Read On … Historical Fiction: Reading Lists for Every Taste

Citation

Lee Eden, B. (2007), "Read On … Historical Fiction: Reading Lists for Every Taste", Collection Building, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 95-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950710761698

One of many in the Read On series, the focus of this book is historical fiction. The author defines historical fiction, roughly, as a historical novel that is set at least 50 years prior to the date it was written. There are two kinds of historical novels: one in which a historical figure is the main character of the book, and the plot is woven around fictional scenes and dialogue; and one in which an invented or invented characters are placed into a historical situation.

The book itself is merely a list of historical novels, divided into five categories: setting, story, character, language, and mood or atmosphere. Each category contains numerous, more specific subdivisions. Each entry in the book includes the author's name, title of book, year of publication, publisher, number of pages, ISBN, and a short synopsis. The book is intended for general readers, readers' advisory librarians, the public library fiction‐reading public, and collection development librarians. An extensive index of the contents is included at the end of the book.

Overall, this is a very nice compilation of historical novels, one that will be of interest to both readers and librarians in charge of collection development on this topic.