I enjoy historical fiction and decided to start reading historical fiction from 1066 to the present. Sometimes, the stories are so intriguing that I turned to non-fiction for better appreciation. Both are listed.
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517 books · 130 voters · list created August 3rd, 2012 by Lezley (votes) .
50 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Lezley 1031 books
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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3388 books
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Molly 615 books
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Libby 10282 books
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Diana 128220 books
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Vizara 3985 books
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Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)

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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Is this list for history, or historical fiction? I see both on it.


message 2: by Lezley (last edited Aug 17, 2012 04:54PM) (new)

Lezley Susanna wrote: "Is this list for history, or historical fiction? I see both on it."

I started with Historical Fiction, but when I was unable to find a fiction book eg Henry I, I then turned to non-fiction. Also sometimes I really enjoyed an author and read several of his/her books be it fiction or non-fiction. Some non-fiction books eg Castle and The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer provide excellent background material which have given me an appreciation for the culture and customs of the times.
Often a character was so interesting, I couldn't limit myself to fiction, I needed to learn more.Lezley


message 3: by Richard (new)

Richard Alison Weir's book The Princes in the Tower occurs twice in the list.

As good as it is, I wonder why The Diary of Anne Frank has been included? Is there some connection to British history that I'm missing?


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads I checked for duplicates, which should have gotten the double The Princes in the Tower.

Yeah, I'll delete the Diary of Anne Frank.


message 6: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Oct 17, 2014 10:42AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) The prime of Miss Jean Brodie historical fiction??


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Well, it was written in the 60s but is set in the 30s.


message 8: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Oct 18, 2014 03:15AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Well, it was written in the 60s but is set in the 30s."

Agreed :-) I've always taken 50 years for a novel to be labelled 'historical' but Wikipedia mentions only 25 years, I noticed. Interesting difference though. Being Dutch, I would never have considered The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie historical fiction. It's just too recent for my liking. I have no doubt, for instance, labelling some of Hella S. Haasse's books historical fiction, like The Tea Lords, The Scarlet City, Threshold of Fire: a novel of fifth century Rome or In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages (I voted for this last one) but just not The prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The same goes for a book like Vets might fly by James Herriot, by the way, which here in the Netherlands would have an additional 'problem', as it is autobiographical, if I remember correctly, and as such would not be considered historical fiction.


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