Historical Fiction Novels and Books
Explore the best historical fiction novels and books, featuring captivating tales from different eras. Discover must-read titles that bring history to life with rich storytelling and vivid characters.
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Life Mask
by Emma Donoghue
In eighteenth-century England, the eccentric widow Mrs. Damer works as the period's only woman sculptor, the horse race innovator Lord Derby endures public mockery, and a Drury Lane actress endeavors to gain entry into aristocratic circles.
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I Am Madame X
by Gioia Diliberto
When John Singer Sargent unveiled Madame X -- his famous portrait of American beauty Virginie Gautreau -- at the 1884 Paris Salon, its subject's bold pose and provocative dress shocked the public and the critics, smashing Sargent's dreams of a Paris career. In this remarkable novel, Gioia Diliberto tells Virginie's story, drawing on the sketchy historical facts to re-create Virginie's tempestuous personality and the captivating milieu of nineteenth-century Paris. Born in New Orleans and raised on a lush plantation, Virginie fled to France during the Civil War, where she was absorbed into the fascinating and wealthy world of grand ballrooms, dressmakers' salons, and artists' ateliers. Even before Sargent painted her portrait, Virginie's reputation for promiscuity and showy self-display made her the subject of vicious Paris gossip. Immersing the reader in Belle Epoque Paris, I Am Madame X is a compulsively readable and richly imagined novel illuminating the struggle between Virginie and Sargent over the outcome of a painting that changed their lives and affected the course of art history.
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The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
From the author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" comes an atmospheric evocation of the court of Henry VIII, and the one woman who destroyed two of his queens.
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The Dress Lodger
by Sheri Holman
In a novel set in London during the Industrial Revolution, a prostitute borrows a blue dress to attract a higher class of client and is shadowed through the streets by an evil old woman hired by the dress' owner to keep an eye on her.
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Leonardo's Swans
by Karen Essex
Isabella d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, born into privilege and the political and artistic turbulence of Renaissance Italy, is a stunning black-eyed blonde and a precocious lover and collector of art. Worldly and ambitious, she has never envied her less attractive sister, the spirited but naĂŻve Beatrice, until, by a quirk of fate, Beatrice is betrothed to the future Duke of Milan. Although he is more than twice their age, openly lives with his mistress, and is reputedly trying to eliminate the current duke by nefarious means, Ludovico Sforza is Isabella's match in intellect and passion for all things of beauty. Only he would allow her to fulfill her destiny: to reign over one of the world's most powerful and enlightened realms and be immortalized in oil by the genius Leonardo da Vinci. Though Isabella weds the Marquis of Mantua, a man she has loved since childhood, Beatrice's fortunes rise effortlessly through her marriage to Ludovico. The two sisters compete for supremacy in the illustrious courts of Europe, and Isabella vows that she will not rest until she wrestles back her true fate and plays temptress to the sensuous Ludovico and muse to the great Leonardo. But when Ludovico's grand plan to control Europe begins to crumble, immortality through art becomes a luxury, and the two sisters must choose between familial loyalty and survival in the treacherous political climate. Leonardo's Swans is an exceptionally vivid evocation of the artist during his years in the glittering court of Milan, re-creating the thrilling moments when he conceived The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. It portrays a genius ahead of his time who can rarely escape the demands of his noble patrons long enough to express his own artistic vision. A haunting novel of rivalry, love, and betrayal that transports readers back to Renaissance Italy, Leonardo's Swans will have you dashing to the works of the great painter--not for clues to a mystery but to contemplate the secrets of the human heart.
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The Innocent
by Posie Graeme-Evans
The year is 1450, a dangerous time in medieval Britain. Civil unrest is at its peak and the legitimacy of the royal family is suspect. Meanwhile, deep in the forests of western England, a baby is born. Powerful forces plot to kill both mother and child, but somehow the newborn girl survives. Her name is Anne. Fifteen years later, England emerges into a fragile but hopeful new age, with the charismatic young King Edward IV on the throne. Anne, now a young peasant girl, joins the household of a wealthy London merchant. Her unusual beauty provokes jealousy, lust, and intrigue, but Anne has a special quality that saves her: a vast knowledge of healing herbs. News of her extraordinary gift spreads, and she is called upon to save the ailing queen. Soon after, Anne is moved into the palace, where she finds her destiny with the man who will become the greatest love of her life -- the king himself.
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The Exiled
by Posie Graeme-Evans
In this windswept story set in the lusty fifteenth century, the enchanting Anne faces the challenge of raising her child in exile. Always resourceful, she flourishes as a merchant and is able to support her household. But the local businessmen aren't pleased about competing with a woman and her foes are multiplying around her, desperate to put her back in what they believe is her rightful place. Anne has a secret that her enemies could use to destroy her. Her beloved son is the product of a passionate affair with the king, Edward IV, who knows nothing of his existence. If this information were to fall into the wrong hands, it could prove lethal for Anne and her child. She struggles to find peace in a world of duplicity and suspicion, where adversaries masquerade as allies, and someone very powerful wants her dead. Yet, despite the pressure of her enemies, what pains Anne the most is that she is unsure when or if she will see her darling Edward again.
