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the founder of the first historical wordcloud group appeared to make a sweeping phillistinic statement that authors really owe little or nothing to historical accuracy, and should simply chase the royalties. or did he?
what's true is that he seems to have posted this statement then disappeared off the face of the earth which is partly why i thought of founding this group
i love history and novels, which is why i read and write historical fiction. i love researching history but don't consider myself a historian as such.
also i lean towards the more literary side of things nowadays and am always looking for top quality lit hist fic, old or contemporary. if i get one good recommendations from this i'll be happy; i'm extremely fussy though, and consider sarah waters' fingersmith to be the standard to aim for.
i'll stick my neck out and say i think ralph (Historical Novel owner) is an utter phillistine, judging by his comments, and that's the nicest i can be. what makes a really good historical novel? tell me what you think.
what's true is that he seems to have posted this statement then disappeared off the face of the earth which is partly why i thought of founding this group
i love history and novels, which is why i read and write historical fiction. i love researching history but don't consider myself a historian as such.
also i lean towards the more literary side of things nowadays and am always looking for top quality lit hist fic, old or contemporary. if i get one good recommendations from this i'll be happy; i'm extremely fussy though, and consider sarah waters' fingersmith to be the standard to aim for.
i'll stick my neck out and say i think ralph (Historical Novel owner) is an utter phillistine, judging by his comments, and that's the nicest i can be. what makes a really good historical novel? tell me what you think.
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by tegels 1 year agoI certainly hope historical fiction is going to be entertaining when I read it! If I get pure 'infodump' aka 'look at all the research I've done and I am going to include all of it!' I soon stop reading. Might as well read a non-fiction book. Want a good story, well told, when I'm reading any fiction. -
by Angie 1 year agoHistoric fiction is interpreting history through modern eyes otherwise why not just read the first hand sources? Surely historic fiction is entertainment? At least I find it entertains, providing it is well written and examining how people interact with their own time. -
by Persia 2 years agoHi everyone! Is this group active? I see the posts are all quite old. I have work that I would like critiqued by like-minded, literary historical buffs or readers or writers! But first I wanted to check for a pulse... -
by mark 2 years agowell i just got my latest report back from ww and i was informed that the following books are at least as good as Fingersmith:
Restoration by Rose Tremain
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
The Love of Stones by Tobias Hill
I have them all on order through Amazon, so I guess I'll soon find out -
by mark 2 years agoah well, if we're going to be pedantic ralph , incorrect is one word, not 2 . maybe we could ask the cloud for a spell checker.? sorry to hear about your father btw
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by RALPH 3 years agoMark
Your spelling of philistine is in correct – the definition of which is a smug boorish person.
I have not disappeared of the face of the earth but my father is gravely ill in hospital. -
by BP 3 years agoHello Mark, If you're interested in novels to read, I'd like to suggest 'Havoc In Its Third Year' by Ronan Bennett. It was flagged up as a 17th century detective story the bookclub I bought it from, but turned out to be far more profound. It concerned the activities of a coroner, but was more of a comment on the misue of power. That aside, it had a lyrical, slightly melancholic quality and put me in mind of one of those 17th century mourning portraits, or perhaps the poetry of John Donne. Of course this might not be your cup of tea, and you'll probably hate it. Ho-hum, Beep -
by mark 3 years agoi've never heard of dorothy dunnett, i will research her stuff. i like your idea re: not losing the reader there, never thought of it like that before. and another idea i had earlier today after pondering all those comments (imponderables, you might say) about fact vs fiction is thus:
a good story can be written about anything, in any genre, and the point of view of the main characters, even the subject matter and time frame etc needn't be of the slightest consequence. therefore there's no need to argue over the definitions, a really good writer can entertain whilst talking about virtually nothing (elizabeth von arnim is my favourite example of this) so, historical novelists nail their colours to the mast, i think, when calling themselves such,and i think by doing so they really do owe a great deal to historical accuracy, if not necessarily to the focus on the characters under the magnifying glass, unless of course they are very famous, real public figures in which case i don't see the point in reinventing their personalities -
by Angie 3 years agoHave you read anything by Dorothy Dunnett? Her writing contains many levels which is why I find it exceptional. Read the Lymond series back in college days and picked them up again recently and still found new ideas. Whilst her sense of history is rounded I would agree historic fiction is just that - we cannot live in the past only transfuse the past in our ideology. History is like looking the wrong way down a telescope - an isolated picture, isn't good historic fiction meant to take the reader into another environment without losing them there?
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by mark 3 years agohello everyone, and welcome to my new group. the website appears to be creaking a little and so instead of my pic you will see a cartoon of an old man. that's my real photo, in the members section.
