Historical Fiction with style
Explore captivating historical fiction books with style. Discover top picks blending rich storytelling and authentic eras for the ultimate literary journey.
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Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the suit of a snobbish gentleman, as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.
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The Oracle Glass
by Judith Merkle Riley
"Open the pages, and out comes a whiff of brimstone, as The Oracle Glass transports you to the Paris of kings and witches, on a guided tour of corruption, love, and sorcery." --Diana Gabaldon Seventeenth-century Paris. Genevieve is a skinny, precocious girl with a mind full of philosophy and the remarkable power to read the swirling waters of an oracle glass. Left for dead by her family, she is taken in by the ingenious occultist La Voisin, who rules a secret society of witches that manipulates the rich and the scandalous all the way up to the throne. Tutored by La Voisin, Genevieve creates a new identity for herself--as the mysterious Madame de Morville, rumored to be one hundred fifty years old. Soon, even the reigning mistress of the Sun King himself consults Madame de Morville on what the future holds for her. And as Madame de Morville, Genevieve can revel in what women are usually denied--power, an independent income, and the opportunity to speak her mind. But beneath her intelligence and wit, and in the face of unexpected love, Genevieve is driven by the obsessed spirit of revenge.... "INTELLIGENT, WITTY AND ELEGANTLY WRITTEN." --San Francisco Chronicle "Judith Merkle Riley's novels are small jewels, smooth and polished, glowing with a light all their own....Merkle Riley has her own oracle glass--and she uses it to see as vividly into the past as her Genevieve sees into the future." --Detroit Free Press "Enlightening, enticing...The author's own alchemical skill is fully evident here as dashes of black magic and sorcery are added to spice the lively plot. Liberal sprinklings of wry wit and mordant humor help keep the narrative cauldron bubbling." --TheCleveland Plain Dealer
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A Vision of Light
by Judith Merkle Riley
In 1355, Margaret of Ashbury depends on renegade friar Brother Gregory to record her life story and state of Mystic Union, and he is forced to accept the state of grace of this "mere woman"
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Mara, Daughter of the Nile
by Eloise McGraw
The adventures of an ingenious Egyptian slave girl who undertakes a dangerous assignment as a spy in the royal palace of Thebes, in the days when Queen Hatshepsut ruled.
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The Queen's Man
by Sharon Kay Penman
In England in 1193, a dying man gives Justin de Quincy a letter that reveals if Richard Lionheart is living or dead.
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Frenchman's Creek
by Daphne Du Maurier
During the reign of Charles II, a rebellious noblewoman abandons her Cornwall estate to sail with her pirate lover
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Eaters of the Dead
by Michael Crichton
A 10th century Arab diplomat is kidnapped by Vikings and forced to confront the ultimate horror ....
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Red Branch
by Morgan Llywelyn
"Powerful . . . A lusty, poetic and legendary world based on Ireland's mythical warrior-hero Cuchulain." The New York Times Book Review In a land ruled by war and love and strange enchantments, Cuchulain -- torn between gentleness and violence, haunted by the croakings of a sinister raven -- fights for his honor and his homeland and discovers too late the trap that the gods have set for him in the fatal beauty of Deirdre and the brutal jealousy of King Conor.
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Angel Trumpet
by Ann McMillan
An officer returns to his plantation in 1861 Virginia to find his family butchered. The servants? Fears of a slave uprising haunt the countryside. White nurse Narcissa Powers investigates.
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Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
‘The name of governess, I soon found, was a mere mockery … my pupils had no more notion of obedience than a wild, unbroken colt’ When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meagre income and assert her independence. But Agnes’s enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children and then with the painful disdain of the haughty Murray family; the only kindness she receives comes from Mr Weston, the sober young curate. Drawing on her own experience, Anne Brontë’s first novel offers a compelling personal perspective on the desperate position of unmarried, educated women for whom becoming a governess was the only respectable career open in Victorian society. This edition also includes Charlotte Brontë’s memoir of her sisters, theBiographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell. Angeline Goreau examines Anne Brontë’s complex relationship with her sisters and her unhappy career as a governess as influences in writing Agnes Grey.
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Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Presents the story of Dr. Frankenstein and the obsessive experiment that leads to the creation of a monstrous and deadly creature, and includes a section examining the many film adaptations of the story.
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King Solomon's Mines
by H. Rider Haggard
"The Most Amazing Book Ever Written!" So declared the posters plastered all over London by the publisher when H. Rider Haggard's novel appeared in 1885.
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Banners of Gold
by Pamela Kaufman
The sequel to Kaufman's bestseller "Shield of Three Lions" picks up with Alix of Wanthwaite in over her head in royal intrigue. When Eleanor of Aquitaine decides her son, King Richard the Lionheart, who has little interest in women, must produce an heir, she believes Alix can stir his passion. When Alix hears her husband has died, does she have a choice?
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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.