCullough....
    : Masters of Rome
    Masters of Rome

    Masters of Rome is a series of historical fiction novels by author Colleen McCullough set in ancient Rome during the last days of the old Roman Republic; it primarily chronicles the lives and careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, and the early career of Caesar Augustus....
     series of novels about the last years of the Roman Republic
  • Carolyn Meyer
    Carolyn Meyer

    Carolyn Meyer is and author of novels for children and young adults.The typical genre for her work is historical fiction, one of her more popular projects being the Young Royals series, which each tell the story of different female monarchs....
    : "Young Royals
    Young Royals

    Young Royals is a series of novels for children by Carolyn Meyer based on the lives of British royalty. Books in the series include Mary, Bloody Mary , Beware, Princess Elizabeth , Doomed Queen Anne and Patience, Princess Catherine , as well as Duchessina - the story of the life of Catherine de' Medici....
    " and others
  • James Michener: 40+ epic novels, first famous work was Tales of the South Pacific
    Tales of the South Pacific

    Tales of the South Pacific is a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winning collection of sequentially related short story about World War II, written by James A....
    .
  • Anchee Min
    Anchee Min

    Anchee Min is a Painting, photographer, musician, and author who lives in San Francisco and Shanghai, China. Min's memoir, Red Azalea, and her subsequent novels are either autobiography or reflect a particular time in Chinese history with an emphasis on strong female characters, most notably Jiang Qing, the wife of Chairman Mao, and Cix...
    : Chinese-themed sagas Empress Orchid
    Empress Orchid

    Empress Orchid is a novel by Anchee Min which was first published in Great Britain in 2004. It is written in first-person narrative and is a sympathetic account of the life of Empress Dowager Cixi - from her humble beginnings to her rise as the Empress Dowager....
    , The Last Emperor
    The Last Empress (novel)

    The Last Empress is a historical novel by Anchee Min that provides a sympathetic account of the life of Empress Dowager Cixi, from her rise to power as Empress Tzu-Hsi, until her death at 72 years of age....
  • William Napier
    Christopher Hart (novelist)

    Christopher Hart is an England novelist and journalist.He was educated at Cheltenham College , Leicester University , Oxford Polytechnic and Birkbeck College, London, where he completed a PhD on W.B.Yeats....
    : wrote Attila trilogy
  • Patrick O'Brian
    Patrick O'Brian

    Patrick O'Brian, Order of the British Empire was an England novelist and translation, best known for his Aubrey?Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centered on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen Maturin....
    : Series of novels featuring Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Seen as one of the greatest recent exponents of the genre.
  • Scott O'dell: Island of the Blue Dolphins
  • Arturo Pérez-Reverte
    Arturo Pérez-Reverte

    Arturo P?rez-Reverte Guti?rrez is a Spain novelist and journalist. He worked as war reporter for twenty-one years . His first novel, El h?sar, set in the Napoleonic Wars, was released in 1986....
    : Spanish author of a number of historical novels, including the Captain Alatriste
    Captain Alatriste

    Captain Alatriste is a series of novels by Spain author Arturo P?rez-Reverte. It deals with the adventures of the title character, a Spanish soldier living in the 17th century....
     series. His books are written in Spanish, but a number have been translated into English.
  • Jean Plaidy: several books, mostly about European queens and princesses
  • H. F. M. Prescott
    H. F. M. Prescott

    Hilda Francis Margaret Prescott, more usually known as H. F. M. Prescott , was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, author, academic, and historian....
    : author of The Man on a Donkey - set during the dissolution of the monasteries.
  • Chris Priestley: Battle of Britain
    Battle of Britain

    The Battle of Britain is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the Luftwaffe during the summer and autumn of 1940 to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially RAF Fighter Command....
  • Linda Proud
    Linda Proud

    Linda Proud is an English writer on cultural and philosophical themes, including The Botticelli Trilogy ? three novels set in History of Florence#Renaissance Florence....
    : author of The Botticelli Trilogy - set in Renaissance Florence.
  • Boleslaw Prus
    Boleslaw Prus

