A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. As such, the historical novel is distinguished from the alternate-history genre. The historical novel was popularized in the 19th century by artists classified as Romantics. Many regard Sir Walter Scott as the first to have used this technique, in his novels of Scottish history such as Waverley (1814) and Rob Roy (1818). His Ivanhoe (1820) gains credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages. Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) furnishes another early example of the historical novel.

Historical fiction may center on historical or on fictional characters, but usually represents an honest attempt based on considerable research (or at least serious reading) to tell a story set in the historical past as understood by the author's contemporaries. Those historical settings may not stand up to the enhanced knowledge of later historians.

Many early historical novels played an important role in the rise of European popular interest in the history of the Middle Ages. Hugo's Hunchback often receives credit for fueling the movement to save Gothic architecture in France, leading to the establishment of the Monuments historiques, the French governmental authority for historic preservation.

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L.A. Times - Books & Talks

'The Second Plane' by Martin Amis
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
September 11: Terror and Boredom IT would be too easy to read Martin Amis' slim book on Sept. 11 in a day and to dismiss it with a politically correct glare. The dozen essays, columns and reviews and two short stories in "The Second Plane: September 11, Terror and Boredom" are more illuminating than that, though deeply, sometimes self-indulgently flawed.
'The House of Widows' by Askold Melnyczuk
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Family secrets lie at the end of a dark and twisted path FROM its puzzling opening line ("The most common grammatical error is the lie"), there's an ominous vibe to Askold Melnyczuk's third novel, "The House of Widows," and the sense of unease lingers until the final sentence. It's a mysterious, masterfully taut story in which dread plays a prominent role.
'Marco Polo' by Laurence Bergreen
Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700
An account of the adventures of the celebrated 13th century world traveler. MARCO POLO was only 17 when he departed for China in 1271 with his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. Those two merchants of Venice were known to the boy primarily as storytellers of their fabulous exploits, writes award-winning biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen, for they had been absent more than 16 years, Marco's entire childhood. The pair had followed trade routes east, encountered exotic countries and customs and survived many perils; they had even lived for a time at the court of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Empire. Eventually they agreed to accompany his emissary west to the pope, vowing to return to Cambulac (Beijing) with several items the Great Khan had requested.

NYT > Books

Killer Children
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:05:58 -0000
In Natsuo Kirino’s novel, a juvenile killer on the run in Tokyo murders without conscience — and only in retrospect attempts to invent a philosophy to explain his crime.
Essay: Advice Squad
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:44:44 -0000
A guided tour of the books on the self-help best-seller list.
Rock the Casbah
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:34:51 -0000
Mark LeVine discovered that the Islamic world has a surprisingly active heavy metal subculture.

Fiction & Poetry

Mary at the Tattoo Shop
Marcus Jackson Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
She counted her money before we went in, avenue beside us anxious with Friday-evening traffic. Both fourteen, we shared a Newport, its manila butt salty to our lips. Inside, from a huge book of designs and letter styles, she chose to get “MARY” in a black, Old English script . . .
Thirteen Hundred Rats
T. Coraghessan Boyle Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 -0000
There was a man in our village who never in his life had a pet of any kind until his wife died. By my calculation, Gerard Loomis was in his mid-fifties when Marietta was taken from him, but at the ceremony in the chapel he looked so scorched and . . .
Songs of a Season
Maureen N. McLane Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 -0000
for here or to go-- a glass mug, a paper cup-- life is fast, art slow only a few years before all that I am blows free, subatomic not for me that life the careless joy of the dog not for me that leap how to say beautiful weekend in . . .

