The Best Historical Fiction of All Time – What’s Your Opinion?

I was doing some research recently into which historical fiction novels are recognized as being the best of all time – the books that every budding historical fiction author and reader should have read. Of course there is no definitive list – such a thing can and should only ever be a matter of opinion. I found lists on the Telegraph site, Publisher’s Weekly, and of course Goodreads has several reader-curated list- as well.

The most reference one however seemed to be a list published by the Guardian/Observer back in 2012. Here’s what they have:

  • War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
  • Romola by George Eliot
  • The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
  • Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
  • Pure by Andrew Miller
  • The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
  • I, Claudius by Robert Graves
  • Property by Valerie Martin
  • The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

I have to confess that I have only read War and Peace, Wolf Hall, I, Claudius and the first of The Regeneration Trilogy – so no idea about the others. I think given that this is the Guardian its quite a literary fiction based list. I’d agree with these 4 titles that I know being on the list for sure, but I think for pure entertainment value I would have to add The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas well. But also what about Tale of Two Cities by Dickens?

What about you? What else should be on the list – please comment below – I’d love to hear what you think.

New Historical Film Friday: The Three Musketeers

Yet another version of the The Three Musketeers is out on 21st October 2011. I loved the book by Alexandre Dumas, but I’m not sure if any of the film versions have ever really done it justice.

Here’s the trailer:

The cast are:

Logan Lerman … D’Artagnan
Ray Stevenson … Porthos
Luke Evans … Athos
Matthew Macfadyen … Aramis
Christoph Waltz … Cardinal Richelieu
Mads Mikkelsen … Rochefort

And it’s directed by Paul W.S. Anderson who seems to have done mostly Resident Evil films in the past!

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