Since the start of 2017, I’ve been reading or re-reading historical novels (due to an ongoing project. More about that in future): history is a long time passion, even though in recent years I’ve been leaning more toward speculative fiction. I have already compiled a list of my favourite historical novels (see here), but I now feel some additions to that list are required. This is especially valid if you’re a writer: if you write fiction, historical or not, you deal with worldbuilding, and this is an aspect well developed in this genre (it has to be),
Here they are, in no particular order:
- Jeanette Winterson, The Passion
- Robert Harris, Pompeii
- Connie Willis, Doomsday Book (this is actually speculative fiction, but the part set in 1348 England is simply *too* good)
- Ken Follett, World Without End by Ken Follett (the sequel of The Pillars of the Earth. Another “plague book” as you can notice, and yes, I’m mildly addicted to that period.)
- James Clavell, Shogun
- Mika Waltari, The Egyptian (one of the first historical novels I’ve read as a kid. It scared me silly but I loved it)
- Robert Graves, I, Claudius
- Anchee Min, Becoming Madame Mao (a quite controversial reading, but a fascinating one)
- Elisabeth Kostova, The Historian (if you’re a vampire fan, you MUST read this. Vlad the Impaler, you know…)
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Del Amor y Otros Demonios [Love and Other Demons]. (A chilling story, set in Convent of Santa Clara in Cartagena. My favourite by Marquez, even though not as famous as the others).
HR: Albert Camus, Caligula. This is one is actually a play, not a novel. But, especially in its original form (there are three versions of this amazing theatre piece), it conveys rather the atmosphere of fear and intrigue existing during the first dynasty of Roman Empire.
Is there anything else you think I should add to these series? Let me know!
Leave a Reply