A.S. Byatt recently attacked 'faction': "I don't like the idea of going into the mind of the real unknown dead," she said, "It feels like the appropriation of others' lives and privacy." I also have misgivings about the ethics of putting words into the mouths of people who aren't around to speak for themselves (or sue!) But as writers can't seem to resist writing novels in which real historical figures are used as characters, let's make a list...
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446 books · 83 voters · list created September 17th, 2009 by Phillip Edwards (votes) .
Tags: faction
27 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Phillip 5201 books
138 friends
Greyweather 2660 books
65 friends
Bettie 15679 books
19 friends
Lobstergirl 5803 books
157 friends
Victoria 1443 books
0 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3386 books
851 friends
Mir 15069 books
447 friends
Larry 7601 books
159 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)

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message 1: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Feb 07, 2011 10:15AM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Interesting. There WAS a time when Byatt herself at least came pretty close to faction writing, too ... (think of The Matisse Stories and The Virgin in the Garden ...)

Ditto, for that matter, The Children's Book!


message 2: by Bettie (new)

Bettie Themis-Athena wrote: "Interesting. There WAS a time when Byatt herself at least came pretty close to faction writing, too ... (think of The Matisse Stories and The Virgin in the Garden ...)

Ditto, for that matter, The ..."


Good point!


Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship Removed:

In Cold Blood (nonfiction)
The Book Thief (all characters are fictional)


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