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Queen's Own Fool
by Jane Yolen
Fans of historical sagas and the CW show Reign will be swept up by this clever tale by Jane Yolen and Robert Harris Once she was a traveling player . . . Now called La Jardinière, a resourceful and clever jester to the queen’s court, Nicola was a most unlikely person to end up “fool” and friend to Mary, Queen of Scots. But Nicola isn’t an ordinary comedian tumbling and clowning before the court; her quick wit and sharp tongue are rare amongst the fawning nobles. As fate takes Mary from France to Scotland, and into confrontations with rebellious lords and devious advisors, Nicola remains deep in the queen’s inner circle. But when the Scots start to turn on Queen Mary, Nicola struggles to find something—anything—that she, just a fool, can do to save her friend. “Based deeply in fact and full of detail both luscious and sordid. . . . [Yolen and Harris] spin a historical tale of great immediacy and impact.”—Kirkus Reviews "This rich and involving novel of Mary Queen of Scots and her court will have readers clamoring to know more about this dramatic period in French and Scottish history. Readers are treated to a fascinating look at royal politics."—School Library Journal
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A Venetian Affair
by Andrea Di Robilant
In the waning days of Venice’s glory in the mid-1700s, Andrea Memmo was scion to one the city’s oldest patrician families. At the age of twenty-four he fell passionately in love with sixteen-year-old Giustiniana Wynne, the beautiful, illegitimate daughter of a Venetian mother and British father. Because of their dramatically different positions in society, they could not marry. And Giustiniana’s mother, afraid that an affair would ruin her daughter’s chances to form a more suitable union, forbade them to see each other. Her prohibition only fueled their desire and so began their torrid, secret seven-year-affair, enlisting the aid of a few intimates and servants (willing to risk their own positions) to shuttle love letters back and forth and to help facilitate their clandestine meetings. Eventually, Giustiniana found herself pregnant and she turned for help to the infamous Casanova–himself infatuated with her. Two and half centuries later, the unbelievable story of this star-crossed couple is told in a breathtaking narrative, re-created in part from the passionate, clandestine letters Andrea and Giustiniana wrote to each other.
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Joséphine B.
by Sandra Gulland
'You will be unhappily wed. You will be widowed. You will be Queen.' To fourteen-year-old Rose, eldest daughter of a poor plantation landlord, the fortune teller's prophecy is both thrilling and laughable. Poorly educated and without a dowry, it seems unlikely she will find any husband, much less a king. But history tells a different tale. In this beautifully crafted novel, Sandra Gulland pulls back the veil of history to reveal the extraordinary life of the woman who will one day be known as Joséphine Bonaparte, wife of the emperor who will rule all France.
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Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country
by Rosalind Miles
Last in a line of proud queens elected to rule the fertile lands of the West, true owner of the legendary Round Table, guardian of the Great Goddess herself . . . a woman whose story has never been told -- until now. Raised in the tranquil beauty of the Summer Country, Princess Guenevere has led a charmed and contented life -- until the sudden, violent death of her mother, Queen Maire, leaves the Summer Country teetering on the brink of anarchy. Only the miraculous arrival of Arthur, heir to the Pendragon dynasty, allows Guenevere to claim her mother's throne. Smitten by the bold, sensuous princess, Arthur offers to marry her and unite their territories, allowing her to continue to reign in her own right. Their love match creates the largest and most powerful kingdom in the Isles. Yet even the glories of Camelot are not safe from the shadows of evil and revenge. Arthur is reunited with his long-lost half-sisters, Morgause and Morgan, princesses torn from their mother and their ancestral right by Arthur's father, the brutal and unscrupulous King Uther. Both daughters will avenge their suffering, but it is Morgan who strikes the deadliest blows, using her enchantments to destroy all Guenevere holds dear and to force Arthur to betray his Queen. In the chaos that follows, Arthur dispatches a new knight to Guenevere, the young French prince Lancelot, never knowing that Lancelot's passion for the Queen, and hers for him, may be the love that spells ruin for Camelot.
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The Spanish Bride
by Laurien Gardner
Estrella de Montoya, Catherine of Aragon's companion, witnesses the marriage of Catherine to King Henry VIII, a cruel monarch whom Catherine believed to be her chivalrous knight in shining armor.
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Forever Amber
by Kathleen Winsor
The adventures of Amber St. Clare, the willful and beautiful illegitimate daughter of noble parents who was raised on a farm by people she knew as her aunt and uncle.
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The French Executioner
by C. C. Humphreys
Irresistible adventure story based on the real-life figure of Jean Rombaud, who beheaded Anne Boleyn. It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it... From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.
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The Twentieth Wife
by Indu Sundaresan
The story of Mehrunnisa, the daughter of servents who became the an empresses of the Mughal empire.