London Review of Books

Not My Fault · John Lanchester: New Labour's Terrible Memoirs
New Labour's exes are a hard-publishing lot. So far we have had diaries from two of its central figures, David Blunkett and Alastair Campbell, and from a spin-doctor hanger-on (Lance Price); a memoir by its most senior diplomat, the former ambassador to Washington Sir Christopher Meyer; and now memoirs by the former prime minister's wife, his deputy and his bagman. The granddaddy of them all, Blair's own memoirs, are still to come. It is an unprecedented cascade of memoirs by prominent figures in a government which is, let's not forget, still in power. The phenomenon seemed odd when it began - Lance Price was called in front of a Parliamentary committee in December 2005 to account for his temerity in publishing his insider's account. By now we're used to it, and it's getting to the point where it would be more surprising for a New Labour insider not to publish a book explaining how he/she was both a. more at the centre of things than anybody had hitherto suspected while also b. not to blame for any of the stuff that went wrong.
Diary · Sean Wilsey Goes Slow
In the fall of 2002, in the company of a dog named Charlie Chaplin and an architect named Michael Meredith, I set out to drive a 1960 Chevy Apache 10 pick-up truck, at 45 mph, from far west Texas to New York City: 2364 miles through desert, suburbs, forests, lake-spattered plains, mountains, farmland, more suburbs and the Holland Tunnel. I got to know both of my travelling companions during a brief period living in the town of Marfa, Texas, which is also where I found the truck, parked in front of the post office: boxy, banged up, covered in sky-blue house paint, the half-smashed windshield a lattice of stars and linear cracks, like a flag. A Mexican man in his sixties walked outside with his mail and drove it away. Then I found it parked out by the cemetery. Jesse Santesteban, the owner, showed me where he'd signed the engine compartment like an artist, and said I could take a closer look. The doors had handmade wooden armrests, and the seatbelts were fashioned of canvas and chain link. An orange shag carpet covered the floorboards. I offered him $1200 cash. He handed over a green plastic keychain that read 'Laugh, live, love and be happy!' and warned: 'Don't take it over 45 or it'll throw a rod.' A friend later explained: 'That's a polite way of saying the engine will explode.'
Men in White · Benjamin Kunkel: Another Ian McEwan!
'Netherland' is an ambiguous word. It evokes, of course, the Netherlands inhabited by the Dutch, one of whom, Hans van den Broek, tells this story of a few late years spent in that New World city founded almost four hundred years ago on Manhattan Island as New Amsterdam, in what was then the territory of New Netherland. But 'netherland' could also mean any faraway place, as in those 'nether regions' of the city where Hans's teammates from the Staten Island Cricket Club spend their nights. (Hans spends his nights in Chelsea, a Manhattan neighbourhood hardly described in this book, notable for a high concentration of well-built gay men, new condominiums, art galleries, bank branches and large home-furnishing outlets.) 'Netherland' also has sinister overtones of Never Never Land, and sounds like a euphemism for Hades.

Guardian Unlimited Books

Kathryn Hughes: Summer non-fiction round-up 2008
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Summer reading: Kathryn Hughes picks the new books that will take you to faraway places
A life in writing: Tobias Wolff
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Tobias Wolff: 'I hate cruelty. I hate a bully ... There's something in my president, that hectoring way, that reminds me of my stepfather'
Rereading: Did Robert Browning do away with Elizabeth Barrett?
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Did Robert Browning do away with Elizabeth Barrett? Elizabeth Lowry looks to his dramatic monologue 'My Last Duchess' for clues

NPR Topics: Books

Are You Ready For The Summer? Camp, That Is
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:20:00 -0400
A new book titled Camp Camp: Where Fantasy Island Meets Lord of the Flies is an ode to the time of year when kids swarm to camps with appropriated Native American names and sweaty cabins filled with bunk beds and the spoils of independence.
Carter's New Thriller Mixes Murder, Love And Politics
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:40:00 -0400
Novelist Stephen Carter, who is also a professor at the Yale Law School, says his latest novel, Palace Council, is a thriller, a conspiracy, a love story and historical fiction. And the process of writing it was "utterly exhausting."
Books That Knock It Out Of The Park
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:09:00 -0400
Watching baseball and reading books have a lot in common. Both are made for the summer, require some investment of time and — the best part — involve a great deal of sitting. Alan Schwarz details his three favorite books on America's favorite game.

Slashdot: Book Reviews

Inside Steve's Brain
samzenpus Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:19:00 -0000
cgjherr writes "There are management insights to be learned from Steve Jobs? You're nuts. The only things you can learn from Jobs is how to drive people nuts. Or at least, that's what I thought up until I read 'Inside Steve's Brain.' Turns out, there are things to learn from Steve's obsessive perfectionism. Certainly I wouldn't copy every aspect of Jobs' management style. Doing that will likely get you fired, or at least reprimanded, in most companies. But there is some stuff to be learned from how Jobs designs products and analyses the market, and that's the view that Leander Kahney gives us access to." Keep reading for the rest of Jack's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide
samzenpus Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:10:00 -0000
lamaditx writes "There is a good chance that you have heard about "Web 2.0" — the buzz-word coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2005. You will find several reviews of books about this topic on Slashdot. These cover mainly technical aspects of implementation whereas this book introduces the strategical thinking behind the whole Web 2.0 movement... Web 2.0 is so much more than the technology.' The table of contents is available from O'Reilly, together with a chapter preview. The book does not come with any extras but includes the usual free 45 days access to the book on Safari. When reading a book I usually flip through it quickly to get an impression for it, in this case there are three things which I noted right away." Keep reading for the rest of Adrian's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Head First C#
samzenpus Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:24:00 -0000
Michael J. Ross writes "For computer programmers who do not have a solid understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP), learning the C# programming language can be rather challenging, even if they have experience with C or C++, which at least would give them a head start over non-C programmers. Any developer in this situation may well want to begin the learning process with a book that aims to teach both OOP and C# in as gentle a manner as possible, with plenty of patient explanations and illustrative diagrams — such as those found in the book Head First C# by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene." Read below for the rest of Michael's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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