    Boleslaw Prus , whose actual name was Aleksander Glowacki, was a Poland journalist and novelist who is known especially for his novels The Doll and Pharaoh ....
    : Pharaoh
  • Erich Maria Remarque
    Erich Maria Remarque

    Erich Maria Remarque was a German literature....
    : All Quiet on the Western Front
    All Quiet on the Western Front

    All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel written by Erich Maria Remarque, a Germany veteran of World War I. The book shows the war's horrors and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front....
    , The Night in Lisbon
    The Night in Lisbon

    The Night in Lisbon is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque published in 1962 in literature. It revolves around the plight of two German refugees in the opening months of World War II....
    .
  • Mary Renault
    Mary Renault

    Mary Renault born Mary Challans, was an England writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece. In addition to vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great, she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander....
    : wrote many novels set in ancient Greece
  • Ann Rinaldi
    Ann Rinaldi

    Ann Rinaldi is a young adult fiction author. She is best known for her historical fiction, including In My Father's House, The Last Silk Dress, An Acquaintance with Darkness, A Break with Charity, and Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons....
    : 40+ young adult historical fiction novels, primarily set in the United States.
  • Edward Rutherford: several epic novels including Sarum
    Sarum

    Sarum may refer to...
    , Russka, and London
    London

    London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
  • Simon Scarrow
    Simon Scarrow

    Simon Scarrow is a United Kingdom-based author, born in Nigeria and now based in Norfolk. He completed a master's degree at the University of East Anglia after working at the Inland Revenue, and then went into teacher as a lecturer at City College Norwich....
    : Eagle series of Roman
    Ancient Rome

    Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
     military fiction
  • Lawrence Schonover: The Schonover Collection European Historical and Biographical Novels fiction "Spain
    Spain

    Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
    " and "Turkey
    Turkey

    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
    "
  • Henryk Sienkiewicz
    Henryk Sienkiewicz

    Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Poland journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. He was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."...
    : Quo Vadis
    Quo Vadis (novel)

    Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, commonly known as Quo Vadis, is a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Quo vadis is Latin for "Where are you going?" and alludes to a New Testament verse ....
  • Anne Easter Smith
    Anne Easter Smith

    Anne Easter Smith is an UK-USA historical novelist.Her novels are set during the Wars of the Roses, the period during which the Yorkist and Lancastrian houses were in contention for the throne of England....
    : Wars of the Roses series
  • Wilbur Smith
    Wilbur Smith

    Wilbur Addison Smith, born January 9, 1933 in Kabwe, Northern Rhodesia , is a best-selling novelist. His books often fall into one of three book series....
    : Ancient Egypt series
  • Indu Sundaresan
    Indu Sundaresan

    Indu Sundaresan is an American author of Indian origins. She was born and raised in India as a daughter of an Indian Air Force pilot who died in a crash while on duty....
    : The Twentieth Wife and sequel The Feast of Roses, fictionalized story of the Mughal empress Noor Jehan
    Noor Jehan

    Noor Jehan was the adopted stage name for Allah Wasai who was a singer and actress in British India and Pakistan. She is renowned as one of the greatest singers of her time in South Asia and was given the honorific title of Mallika-e-Tarranum ....
    , set in 16th and 17th century Mughal Empire, India.
  • Beverly Swerling
    Beverly Swerling

    Beverly Swerling is a writer of American historical fiction. She has written a series of best-sellers that feature the intertwined histories of two dynasties, the Turners and the Devreys through the early centuries of the United States....
    : City of Dreams, City of Glory, Shadowbrook, and the forthcoming City of God
    City of God (novel)

    City of God is a 1997 novel by Paulo Lins, about three young men and their lives in Cidade de Deus, a favela in Western Rio de Janeiro where Paulo grew up....
    " - novels set in early days of the Mid-Atlantic States.
  • Harry Turtledove
    Harry Turtledove