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I, Elizabeth
by Rosalind Miles
A spellbinding novel about Elizabeth I from the internationally bestselling author of the Guenevere and Tristan and Isolde trilogies. Publicly declared a bastard at the age of three, daughter of a disgraced and executed mother, last in the line of succession to the throne of England, Elizabeth I inherited an England ravaged by bloody religious conflict, at war with Spain and France, and badly in debt. When she died in 1603, after a forty-five year reign, her empire spanned two continents and was united under one church, victorious in war, and blessed with an overflowing treasury. What’s more, her favorites—William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh—had made the Elizabethan era a cultural Golden Age still remembered today. But for Elizabeth the woman, tragedy went hand in hand with triumph. Politics and scandal forced the passionate queen to reject her true love, Robert Dudley, and to execute his stepson, her much-adored Lord Essex. Now in this spellbinding novel, Rosalind Miles brings to life the woman behind the myth. By turns imperious, brilliant, calculating, vain, and witty, this is the Elizabeth the world never knew. From the days of her brutal father, Henry VIII, to her final dying moments, Elizabeth tells her story in her own words.
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Maid Marian
by Elsa Watson
Widowed under mysterious circumstances at a very young age, orphan Marian Fitzwater becomes a ward of the crusading King Richard and seeks the help of outlaw Robin Hood to escape the formidable Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who would make Marian a pawn in one of her devious schemes. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.
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The Illuminator
by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
A richly detailed, irresistibly compelling, glorious story of love, art, religion, and treachery at an extraordinary turning point in history
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The Players
by Stephanie Cowell
Presents a historical novel drawn from extensive research that traces the young Will's involvement in a tempestuous love triangle involving a lord and a mistress
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Anne Boleyn and Me
by Alison Prince
When the King came riding in on his big, black horse, a murmer went up, because his tunic was stitched with the words, DECLARE I DARE NOT. All the ladies were giggling behind their hands, and I asked Mama what it meant. Her face had turned quite pink and she said, ..Never mind.., so I asked Rosanna later. She told me the words meant the King has a new love, but he dares not say her name.But everyone knows her name, of course. It is Anne Boleyn.
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Dragonwyck
by Anya Seton
Longing for an adventure away from her farm duties, eighteen-year-old Miranda Wells accepts her distant cousin's invitation to spend time with him at his gothic Hudson River estate in 1844.
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Artemisia
by Alexandra Lapierre
Artemisia Gentileschi, a significant female artist of the late 1600s, is brought to life as Lapierre captures the flavor of Baroque Italy as well as the emotional life of this fascinating woman. A major exhibition of the artist's paintings opens in February 2002 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. of color photos.
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Baudolino
by Umberto Eco
Baudolino, having just rescued a court official caught in the sacking and burning of Constantinople in 1204, proceeds to entertain the man with the fantastical story of his life.
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Day of the False King
by Brad Geagley
Another brilliant and out-of-the-ordinary murder mystery by the author ofYear of the Hyenas,with an unusual and interesting detective, this time trying to pursue and rescue his own ex-wife, sold into slavery in the city of Babylon (in modern times, near Baghdad) at a time of violence and great danger, much like today.Day of the False Kingcontinues the story of Semerket, Egypt's Clerk of Investigations and Secrets. The time is approximately 1150 B.C., and the conspirators who plotted the overthrow of Pharaoh Ramses III have been tried and executed. But the old pharaoh has succumbed to the wounds inflicted by his Theban wife, Queen Tiya; it is his first-born son who now rules Egypt as his chosen successor, Ramses IV.Geographically placed at the center of the Old World, where East literally meets West, Babylon has forever been the crossroads for conquering armies and adventuresome merchants, and the prize of dynasts. From cruel tyrants to far-seeing visionaries, an ever-changing set of rulers have claimed Babylon's throne as their own. But they were not god-kings as in Egypt; in fact, there was no term for "king" in any of the Babylonian languages. Instead, they were called simply "Strong Man" or "Big Man." Then as now, only martial strength determined who ruled. Strangely, or perhaps inevitably, the rights of the individual were first codified and set down as laws here.Around the time thatDay of the False Kingtakes place, the Middle East is undergoing -- just as it is today -- a tortuous, protracted transformation. The old regimes have vanished, setting the stage for the aggressive emergence of the new nations of Phoenicia, Israel, and Philistia; it is the fourth of these new peoples, the Assyrians, who will achieve dominance in the years ahead.Babylonia in particular has suffered a series of cataclysms. The old Kassite Dynasty, themselves invaders from the north, has been toppled. The nation of Elam (soon to be known as Persia) has launched a massive war to conquer Babylonia from the southeast. Native tribes in the country also see this moment as their own chance to evict the foreigners and re-establish a dynasty of their own.Into this roiling alchemy, Semerket's adored ex-wife, Naia, is thrust. She and Rami, the tomb-maker's son, have been banished to Babylon as indentured servants -- punishment for their accidental roles in the Harem Conspiracy against Ramses III.As inYear of the Hyenas, most of the events and characters inDay of the False Kingare drawn from history. The Elamite invader King Kutir and the native-born Marduk truly vied for the throne of Babylonia. There really was a festival calledDay of the False King, when the entire world turned upside down for a day, when slaves ruled as masters, when the most foolish man in Babylon was chosen to become king. Semerket the detective is plunged into the midst of these events in pursuit of his own goals: to serve his Pharaoh and to find the woman he loves.
