The Fascinating World of Historical Fiction

If finding historical fiction can be tricky, defining it is even trickier. The Historical Novel Society’s definition, for example, includes novels written at least 50 years after the events described or novels written by people approaching the subject only via research. Others may use a different cut–off date. The goal of historical fiction is to bring history to life in novel form. The fiction and the history should be well balanced, with neither one overwhelming the other. Still, for the most part, readers recognize historical fiction when they see it. It’s a tough genre to write, but a fascinating one to read.

Historical fiction presents readers with a story that takes place during a notable period in history, and usually during a significant event in that period. Historical fiction often presents actual events from the point of view of people living in that time period.
Historical fiction may center on historical or on fictional characters, but usually represents an honest attempt based on considerable research (or at least serious reading) to tell a story set in the historical past as understood by the author’s contemporaries. Those historical settings may not stand up to the enhanced knowledge of later historians.

It is a sub–genre of fiction (an imaginative form of narrative) that often portrays fictional accounts or dramatization of historical figures or events. Writers of stories in this genre, while penning fiction, nominally attempt to capture the spirit, manners, and social conditions of the persons or time(s) presented in the story, with due attention paid to period detail and fidelity.
Historical fiction presents readers with a story that takes place during a notable period in history, and usually during a significant event in that period. Historical fiction often presents actual events from the point of view of people living in that time period.

In some historical fiction, famous events appear from points of view not recorded in history, showing historical figures dealing with actual events while depicting them in a way that is not recorded in history. Other times, the historical event complements a story’s narrative, occurring in the background while characters deal with events (personal or otherwise) wholly unrelated to recorded history. Sometimes, the names of people and places have been in some way altered. As this is fiction, artistic license is permitted in regard to presentation and subject matter, so long as it does not deviate in significant ways from established history.

While the historical novel attempts a serious study of the relationship between personal fortunes and social conflicts, the popular form known as the historical or “costume“ romance tends to employ the period setting only as a decorative background to the leading characters.

If events should deviate significantly, the story may then fall into the genre of alternate history, which is known for speculating on what could have happened if a significant historical event had gone differently, e. g. Fatherland (1992) by Robert Harris, or Agent of Byzantium (1987) and Ruled Britannia (2002) by Harry Turtledove. (Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been the most prolific practitioner of alternate history and has been given the title “Master of Alternate History“ by some.)
On a similar note, events occurring in historical fiction must adhere to the laws of physics. Stories that extend into the magical or fantastic are often considered a historical fantasy, e. g. The Greek series: Lion of Macedon (1990), Dark Prince (1991) by David Gemmel, or The Soldier series: Soldier of the Mist (1986), Soldier of Arete (1989) and Soldier of Sidon (2006) by Gene Wolfe.

One of the most popular sub–genres of historical fiction is the historical mystery ― whodunits set in the past. A crossover genre between modern detective fiction and historical fiction, it has all the narrative power of a murder mystery but with the added bonus of meticulous historical detail. The earliest historical mysteries date back to the 1930s and titles continued to appear at a steady rate, but it was not until the 1970s that they started to become the publishing phenomenon that they are today.
Historical mystery/crime novels are tales of intrigue and suspense that have the past as their setting: ancient world misteries, medieval misteries, renaissance misteries ... Examples include The Cadfael Series by Ellis Peters, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Ecco (1983), SPQR mystery novels by John Maddox Roberts, My Name is Red (2000) by Orhan Pamuk, The Notebooks of Pliny the Younger Series by Albert A. Bell, Jr., Matthew Shardlake Series by C.J. Sansom, The Mistress of the Art of Death Series by Ariana Franklin, The Third Heaven Conspiracy (The Mosaic Crimes) (2007) by Giulio Leoni, etc.
If you are a fan of both crime and historical fiction, then you should give historical mysteries a try.