The genre of historical fiction novels can be subdivided into many categories and often crosses genres, such as historical mysteries and romances. The traditional definition of the historical fiction genre is “fiction set in the past” where the author is writing from research rather than personal experience. This definition leaves a lot of room for interpretation, controversy, and contradiction. Critics in the media, even when they praise individual historical novels in their reviews, somehow manage to turn this praise into criticism of the genre as a whole. In 1950, author Howard Fast, a historical novelist himself, wrote: “This is an era of many historical novels, few of them good and very few indeed which have more than a nodding acquaintance with fact.” (Johnson, historicalnovelsociety.org) Fast criticizes historical fiction authors by saying most examples of the genre are based more on fiction and imagination rather than actual historical fact. At first glance, historical fiction novels might appear to be detrimentally numerous and disrespected for taking imaginative liberties presenting actual historical fact, but with a closer look it becomes apparent there are many examples of good historical fiction where the author centers the tales not on the historical setting but on the plot which educates the reader to better understand themes and life in the past, as well as, through the use of imagination gives plausible explanations of mysterious or unknown events.
While I agree it is true historical novels have the reputation of being costume period dramas, in which the author’s need to cram all the prodigious research into a single novel sometimes overwhelms the plot; I would like to point out history has produced many his...
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...elieve if readers give the genre a chance they can learn about past events, themes, and ways of life while at the same time enjoying a fictional story. The most successful novels of this genre are ones where the author uses his/her imagination to weave a believable plot and create characters who manage to transcend time and speak to us from their own perspective in a way which educates readers about the culture of life in the past.
Works Cited
Johnson, Sarah. “What are the Rules for Historical Fiction?” www.historicalnovelsociety.org/historyhic.htm n.d.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Charles L. Webster & Co, 1884.
Print.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Little House on the Prairie. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1937. Print.
Follett, Ken. Lie Down with Lions. Tiptree, Colchester Essex, U.K: Signet Publishers, 1986. Print.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Dover Pubns, 1994.
Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. New York: P.F. Collier and Son Company, 1889. Wagenknecht, Edward. Mark Twain: The Man and His Work. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1935.
An example of literature is brought up, where for no apparent reason the historical novel became a popular genre and everyone was reading and writing them despite the fact that the genre had been around for a very long time. He used this example to give a concrete example if his idea, and it appeals to the audience’s
Twain, Mark, Life on the Mississippi (New York, New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1917).
In her novel The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey looks at how history can be misconstrued through the more convenient reinterpretation of the person in power, and as such, can become part of our common understanding, not being true knowledge at all, but simply hearsay. In The Daughter of Time Josephine claims that 40 million school books can’t be wrong but then goes on to argue that the traditional view of Richard III as a power obsessed, blood thirsty monster is fiction made credible by Thomas More and given authenticity by William Shakespeare. Inspector Alan Grant looks into the murder of the princes in the tower out of boredom. Tey uses Grant to critique the way history is delivered to the public and the ability of historians to shape facts to present the argument they believe.
" Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Vol. 1. Ancient Times to the American and French Revolutions.
"Inferno." Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Vol. 1: Ancient Times to the American and French Revolutions (Prehistory-1790s). Detroit: Gale, 1997. 174-180. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 June 2014.
Definitive criteria for judging the success or failure of a work of fiction are not easily agreed upon; individuals almost necessarily introduce bias into any such attempt. Only those who affect an exorbitantly refined artistic taste, however, would deny the importance of poignancy in literary pieces. To be sure, writings of dubious and fleeting merit frequently enchant the public, but there is too the occasional author who garners widespread acclaim and whose works remain deeply affecting despite the passage of time. The continued eminence of the fiction of Edith Wharton attests to her placement into such a category of authors: it is a recognition of her propensity to create poignant and, indeed, successful literature. The brevity of her "Roman Fever" allows for a brilliant display of this talent in it we find many of her highly celebrated qualities in the space of just a few pages. "Roman Fever" is truly outstanding: a work that exposes the gender stereotypes of its day (1936) but that moves beyond documentary to reveal something of the perennial antagonisms of human nature.
Twain, Mark. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York: Norton & Company Inc., 2012. 130-309. Print.
Since his arrival in the mid-seventies, Martin Amis has been the enfant terrible of the British lit scene. Many critics consider him to be a masterful writer enginned by a banal, unoriginal mind, while others think he is simply one step ahead. The same critics would probably argue that style and technique supersedes feeling, sensibility and morality in Time's Arrow. Indeed, there are occasions when Amis' cleverness does undercut the moralism he is trying to convey, but that is not due to faulty morals, but to the extraordinary flair that he possesses. Even if you don't want to hear what Amis has to say about the holocaust, read this book - if nothing else, going through time backwards might just teach you the good parts of life that people tend to miss going forwards.
Professor’s Comments: This is a good example of a book review typically required in history classes. It is unbiased and thoughtful. The Student explains the book and the time in which it was written in great detail, without retelling the entire story… a pitfall that many first time reviewers may experience.
Twain , Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2003.
“Writers seldom duplicate their influential precursor(s); rather, they often work within a certain framework established by other writers or generic conventions, but vary aspects of it in significant ways.” (Clayton, 155). Sheridan Le Fanu’s, Carmilla, Bram Stoker’s, Dracula and Elizabeth Kostova’s, The Historian, clearly engage in this intertextual exchange, as evidenced by their use of narrative structure, striking character parallels and authors choice of language.
The twentieth century constantly grappled with the idea of literary history, and the ambition it entailed, as an attempt to explain the laws governing the evolution of literature, the coherence of literary periodization, the inter-linkages and exchanges between genres with reference to either the movement of history as an ever-present backdrop or in reference to formal aspects of the literary system itself. The last decades of the century threw this ambition into disarray. Positivist literary historiography claimed a certain degree of objectivity, valorized a group of writers and texts, created problematic distinctions such as popular and mass literature and foregrounded the dominance of certain genres in certain periods among other questionable
History is no more confined to a monolithic collection of facts and their hegemonic interpretations but has found a prominent space in narratives. The recent surge in using narrative in contemporary history has given historical fiction a space in historiography. With Hayden White’s definition of history as a “verbal structure in the form of a narrative prose discourse” literature is perceived to be closer to historiography, in the present age (ix). History has regained acceptance and popularity in the guise of fiction, as signified by the rising status of historical fiction in the post colonial literary world.