This document provides an overview of different types of historical fiction and examples of notable historical fiction novels. It defines historical fiction as works that depict real historical figures and events or imagined stories set in authentic historical time periods and contexts. The document lists different subgenres of historical fiction, such as stories featuring time travel or alternate histories. It then briefly summarizes the plots and historical settings of several well-known historical fiction novels, including All the King's Men, A Northern Light, Caleb's Crossing, The Jungle, and East of Eden.

1. Great Historical Fiction Novels
Schnabel 2014

2. What is Historical Fiction?
Historical fiction can take a number of
forms,including but not limited to:
· Depictions of real historical figures
in the context of the challenges they
faced.
· Depictions of real historical figures
in imagined situations.
· Depictions of fictional characters in
documented historical situations.
· Depictions of fictional characters in
fictional situations, but in the context of a
real historical period.

3. Historical Fiction can also include:
• Timeshift stories, in which a modern character is transported
back in time, or more rarely, a historical character is
transported to the present, or to a time period not his own.
· Alternate history or "What if?" stories, usually set in a world
in which an historic event did not occur, or occurred much
differently, such as a Nazi victory in World War II, a Texan
victory at the Alamo, or the death of William, Duke of
Normandy, in 1065.
· Historical fantasy, in which characters, even historic figures,
are depicted in historical periods or situations, but along with
magic or dragons or some other element of fantasy.

4. All The King's Men is the story of the rise of politician Willie
Stark from a rural county seat to the spotlight. Along the way, he
loses his initial innocence, and becomes just as corrupt as those
who he assaulted before for this characteristic.
Political

5. A Northern Light
By
Jennifer Donnelly
1900’s

6. 1917- a female horse
whisperer
This is a stark portrayal of
the West during the first
two decades of the 20th
century create a moving,
wistful memorial to a lost
way of life. Shy, self-effacing
Martha captivates
her fellow humans in much
the same way she charms
wayward horses

7. Caleb’s Crossing
1600’s

8. The brutally grim story of a
Slavic family who emigrates to
America, The Jungle tells of
their rapid and inexorable
descent into numbing poverty,
moral degradation, and social
and economic despair.
Vulnerable and isolated, the
family of Jurgis Rudkus
struggles — unsuccessfully —
to survive in an urban jungle.
1900’s

9. Hurricane Song
2000’s

10. For ten days, as burning
crosses and the crack of
sniper fire spread through the
streets of Clanton, the nation
sits spellbound as young
defense attorney Jake
Brigance struggles to save his
client’s life–and then his own
Civil Rights/African American

11. A hurricane is building over the Gulf of
Mexico, threatening the coastal town of
Bois Sauvage, Mississippi…
A big-hearted novel about familial love and
community against all odds, and a
wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal,
and restrictive realities of rural poverty,
Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry,
revelatory, and real.
Winner of the 2011 National Book Award
2000’s

12. East of Eden
1930’s

13. Summer of My German Soldier
WWII