fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2972 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2972 ⌋

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Notes:

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kindasorta based on the Outlander secret.

So once upon a time, anon loved historical fiction. Then she became an adult and learned historical fiction for grown ups was largely romance. If it wasn't romance, it was political blood and gore.

I don't mind romance. I also realize history is filled with political blood and gore. But I want a good historical fiction novel that strikes a sort of even balance? I think what I liked about it as a kid was how much the emphasis was on the characters and their relationships, which could involve romance but didn't have to. There would still be gorey and depressing things, half the time someone's mother died in childbirth or saw a soldier's feet bleeding in the snow, but it wasn't 95% of the book. Like the Dear America book about the Oregon trail - there's a really gruesome chapter where the MC accidentally poisons people with hemlock (at least, I think it's the MC?), but other things happen as well.

So... yeah. Any recs?

If you can cope with it being entirely based on ships and at sea, then I highly recommend the Aubrey-Maturin series of books by Patrick O'Brian. There is some romance, but it's far from the central theme and most of the books centre around the two main characters' friendship (Captain and Ship's Physician) and their adventures during the Napoleonic wars.

SA *almost entirely based on ships and at sea.

Ohh, this sounds like something I would love, especially since I'm already very fond of the Hornblower cycle. Give me all the epic friendship and all the sea adventures. Thank you, nonnie!

The Hornblower series by C.S. Forester is lots of fun and emphasizes neither gore nor romance (though it has both)! I love it. The plots are clever, the protagonist is amazingly well-developed, and you can acquire a whole lot of highly useless knowledge on 19th century naval ships XD

Anything by Arthur Conan Doyle, really. "White Company" and "Sir Nigel" in particular. That's just your classic honest-to-God historical fiction written by someone who was madly in love with the things he wrote about.

"Kidnapped" by Robert Stevenson. It's a book about adventures, the beauty of the Scottish Highlands, and strong friendship. One of a few books written at the time that treated the Jacobite rebellion sympathetically. And really, it just talks about how one's political views do not define one's vices and virtues.

Aww, you beat me to recommending Hornblower! XD

I just read The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen. It's about a mining town that closes itself off during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. I think it did a good job keeping that balance you're talking about.

I remember really liking Imperium by Robert Harris, but consider this only a tentative req, since I admittedly haven't read it very recently. |D

I like Mary Renault's Greek historical fiction a lot. I don't think romance is emphasized (at least, there is always so much going on that the romances are not overbearing) and there's a lot of rich detail. Some violence, but it's not fetishized like some authors will do. "The Last of the Wine" I might recommend (my favorite is "The Persian Boy" but that one is Alexander the Great and I think more romantic)... some romance but a lot of just the protagonist's life.

I, Claudius.

Brother Cadfael books.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cadfael_Chronicles

I know what you mean. I love historical fiction but most historical romance isn't very historical. I like:

Sharon Kay Penman: medieval English/Welsh history
Margaret George: Tudor history, plus Cleopatra and Helen of Troy
Elizabeth Gedge: older and maybe harder to find, but ancient Egypt
Elizabeth Chadwick's newer books: contains some romance but less than her early works and she explores more obscure eras/historical figures and the politics without getting too dry
Bernard Cornwall is also worth a look, mostly English history with some King Arthur

An anti-rec: Philippa Gregory is truly mediocre at best.

I might suggest Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. There is a some blood and violence and whatnot, because it's set during the First World War, but the most important thing is the friendship and familial relationships between the central characters.

All of Karen Maitland's books, set in medieval England and Europe. There's some romance and some gory (well... maybe more a bit disgusting than gory?) bits in them, but they're more about adventure, friendship, family, magic, all sorts of things.

Someone recommended this above, but Robert Harris's Imperium and the sequel, Lustrum. Set in ancient Rome. Very political but not at all gory or bloody.

Essie Fox's books set in Victorian England. Again, there is an element of romance in these but imo it doesn't dominate the narrative, you wouldn't actually describe them as ~romantic fiction. Elijah's Mermaid is her best.

When Nights Were Cold by Susanna Jones, also set in Victorian England. A superb psychological suspense novel with absolutely no elements of the things you're trying to avoid! Very focused on female friendship, the restrictions on what women were able to do at that time etc. Also a great character study.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. Based on the true story of the last woman to be executed in Iceland. Very well-researched and historically accurate - it's kind of bleak but very readable.

The Pirate's Daughter and The True History of Paradise by Margaret Cezair-Thompson, set in Jamaica mainly during the early 20th century. Quite gentle reads but illuminating about the country's history.

Ooh, a lot of these sound really interesting! I'm gonna put them on my list.

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici: A Novel by C. W. Gortner

The Flight of the Heron, by D K Broster. 1745 Scotland. It's about a fictional Jacobite chieftain and his part in the rebellion; the history is almost completely accurate. He has a fiancé (who is charming), but the main relationship in the story is a friendship between him and a redcoat officer; the story is told from their alternating POVs.

Published in 1925. Any resemblance between this and Outlander is, I'm sure, purely coincidental.

There's a romance at the heart of Sigrid Undset's The Master of Hestviken--but there's much, much more going on, especially after Ingunn dies at the end of book 2.

The Axe
The Snake Pit
In the Wilderness
The Son Avenger

I also loved Kristin Lavransdatter, but there might be too much romance in it for your taste.

[ SECRET POST #2972 ]

Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

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Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

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Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

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Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)

Re: Historical Fiction That Doesn't Emphasize Romance (or Blood and Gore)