Best Historical Novels


Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: It’s no coincidence that the biggest prize for historical fiction is named after Sir Walter Scott. Ivanhoe, published in 1819, is set in the highly romanticised medieval world of tournaments and sieges, chivalry and adventure. Scott merges the historical and fictional with great skill as he follows Ivanhoe on a crusade in the Holy Land with Richard the Lion Heart. On his return, Ivanhoe is desperate to be reunited with lady Rowena, but he soon gets caught up in a power struggle between King Richard and his brother John.

War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy: Tolstoy's epic masterpiece, published in 1869, is a story of family life set against the backdrop of war, as Napoleon's armies sweep through Europe. Seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families, the novel culminates in the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and Napoleon's defeat. It is widely considered to be Tolstoy’s finest work and one of the greatest novels ever written, historical or otherwise, although the writer himself said that it was “not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle”.

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald: Set in Germany at the end of the eighteenth century, The Blue Flower tells the story of the brilliant Fritz von Hardenberg, who becomes the great romantic poet and philosopher ‘Novalis’ and falls in love with twelve-year-old Sophie von Kuhn. Several real-life characters, including Goethe and von Schlegel, make appearances.

No comments:

Post a Comment