A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales | Page 3

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A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales by Jonathan Nield

"These historical novels have taught all men this truth, which looks like
a truism, and yet was as good as unknown to writers of history and
others, till so taught: that the bygone ages of the world were actually
filled by living men, not by protocols, state-papers, controversies, and
abstractions of men."
--Carlyle on the Waverley novels.

Contents

Introduction
Pre-Christian Era
First Century
Second Century
Third Century
Fourth Century
Fifth Century
Sixth Century
Seventh Century
Eighth Century
Ninth Century
Tenth Century
Eleventh Century
Twelfth Century
Thirteenth Century
Fourteenth Century
Fifteenth Century
Sixteenth Century
Seventeenth Century
Eighteenth Century

Nineteenth Century
Supplementary List (Semi-Historical)
Suggested Courses of Reading (Juvenile)
Bibliography

INTRODUCTION.
It is not proposed, in these preliminary remarks, to sketch in detail the
origin and growth of the Historical Novel; this has already been amply
done by Professor Saintsbury and others. I shall be content to approach
the subject on its general side, offering, at the same time, some critical
suggestions which will, I hope, not be without value to readers of
Romance.
But, first of all, I must explain how the List which follows came to be
compiled, and the object I have in offering it. For many years I have
been an assiduous reader of novels and tales in which the historical
element appeared, supplementing my own reading in this direction by a
careful study of all that I could find in the way of Criticism on such
works and their writers. Only in this way could I venture on a selection
involving a survey of several thousand volumes! With the above
understanding, I can say that no book has been inserted without some
reason, while I have made all possible effort to obtain accuracy of
description. And this leads me to remark, that just in this process of
selection do I claim originality for my List. Nearly twenty years ago an
excellent "Descriptive Catalogue of Historical Novels and Tales" was
published; Mr. H. Courthope Bowen was the compiler,* and I would
here mention my indebtedness to him. In Mr. Bowen's list, however,
one finds good and bad alike--all the works of even such moderately
endowed writers as G. P. R. James, Ainsworth, Grant, etc., are there set
down. It seemed to me that, not only was there room for a new list of
Historical Novels (Stevenson, Marion Crawford, Conan Doyle,
Weyman, Mason, and a number of more or less capable romancists

having come forward in the last twenty years), but, also, that more than
ever was there a need for some sort of clue in the search for such books.
In the last year or two there has been an almost alarming influx in this
department of Fiction, and teachers in schools, besides readers in
general, may be glad to be saved a somewhat tedious investigation.
* "A Descriptive Catalogue of Historical Novels and Tales, for the use
of School Libraries and Teachers of History," compiled and described
by H. Courthope Bowen, M. A. (Edward Stanford, 1882.)
Having thus attempted to justify the existence of my little "Guide," I
pass on to deal with the subject of Historical Fiction itself. Most of us, I
suppose, at one time or another have experienced a thrill of interest
when some prominent personage, whom we knew well by repute, came
before us in the flesh. We watched his manner, and noted all those
shades of expression which in another's countenance we should have
passed by unheeded. Well, it seems to me that, parallel with this
experience, is that which we gain, when, reading some first-rank
romance, we encounter in its pages a figure with which History has
made us more or less familiar. And I would remark that the great
masters do not, as a rule, make that mistake which less skilful writers
fall into--the mistake of introducing well-known historical figures too
frequently. The Cromwell of "Woodstock" has an element of mystery
about him, even while he stands out before