The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [316]
Nigel Tranter The MacGregor Trilogy, and others
Tranter is a very popular British author of historical fiction. The MacGregor Trilogy deals with the Jacobite era of Scottish history, but he has a great many other interesting titles, dealing with other parts of Britain’s past.
Robert Louis Stevenson
An oldie but a goodie. If you haven’t read Treasure Island or Kidnapped recently, treat yourself.
Morgan Llywelyn
Llywelyn’s books deal sometimes with characters from legend (e.g., Red Branch, which tells the story of Cuchullain) and sometimes with historical persons and events (1916). Her territory is Celtic History, well-researched, and her stories are absorbing.
Charles Palliser Quincunx
If Charles Dickens had been interested in writing puzzle stories, he would have written this. It’s a huge book, with multiple interlacing (and engaging) plots, all written in a very authentic Victorian style. Very evocative and deeply interesting—but it’s not light reading (about three pounds, I’d say).
Brian Moore Black Robe
Set in the late seventeenth century, this is a small book; sparsely written but very evocative—the story of a young French priest, sent to convert and serve among the Huron.
HISTORICAL, FICTION SERIES
For those who—having found a good thing—want it to go on and on. These are excellent series, some based on historical events, some merely using historical settings for fictional adventures—but without any fantastic overtones.
Patrick O’Brian The Aubrey/Maturin series
O’Brian is the most renowned of the seafaring historical novelists. His series (the first book is Master and Commander), featuring Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and ship’s surgeon, Dr. Stephen Maturin, is set during the Napoleonic Wars. Great characters, wonderful language, excellent historical detail.
C. S. Forester The Horatio Hornblower series
Not quite as sophisticated as O’Brian, but still a very good storyteller. The Hornblower series covers the same period and setting—the British Navy in the Napoleonic Wars—as does
O’Brian, but is very different in terms of character and style.
Sharon Kay Penman
Penman writes on significant British (English and Welsh) historical events, using real historical characters as well as fictional ones.
Bernard Cornwell The Sharpe series
I’ve read a couple of Cornwell’s other books, which I thought were well researched. I haven’t read the Sharpe series yet—I’m saving it for a treat, next time I finish a manuscript—but have had it highly recommended to me. PBS did a miniseries based on some of the books, which was well received. The time period is the same as that covered by O’Brian and Forester—the Napoleonic Wars—but Sharpe is a soldier, rather than a sailor, and the stories are mostly land-based.
George MacDonald Fraser The Flashman series
Flashman is a man you love to hate. A cad, a cheat, a bully, and a bounder, he cavorts through history—with the reader cheering him on. These books are not only remarkably entertaining, they’re remarkably researched—with equally entertaining footnotes in each. Flashman’s career spans a good part of the nineteenth century, and several continents.
Winston Graham The Poldark series
Set in Cornwall during the late 1700s. Very good historical soap opera, with extremely engaging characters. PBS had two fourteen-week miniseries based on these books.
HISTORICAL MYSTERIES
Anne Perry
Perry has two series, both set in Victorian London. One involves a married couple: Thomas Pitt (a policeman) and his wife, Charlotte. The other series involves Edward Monk, a policeman who wakes up in the first book of his series (The Face of a Stranger), in a hospital, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Both series are excellent in terms of period detail and social issues; good plotting.
Steven Saylor
Saylor’s series features Gordianus the Finder, and are set in Rome during the first century B.C. Written with excellent literary style, and