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Historical Fiction

The best way to learn history is not always in a textbook. (That's probably the worst way, really, but more on that elsewhere.) While learning history through novels can be taken too far (it is fiction after all), there's much to be said for getting a feel for the Civil War through books like The Red Badge of Courage or Across Five Aprils, or learning about the deep rifts between Saxons and Normans in Medieval England through Scott's Ivanhoe.

A well-researched historical novel imparts something no list of names and dates can—a picture of life among a particular people at a particular time, the way they thought, the way they ate, who they admired, how they traveled. Sometimes readers are introduced to real historical figures and events from an intimate perspective, not the stale cardboard presentations common in schools.

There's plenty of nonsense available, of course, and just because the cover says a book takes place in Renaissance Italy or ancient Egypt doesn't mean it's a good book, or even that it's historical fiction in the true sense. A writer who simply transposes stories on different time periods isn't really saying anything about that time period, they're just trying to inflate sales with an appeal to the exotic and unfamiliar.

Such bogus historical fiction is really just fantasy. The good stuff is real and bright and dusty and loud, just like an old Roman city or a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers. It reflects the religious sentiments of the characters as they would have been, such as in Lilli Thal's brilliant Medieval epic Mimus. It shows how one small action can lead to many much larger events, as happens frequently in C.S. Forester's Hornblower series.

