Historical fiction
Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels.
Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote several immensely popular novels set in conflicts between the Poles and predatory Teutonic Knights, rebelling Cossacks and invading Swedes.
[5] Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti's historical mystery saga Imprimateur Secretum Veritas Mysterium has increased interest in European history[citation needed] and features famous castrato opera singer Atto Melani as a detective and spy.
Postmodern novelists such as John Barth and Thomas Pynchon operate with even more freedom, mixing historical characters and settings with invented history and fantasy, as in the novels The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) and Mason & Dixon (1997) respectively.
[8] In addition to those, there was a wealth of historical novels that became popular in the literary circles during the Ming and Qing periods in Chinese history; they include Feng Menglong's Dongzhou Lieguo Zhi (Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms), Chu Renhuo's Sui Tang yanyi (Romance of the Sui and Tang dynasties), Xiong Damu's Liang Song Nanbei Zhizhuan (Records of the Two Songs, South and North) and Quan han zhi zhuan, Yang Erzeng's Dong Xi Jin yan yi (Romance of the Eastern and Western Jin dynasties), and Qian Cai's The General Yue Fei, etc.
[11] The Tale of Genji (written before 1021) is a fictionalized account of Japanese court life about a century prior and its author asserted that her work could present a "fuller and therefore 'truer'" version of history.
Among his early European followers we can find Willibald Alexis, Theodor Fontane, Bernhard Severin Ingemann, Miklós Jósika, Mór Jókai, Jakob van Lennep, Demetrius Bikelos, Enrique Gil y Carrasco, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, Victor Rydberg, Andreas Munch, Alessandro Manzoni, Alfred de Vigny, Honoré de Balzac or Prosper Mérimée.
[24] In the 20th century György Lukács argued that Scott was the first fiction writer who saw history not just as a convenient frame in which to stage a contemporary narrative, but rather as a distinct social and cultural setting.
[25] Scott's Scottish novels such as Waverley (1814) and Rob Roy (1817) focused upon a middling character who sits at the intersection of various social groups in order to explore the development of society through conflict.
[35] Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.
[42] The Betrothed was inspired by Walter Scott's Ivanhoe but, compared to its model, shows some innovations (two members of the lower class as principal characters, the past described without romantic idealization, an explicitly Christian message), somehow forerunning the realistic novel of the following decades.
Many of these authors (like Niccolò Tommaseo, Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi and D'Azeglio himself) were patriots and politicians too, and in their novels, the veiled politic message of Manzoni became explicit (the hero of Ettore Fieramosca fights to defend the honor of the Italian soldiers, mocked by some arrogant Frenchmen).
This chronicles the decline of a wealthy north German merchant family over the course of four generations, incidentally portraying the manner of life and mores of the Hanseatic bourgeoisie in the years from 1835 to 1877.
In it Mann retells the familiar biblical stories of Genesis, from Jacob to Joseph (chapters 27–50), setting it in the historical context of the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC) in ancient Egypt.
The main characters find themselves subject to the increasing strictures and deprivation of the siege, and the absurdity of maintaining the British class system in a town no one can leave becomes a source of comic invention, though the text is serious in intent and tone.
Though the genre has evolved since its inception, the historical novel remains popular with authors and readers to this day and bestsellers include Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series, Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles.
In 1980, Umberto Eco achieved international success with The Name of the Rose, a novel set in an Italian abbey in 1327 readable as a historical mystery, as an allegory of Italy during the Years of Lead, and as an erudite joke.
Among them were Fulvio Tomizza (The Evil Coming from North, about the Reformation), Dacia Maraini (The Silent Duchess, about the female condition in the eighteenth century), Sebastiano Vassalli (The Chimera, about a witch hunt), Ernesto Ferrero (N) and Valerio Manfredi (The Last Legion).
[52] However, she was eventually sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by the Bulgarian communist regime because of some of her writings celebrating Hitler, and though released after only eleven months for health reasons, was forbidden to publish anything between 1943 and 1972.
[57] The epic historical novel series Den lange rejse (1908–1921, "The Long Journey") is generally regarded as Jensen's masterpiece and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1944 partly on the strength of it.
[61] The historical novel was quite popular in 20th century Latin American literature, including works such as The Kingdom of This World (1949) by Alejo Carpentier, I, the Supreme (1974) by Augusto Roa Bastos, Terra Nostra (1975) by Carlos Fuentes, News from the Empire (1987) by Fernando del Paso, The Lightning of August (1964) by Jorge Ibargüengoitia, The War of the End of the World (1981) by Mario Vargas Llosa and The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) by Gabriel García Marquez.
Other writers of historical fiction include Philippa Gregory, Bernard Cornwell, Sarah Waters, Ken Follett, George Saunders, Shirley Hazzard and Julie Orringer.
"[69] Editor Keith Kahla concurs, "From a small group of writers with a very specialized audience, the historical mystery has become a critically acclaimed, award-winning genre with a toehold on the New York Times bestseller list.
Several novels by Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago are set in historical times including Baltasar and Blimunda, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and The History of the Siege of Lisbon.
A number of such works include elements of historical fantasy or time travel to facilitate the transition between the contemporary world and the past in the tradition of children's portal fiction.
Ancient Greece inspired graphic novels are 300 created by Frank Miller, centered around Battle of Thermopylae, and Age of Bronze series by Eric Shanower, that retells Trojan War.
Historical subjects can also be found in manhua comics like Three Kingdoms and Sun Zi's Tactics by Lee Chi Ching, Weapons of the Gods by Wong Yuk Long as well as The Ravages of Time by Chan Mou.
There have also been produced pure Wuxia television series, many based on works by Jin Yong like Condor Trilogy and Swordsman, also Lu Xiaofeng and Chu Liuxiang by Gu Long.
These include Spontini's La vestale (1807) and Fernand Cortez (1809, revised 1817), Cherubini's Les Abencérages (1813), and Rossini's Le siège de Corinthe (1827) and Moïse et Pharaon (1828).
In 1937's Der historische Roman, published originally in Russian, Lukács developed critical readings of several historical novels by various authors, including Gottfried Keller, Charles Dickens, and Gustave Flaubert.