    Harry Norman Turtledove is an United Statesn novelist, who has produced works in several genres including historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction....
    : Alternate history fiction
  • Mark Twain
    Mark Twain

    Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an United Statesmerican author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer....
    : various works of historical fiction about the American South
    Southern United States

    The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
    .
  • Mika Waltari
    Mika Waltari

    Mika Toimi Waltari was a Finland historical novelist, best known for his magnum opus The Egyptian ....
    : numerous works of historical fiction, best known for his magnum opus
    Magnum opus

    Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer....
         The Egyptian
    The Egyptian

    The Egyptian is a historical novel by Mika Waltari. It was first published in Finnish language in 1945, and in an abridged English language translation by Naomi Walford in 1949....
  • Jack Whyte
    Jack Whyte

    Jack Whyte is a Scotland-Canada novelist of historical fiction. Born and raised in Scotland, Whyte has been living in Canada since 1967. He resides in Kelowna, British Columbia....
    :     Camulod Chronicles / A Dream of Eagles
    A Dream of Eagles

    A Dream of Eagles is a historical novel series written by the Canadian author Jack Whyte. It was published in the United States as the Camulod Chronicles....
    , set in early fifth century Britain
    Roman Britain

    Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
    ; also Templar Trilogy.
  • Lauren Willig
    Lauren Willig

    Lauren Willig is an author of historical romance novels. A native of New York City, she attended Yale, where she majored in Renaissance Studies and Political Science, then studied graduate level early modern European history at Harvard before entering and graduating from Harvard Law School....
    : Pink Carnation series about spies during the Napoleonic wars
  • Marguerite Yourcenar
    Marguerite Yourcenar

    Marguerite Yourcenar was a French novelist. She was the first woman elected to the Acad?mie fran?aise in 1980, and the seventeenth to occupy Seat 3....
    : author of     Memoirs of Hadrian
    Memoirs of Hadrian

    Memoirs of Hadrian is a novel by the France writer Marguerite Yourcenar about the life and death of Roman Emperor Hadrian. The book was first published in France in French language in 1951 in literature as M?moires d'Hadrien, and was an immediate success, meeting with enormous critical acclaim....
    .
  • Margaret Atwood: Penelopiad
  • Julian Barnes: Arthur & George


Media and culture

Works of historical fiction are not reserved exclusively to literature. Many films have been created which attempt to use a historic event or setting as a backdrop and actors portray fictional or historic figures set in these events. Below are a few notable examples.

Film and television

  • The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
    The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

    The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, also known as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, is an Emmy Award-winning United States television series that ran from 1992 to 1996....
     - George Lucas
    George Lucas

    George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an Academy Award-nominated United States film director, film producer, screenwriter and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the Epic film Sci-Fi franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones....
    ' TV series involves the fictional character Indiana Jones
    Indiana Jones

    Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. is a fictional character adventurer, soldier, professor of archaeology, and the main protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise....
     with many major people and events of the early 20th Century, with a focus on World War I
    World War I

    World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
    .
  • The Tudors
    The Tudors

    The Tudors is a historical fiction television series created and entirely written by Michael Hirst . The series is based upon the early reign of English people monarch Henry VIII of England, and is named after his Tudor dynasty....
     - A dramatic television series observing the reign of Henry VIII.
  • Flags of Our Fathers
    Flags of Our Fathers (film)

    Flags of Our Fathers is a 2006 in film Cinema of the United States war film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles, Jr....
     and Letters from Iwo Jima
    Letters from Iwo Jima

    is a 2006 in film war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood whose cast includes Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese Imperial Japanese Army and is a companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers , which depicts the same battle from the American viewpoin...
     directed by Clint Eastwood
    Clint Eastwood

    Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He is known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles in Action films and western films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s....
  • Memoirs of a Geisha
    Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

    Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and directed by Rob Marshall....
     - A fictional account of the life of a Geisha set in World War II Japan. Based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Arthur Golden
    Arthur Golden

    Arthur Golden is the writer of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha.A member of the Ochs-Sulzberger family , Golden was educated at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee....
    .
  • Forrest Gump
    Forrest Gump

    Forrest Gump is a comedy-drama film based on the Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. The film was a huge commercial success, earning United States dollar677 million worldwide during its theatrical run making it the top grossing film in North America released that year....
     directed by Robert Zemeckis
    Robert Zemeckis

    Robert Lee "Bob" Zemeckis is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning American film director, Film producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future trilogy films as well as the live-action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit , though in t...
     - A simple man is woven into major American historical events from the 1950s to the turn of the century. Based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom
    Winston Groom

    Winston F. Groom is an United States novelist and non-fiction writer, best known for his book Forrest Gump , which was adapted into Forrest Gump in 1994....
    .
  • Titanic
    Titanic (1997 film)

    Titanic is a 1997 United States romantic film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic....
     directed by James Cameron
    James Cameron

    James Francis Cameron is an Academy Award-winning Canada-United States film director, Film producer and screenwriter. He has written and directed films as disparate as Aliens_ and Titanic ....
     - Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of opposite social classes, fall in love on the doomed ocean liner's maiden voyage.
  • JFK
    JFK (film)

    JFK is an Cinema of the United States directed by Oliver Stone and released on December 20, 1991 in film. It examines the events leading to the John F....
    , Nixon
    Nixon (film)

    Nixon is a 1995 in film USA biographical film directed by Oliver Stone for Cinergi Pictures that tells the story of the political and personal life of former President of the United States Richard Nixon, played by Anthony Hopkins....
     and W.
    W. (film)

    W. is a 2008 Cinema of the United States biographical film based on the life and Presidency of George W. Bush of George W. Bush. It was produced and directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stanley Weiser, and stars Josh Brolin as President of the United States Bush....
     directed by Oliver Stone
    Oliver Stone

    William Oliver Stone is an United Statesn film director and screenwriter. Stone came to prominence as a director with a series of films about the Vietnam War, in which he had participated as an American infantry soldier, and his work continues to focus frequently on contemporary political and cultural issues, often controversially....
  • The Queen
    The Queen (film)

    The Queen is a 2006 in film United Kingdom drama film Film director by Stephen Frears, screenwriter by Peter Morgan and stars Helen Mirren in the title role, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom....
     directed by Stephen Frears
    Stephen Frears

    Stephen Arthur Frears is a two-time Academy Award-nominated England film director....
  • Leatherheads
    Leatherheads

    Leatherheads is a 2008 in film USA sports film comedy film from Universal Pictures directed by and starring George Clooney. The film also stars Ren?e Zellweger and John Krasinski....


See also


  • alternate history
  • historical fantasy
    Historical fantasy

    Historical fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, related to historical fiction. It includes stories set in a specified historical period but with some element of fantasy added to the world, such as supernatural events, magic or a mythical creature hidden in the cracks....
  • historical novel
    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....
  • historical romance
    Historical romance

    Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel....
  • sword and sandal
    Sword and sandal

    Sword and sandal films, or pepla are a class of Italian-made Adventure film or fantasy films that have subjects set in Bible or classical antiquity, often with contrived plots based very loosely on mythology or Greco-Roman history, or the surrounding cultures of the same era , etc....
  • historical whodunnit
    Historical whodunnit

    The historical whodunnit is a sub-genre of historical fiction which bears elements of the classical mystery novel, in which the central plot involves a crime and the setting has some historical significance....


External links

  • , divided by time period.
  • - upcoming Key West Literary Seminar
    Key West Literary Seminar

    The Key West Literary Seminar is a writers' conference and festival held each January in Key West, Florida. It draws an international audience for readings, panel discussions, and workshops....
     joining top writers of historical fiction with leading historians