Whether you're into the technical descriptions of battles found in Henty's boy-versus-the-world stories, or prefer the romance of The Scarlet Pimpernel, or like to break your heart over and over with books like Amos Fortune, Free Man, historical fiction is above all fiction of the present—not to be kept in the annals of the past, it shows us that the people of long ago (or not so long ago) are not so different than the people of today.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Active Filters: 12th grade (Ages 17-18), Hardcover
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Readers #19
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen with a frontispiece by Milo Winter
1956 printing from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
21
Aubrey/Maturin #21
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$21.95
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
Hornblower Series #11
by C. S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$11.20 (1 in stock)
African Queen
by C. S. Forester
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Below the Salt
by Thomas B. Costain
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ben-Hur
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Lew Wallace
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace
from Harper & Brothers
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Black Rose
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Blood and Sand
by Rosemary Sutcliff
from Hodder & Stoughton
for 11th-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Bounty Trilogy (Wyeth Edition)
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
from Doubleday & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Caine Mutiny
International Collectors Library
by Herman Wouk
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk, illustrated by John Thompson
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Centurion
by Leonard Wibberley
from William Morrow & Company
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Chord of Steel
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Codfish Musket
by Agnes Hewes, illustrated by Armstrong Sperry
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
for 8th-12th grade
1937 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
Darkness and the Dawn
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Daughter of the Seine
by Jeanette Eaton
from Harper & Brothers
for 9th-Adult
1930 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Doctor Dogbody's Leg
by James Norman Hall, illustrated by Warren Chappell
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Earth is the Lord's
by Taylor Caldwell
from Literary Guild of America
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Faery Lands of the South Seas
by James Norman Hall and Charles Bernard Nordhoff, illustrated by George A. Picken
from Harper & Brothers
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Far Lands
by James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Foreigner
by Gladys Malvern, illustrated by Corinne Malvern
from Longmans, Green & Co.
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Four Feathers
by A. E. W. Mason
from Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Fourth Gift
by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
from Doubleday & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Good Shepherd
by C.S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Hessian
by Howard Fast
from William Morrow & Company
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
High Towers
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Hornblower Companion
by C. S. Forester
from Bonanza Publishing
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
House Divided
by Ben Ames Williams, jacket & illustrations by Reginald Marsh
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Hundred Days
Aubrey/Maturin #19
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Impossible Escape
by Steve Sheinkin
from Roaring Brook Press
for 9th-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$16.99
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 4
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 1
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 2
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 3
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories
by James Herriot
First Printing from St. Martin's Press
for 8th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
1st edition from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
King's Cavalier
by Samuel Shellabarger
Book Club Edition from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Lady in Waiting
by Rosemary Sutcliff
from Coward McCann
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Lady of Arlington
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Last Love
by Thomas B. Costain
from Unknown Publisher
for 8th-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Last Plantagenets
A History of the Plantagenets Volume 4
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo, translated by Charles Wilbour
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo, translated by Isabel F Hapgood
from Fall River Press
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo, translated by Lascelles Wraxall and illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Heritage Press
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Les Miserables (abridged)
by Victor Hugo, translated by Charles E. Wilbour
from Book League of America
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Lord Hornblower
by C. S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Lord Jim
by Joseph Conrad
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Lost Island
by James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Lost King
by Rafael Sabatini
from P. F. Collier & Son Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Magnificent Century
A History of the Plantagenets Volume 2
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Man Called Cervantes
by Bruno Frank
from Viking Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Man in the Iron Mask
Signet Classics
by Alexandre Dumas
from International Collectors Library
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Map That Changed the World
by Simon Winchester
1st edition from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
Massacre at Fall Creek
by Jessamyn West
from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Men Against the Sea
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Moby-Dick
Everyman's Library
by Herman Melville
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$27.20
Moby-Dick
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Herman Melville
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moby-Dick
Macmillan Classics
by Herman Melville, illustrated by Robert Shore
from Macmillan
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Moby-Dick
Calla Editions
by Herman Melville
from Dover Publications
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moby-Dick
Modern Library
by Herman Melville
from Modern Library
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moby-Dick (abridged)
International Collector's Library
by Herman Melville
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moment Comes
by Jennifer Bradbury
from Atheneum
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$15.29
Moneyman
by Thomas B. Costain
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th grade - Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Moon and Sixpence
Modern Library
by W. Somerset Maugham
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
Mutiny on the Bounty
by Charles Nordhoff & James Normal Hall
Book Club Edition from Little, Brown & Company
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
My Favorite Songs
by Maria Trapp
from Veritas Press
for Kindergarten-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.00
My Heart Lies South
by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
Biography for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Rene Clarke
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Never Dies the Dream
by Margaret Landon
from Doubleday & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Peter Abelard
by Helen Waddell, illustrated by Lazlo Matulay
from Henry Holt and Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Pillar of Iron
by Taylor Caldwell
from Doubleday & Company
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Pitcairn's Island
by Charles Nordhoff & James Normal Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Power and the Glory
by Gilbert Parker
First Edition from Harper & Brothers
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Jeremiah Curtin, introduction by Harold Lamb, illustrated by Salvatore Fiume
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ramona
by Helen Jackson
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Red Badge of Courage
Portland House Illustrated Classics
by Stephen Crane, illustrated by Jose Miralles
from Portland House
for 7th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Ride With Me
by Thomas B. Costain
1944 Edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Scarlet
by Stephen R. Lawhead
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Sea Captain from Salem
Treegate Series Book 3
by Leonard Wibberley
from Ariel Books
for 9th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Sea of Lemon Trees
by Maria Dolores Aguila
from Roaring Brook Press
2026 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$15.29
Shepherd of the Hills
by Harold Bell Wright
from Shepherd of the Hills Historical Society
for 9th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Shepherd of the Hills
by Harold Bell Wright; illustrated by F. Graham Cootes
from A. L. Burt Company
for 9th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$11.20 (1 in stock)
Shield Ring
by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by C. Walter Hodges
from Oxford University
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Shield Ring
by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by C. Walter Hodges
from Henry Z. Walck, Inc.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Silver Chalice
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Silver Chalice
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Snow Goose
by Paul Gallico
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$16.96 $11.20 (3 in stock)
Son of a Hundred Kings
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Song for a Dark Queen
by Rosemary Sutcliff
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Song of Bernadette
by Franz Werfel, translated by Ludwig Lewisohn
from Sun Dial Press
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Spanish Brothers
by Deborah Alcock
from Lamplighter Publishing
Historical Fiction for 9th-12th grade
in Lamplighter Rare Collector Series (Location: FIC-WH04)
Story of Yorktown as told by Conrad Shultz
by W. Walter Van Baman
from Privately printed
History in Verse for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.80 (1 in stock)
Sword of Islam
by Rafael Sabatini
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Talisman
International Collector's Library
by Sir Walter Scott
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
The Hurricane
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
The Robe
by Lloyd C. Douglas
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
The Robe
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Lloyd C. Douglas
from Reader's Digest
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
12
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