I am looking for a new historical fiction book to read, and I was wondering what everyone's favorites were. I like the renaissance and victorian eras best, but any time period is fine. Please list your favorites. These are some of mine:
The Boleyn Inheritance
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Queen's Fool
Girl With a Pearl Earring
The Queen's Soprano
The Birth of Venus
Emma
The Gemma Doyle Trilogy
Historical Fiction novels
16 posts in this topic.
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9-12 (By series, they'd take to long to list individually)
Dear Canada (almost all)
Royal Diaries (all)
Adult: (Warning: The following are explicit in birthing or sex)
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
Buddha
Autobiographies: (clean)
The Diary of Ma Yang. A girl's actual diary about wanting to go to school in an 'uninhabitable' part of China. -
Any of the "I am America" books are good, but they are pretty small.
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The Gemma Doyle Trilogy was great! I loved those books.
I have one Dear Canada and one I am America.
Also: Grimpow: The Invisible Road and I think it was called the Dark Queen Trilogy (except I've only read the first one).
I think that's about it. I try to stick with books set in different worlds ^_^
Meadow -
The Aubrey-Maturin Series by Patrick O'Brian (Master & Commander et al)
Sharpe Series by Bernard Cornwell
Actually, anything written by Bernard Cornwell is EXCELLENT historical fiction.
Emperor Series by Conn Iggulden.
Hornblower Series by C.S. Forester
Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault (anything by her really, lots of great Ancient Greek fiction)
Troy Series by David Gemmell
Masters of Rome Series by Colleen McCullough
Simon Scarrow & William Napier are pretty good authors too.
Anything by Robert Harris.
I have lots, lots more but they escape my brain pan today. -
Yes, Phillipa Gregorys Tudor Court novels are very good, I like them but that's because I have a passion for teh Tudor Era. Concerning the Tudor Era Alsion Weir writes not only very good and interesting non-fiction books about it but also two that would fall under historical fiction.
Innocent Traitor (about Lady Jane Grey, I cried at the end. Major sap likes)
The Lady Elizabeth (about Elizabeth I before she was Queen and YES, she HAS included about Elizabeth and Sir Thomas Seymour, something she touched on in Innocent Traitor)
Also, Suzannah Dunn wrote what I thought was a stunning book, also concerning Sir Thomas Seymour. This was focused around Katherine Parr and wanted happened to her after Henry VIII and it is taken from the point of view of one of Katherines friends. Oh yes, the title might be useful.
The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn
She also did a book about Mary I but it didn't really capture my interrest very well and it certainly didn't hold it. -
The books by Sharon Penman are absolutely amazing. 'Here be Dragons' is probably her best, but 'The Sunne in Splendour' is good too. She writes Medieval novels, and also has some mystery books set then. Elizabeth Chadwick is quite good, but no where near as good as Sharon Penman.
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The Street Philosopher - Matthew Plampin (Set at the time of the Crimean War 19th Century)
Small Island - Andrea Lecy (Set during and after WW2 - England/Jamaica)
The Diamond of Drury Lane - Julia Golding (first of a YA series set in the late 18th Century England/in later books France/America)
I highly recommend these books to anyone, and the latter are greta even if you don't like history. The first two are generally more for older readers, where the last one/series is great for anyone over 10 -very fun books. xD -
I mainly read Tudor historical fiction, and what I've realised recently is that I don't really like it! Alison Weir's novels are not very accurate, particularly Innocent Traitor, and I find Philippa Gregory irritating, as though she's taken a history textbook and added some soap opera in to make it more appealing to her audience, then twisted all the historical facts and not bothered to develop her characters. The only really, really good Tudor novel I've read (I might have read some good ones set at other periods, but I can't remember them, and there's more variation in Victorian, Medieval, classical ones etc anyway) is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which I would thoroughly recommend, despite its length.
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My favorite one by a long shot is The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. If you like American History especially the Civil War. Read this book it's considered Historical Fiction because of some fictional character thrown in to add the narrative.
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The Letter Writer- Ann Rinaldi( Anything by Ann Rinaldi is wonderful historical fiction)
Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
Gemma Doyle Trilogy- Libba Bray
The Bad Queen: Rules and instructions for Marie- Antoinette- Carolyn Meyer (Same goes for Carolyn Meyer as Ann Rinaldi)
Dancing for Degas- Kathryn Wagner -
Wow!!! NO ONE SAID THE BEST BOOK EVER?
Okay, my favorite, absolute favorite historical fiction novel is:
1. The Book Thief
2. Silence over Dunkirk
3. Doomed Queen Anne
4. The Song of the Sparrow (Looks long, but its really written like a poem, so not very long)
5. The Royal Diaries series
The Book Thief has to be my favorite, and I totally suggest it if you love World War 2, same with Silence over Dunkirk, along with some others. Doomed Queen Anne is about King Henry VIII's wife, Anne, and the Song of the Sparrow is more midevil time, and The Royal Diaries series is all about princesses and their times of periods. My personal favorite was Victoria (about Queen Victoria) and I love Cleopatra as well...so many good times. Oh! Actually, I take that back, a really good one was Catherine about Queen Catherine the great, they are superbly amazing.
I love Historical fiction. 
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Bretheren by Robyn Young is very good. Its part of a trilogy set in the Crusades. Book two is called Crusade and I can't remember what book three is called :S
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I agree with Forestqueen, the Book Thief was AMAZING!
My current favourite is 'A Place of Greater Safety' by Hilary Mantel. Actually, anything by Hilary Mantel is excellent. It's about the French Revolution and it made me laugh and cry in the same 100 pages. -
Up 'til now, Quo Vadis is the best novel I've read... I just fell in love with Petronius, and the story was pretty good as well.
Right now I'm reading The Red and The Black -- I can't say yet how much I like it, because I have 100 pages more to read (out of almost 600), but I enjoyed it so far. The first part was a bit boring, but as I get to the end of the story it gets addicting. (Edit: I've read it and loved it, loved it, loved it!)
Other novels that I've enjoyed are Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, Camille and Wuthering Heights.
And if you are interested in fantasy novels inspired by the Middle Age and the Arthurian legend, read The Mists of Avalon -- a truly original re-telling of the well-known legend.
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