The Very Best in Historical Fiction
Discover the finest historical fiction books that transport you to another era. Explore our curated list of top-rated novels filled with rich storytelling and vivid historical detail.
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Enemy of God
by Bernard Cornwell
Having achieved a fragile peace with the Saxons, Arthur turns his attention to more dangerous enemies, those who pose as friends.
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The Grass Crown
by Colleen McCullough
Marius, the general who saved Rome from barbarian invasion and became consul an unprecedented six times, has fallen into decline. Sulla, his closest associate, has withdrawn himself from his commander's circle in preparation for his own bid for power. As a deadly enmity develops between the two men, Rome must fight its own battle for survival.
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Here be Dragons
by Sharon Kay Penman
"A masterful picture of Wales in the 13th century...vivdly pictured as grandly beautiful, its people volatile, stubborn and mystic." THE SAN DIEGO UNION Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales--and Llewelyn--Joanna must decide to which of these powerful men she owes her loyalty and love. A sweeping novel of power and passion, loyalty and lives, this is the book that began the trilogy that includes FALLS THE SHADOW and THE RECKONING.
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Scaramouche
by Rafael Sabatini
When his best friend is struck down by an uncaring aristocrat, French lawyer AndrT-Louis Moreau disguises himself as the clown Scaramouche to speak out against an unjust nobility, in a swashbuckling novel of romance and adventure set during the French Revolution. Reprint.
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Gates of Fire
by Steven Pressfield
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Steven Pressfield brings the battle of Thermopylae to brilliant life.”—Pat Conroy At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army. Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history—one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. . . .
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The Fencing Master
by Arturo PĂ©rez-Reverte
A request from a mysterious woman draws fencing master Don Jaime into a dangerous plot involving seduction, political intrigue, top-secret documents, and murder, in a historical mystery set against the turbulent backdrop of 1868 Madrid. By the author of The Seville Communion. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.
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The Sea-hawk
by Rafael Sabatini
Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman who helped defeat the Spanish Armada, is betrayed by his half-brother, throwing him into circumstances where he becomes a Barbary pirate and a follower of Islam.
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Flashman
by George MacDonald Fraser
"If ever there was a time when I felt that 'watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet' stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman."–P.G. Wodehouse The first novel in the Flashman series Fraser revives Flashman, a caddish bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes, and relates Flashman’s adventures after he is expelled in drunken disgrace from Rugby school in the late 1830s. Flashy enlists in the Eleventh Light Dragoons and is promptly sent to India and Afghanistan, where despite his consistently cowardly behavior he always manages to come out on top. Flashman is an incorrigible anti-hero for the ages. This humorous adventure book will appeal to fans of historical fiction, military fiction, and British history as well as to fans of Clive Cussler, James Bond, and The Three Musketeers.
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Under the Eagle
by Simon Scarrow
It is the year 42 AD, and Centurion Macro, battle-scarred and fearless, is in the heart of Germany with the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army. Cato, a new recruit and the newly appointed second-in-command to Macro, will have more to prove than most. In a bloody skirmish with local tribes, Cato gets his first chance to prove that he's more than a callow, privileged youth. As their next campaign takes them to a land of unparalleled barbarity - Britain - a special mission unfolds, thrusting Cato and Macro headlong into a conspiracy that threatens to topple the Emperor himself.
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Gertrude and Claudius
by John Updike
Gertrude and Claudius are the “villains” of Hamlet: he the killer of Hamlet’s father and usurper of the Danish throne; she his lusty consort, who marries Claudius before her late husband’s body is cold. But in this imaginative “prequel” to the play, John Updike makes a case for the royal couple that Shakespeare only hinted at. Gertrude and Claudius are seen afresh against a background of fond intentions and family dysfunction, on a stage darkened by the ominous shadow of a sullen, erratic, disaffected prince. “I hoped to keep the texture light,” Updike said of this novel, “to move from the mists of Scandinavian legend into the daylight atmosphere of the Globe. I sought to narrate the romance that preceded the tragedy.”