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recommend me good historical novels

105 replies

parietal · 06/03/2024 22:25

I love historical novels - the feeling of being in a different place and time. So why are 50% of the modern ones full of anachronisms, especially in people's attitudes and interpretations. I'm currently reading one with an 11 year old black boy in 18th century London who is worrying about structural racism rather than just trying to survive. Yes, obviously there is lots of racism around in that era, but I don't believe that a kid would be theorizing about it, he'd just be living it. And it would be so much more powerful if the author just showed his experience. Similarly, I hate it when novels make their characters into modern feminists in a way that is completely out of place.

what authors / novels can you recommend that depict strong interesting characters that will not jar in this way?

OP posts:
deeplybaffled · 07/03/2024 21:55

Ellis Peters for Cadfael books.

Any of the Anne Perry series

Zampa · 07/03/2024 21:52

Another vote for Sharon Penman.

Memoirs of a Geisha is amazing and Shogun by James Clavell (just adapted into a show, now on Disney).

The Abir Mukherjee deductive novels set in the 1920s Brush Raj are great too.

Ohwhatfuckeryitistoride · 07/03/2024 21:52

The Shardlake series.
Old fashioned and probably out of print but Jean Plaidy got me into historical fiction based on fact.

Waffleson · 07/03/2024 21:52

CJ Sansom Shardlake series
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
All the light we cannot see (wartime)

Thanks for all the suggestions above!

endofthelinefinally · 07/03/2024 21:51

The Pillars of the Earth series by Ken Follett. Very well researched and great story.

Irridescantshimmmer · 07/03/2024 21:48

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - his other books besides the Sherlock Holmes mysteries

Arnold Bennett - Old Wives Tales

Copperas · 07/03/2024 21:48

And H F M Prescott on the Pilgrimage of Grace / dissolution of the monasteries in The Man on a Donkey

Copperas · 07/03/2024 21:46

Diana Norman also wrote as Arianna Franklin

Copperas · 07/03/2024 21:46

Also Patricia Finney / PF Chisholm (same person writing about time of Elizabeth I in different styles)

Copperas · 07/03/2024 21:44

Diana Norman!

HelenaJustina · 07/03/2024 21:30

Anything written by Rosemary Sutcliff. so incredibly well researched and written.

Seconding Georgette Heyer and Ellis Peters, and adding Jodi Taylor Chronicles of St Mary’s for a wild card!

DuesToTheDirt · 07/03/2024 21:27

CantDealwithChristmas · 07/03/2024 11:12

The Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall trilogy made me feel like I was in Tudor London. The sights, the smells, the culture....I felt I was THERE.

I re-read them every couple of years for that pure escapism and narrative brilliance

Yes, they are fantastic. They are so vivid that in the MIrror and the Light you think the ending won't really happen, that it's not historical fact and can still be changed.

I'll also add Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety.

Whattobakeiwonder · 07/03/2024 21:25

The Kingmaker series by Toby Clements is phenomenal.

orangeandpinks · 07/03/2024 21:20

beguilingeyes · 07/03/2024 10:23

Sharon Penman. All of it.

Yes!

Mumaway · 07/03/2024 21:16

Not highbrow, but many of Santa Montefiore's novels are historical. Avoid the ones about the Deverills as they're not as good as many of her others

Abouttimeforanamechange · 07/03/2024 21:07

If you like Naval fiction, J.D. Davies is good. He actually has a Ph.D. in Naval history, so he knows his stuff. He writes about the 17th century, which makes a change from the Napoleonic era which so many Naval fiction authors go for.

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer.

And The Spanish Bride and An Infamous Army.

(Jonathan Chawleigh in A Civil Contract is a splendid creation. Georgette Heyer was very good at secondary characters, and he is possibly the best.)

Maybepossibly22 · 07/03/2024 21:01

The Conn Iggulden Emperor series are simply incredible. I loved each one.

Pantah630 · 07/03/2024 20:57

Colleen McCullough Masters of Rome books are fantastic

PermanentTemporary · 07/03/2024 20:49

Ooh - more modern but A Winter In Madrid by the guy who wrote the Shardlake novels was excellent I thought.

PermanentTemporary · 07/03/2024 20:48

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer.

delfttulipvase · 07/03/2024 20:42

Rose Tremain's historical books, especially Restoration.

Turkeyhen · 07/03/2024 12:26

For an evocation of Victorian England, The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

Squirrelsnut · 07/03/2024 11:15

The Testimony of Frannie Langton is very good.
The Essex Serpent.
The Cadfael mysteries are absorbing and detailed. (Medieval)
The Jeeves and Wooster books are a pure delight.

CantDealwithChristmas · 07/03/2024 11:12

The Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall trilogy made me feel like I was in Tudor London. The sights, the smells, the culture....I felt I was THERE.

I re-read them every couple of years for that pure escapism and narrative brilliance

TonTonMacoute · 07/03/2024 11:08

Manda Scott's Boudicca series
Zoe Oldenburg The World is Not Enough