Historical Fiction

On this page, I have ordered the books by the century in which most of the action takes place unless the action is fairly equally divided across centuries, in which case the book is listed in each one. On the Links to Popular Posts, you can find books that take place in more than one century under the link for any of those centuries. See the menu Historical Mysteries for historical mysteries.

BC

• Barker, Pat, The Silence of the Girls, The Women of Troy
• Brooks, Geraldine, The Secret Chord
• Harris, Robert, Dictator, Conspirata, Imperium
• Miller, Madeline, The Song of Achilles
• Renault, Mary, Fire from Heaven, Funeral Games, The Last of the Wine, The Persian Boy
• Tóibín, Colm, House of Names

1st Century

• Davis, Lindsey, Master & God
• Dumas, Alexandre, Acté
• Harris, Robert, Pompeii
• Sienkiewicz, Henryk, Quo Vadis
• Tóibín, Colm, The Testament of Mary

5th Century

• Malory, Thomas, Le Morte D’Arthur

6th Century

• Ishiguro, Kazuo, The Buried Giant

7th Century

• Albert, Edoardo, Edwin High King of Britain

9th Century

• Tolmie, Sarah, All the Horses of Iceland

10th Century

• Bengtsson, Frans G., The Long Ships
• Chabon, Michael, Gentlemen of the Road
• Leach, Tim, Smile of the Wolf

11th Century

• Dunnett, Dorothy, King Hereafter
• Gray, Juliana, A Strange Scottish Shore
• Kingsnorth, Paul, The Wake

12th Century

• Chadwick, Elizabeth, A Place Beyond Courage
• Franklin, Ariana, and Samantha Norman, The Siege Winter
• Scott, Walter, The Talisman
• Senior, Antonia, The Winter Isles

13th Century

• Porter, Jane, The Scottish Chiefs
• Thorpe, Adam, Hodd

14th Century

• Druon, Maurice, The Iron King (second review), The King Without a Kingdom, The Lily and the Lion, The Poisoned Crown, The Royal Succession, The She-Wolf, The Strangled Queen (second review)
  
• Falcones, Ildefonso, Cathedral of the Sea
• Maitland, Karen, The Owl Killers
• Meek, James, To Calais, in Ordinary Time
• Porter, Jane, The Scottish Chiefs
• Seton, Anya, Katherine
• Smiley, Jane, The Greenlanders
• Spurling, John, The Ten Thousand Things
• Tranter, Nigel, Lords of Misrule
• Undset, Sigrid, The Bridal Wreath, The Cross, The Mistress of Husaby
• Vantrease, Brenda Rickman, The Illuminator
• Walters, Minette, The Last Hours

15th Century

• Dunant, Sarah, Blood & Beauty
• Harvey, Samantha, The Western Wind
• Hugo, Victor, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Iggulden, Conn, Bloodline, Margaret of Anjou, Stormbird
• Kalogridis, Jeanne, The Inquisitor’s Wife
• Smiley, Jane, The Greenlanders
• Stevenson, Robert Louis, The Black Arrow
• Tranter, Nigel, The Captive Crown, A Folly of Princes

16th Century

• Aggeler, Geoffrey, Horses of the Night
• Bilyeau, Nancy, The Chalice
• Brock, Kimberly, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare
• Dumas, Alexandre, La Reine Margot
• Dunant, Sarah, In the Name of the Family, Sacred Hearts
• Dunnett, Dorothy, Checkmate, The Disorderly Knights, The Game of Kings, Queen’s Play, Pawn in Frankincense, The Ringed Castle
• Erickson, Carrolly, The Last Wife of Henry VIII
• Ennis, Michael, The Malice of Fortune
• Fraser, George MacDonald, The Candlemass Road
• Gortner, C.W., The Tudor Secret
• Greig, Andrew, Fair Helen, Rose Nicolson
• Lofts, Norah, Here Was a Man
• Mantel, Hilary, Bring Up the Bodies , The Mirror and the Light, Wolf Hall
• Morgan, Jude, The Secret Life of William Shakespeare
• O’Brien, Kate, That Lady
• O’Farrell, Maggie, Hamnet
• Scott, Walter, Kenilworth
• Sienkiewicz, Henryk, With Fire and Sword
• Skea, Margaret, Turn of the Tide
• Weir, Alison, The Marriage Game

17th Century

• Arnold, Michael, Highwayman: Winter Swarm
• Balch, Frederic Homer, The Bridge of the Gods
• Boyden, Joseph, The Orenda
• Brooks, Geraldine, Caleb’s Crossing
• Brooks, Geraldine, People of the Book
• Burton, Jessie, The Miniaturist
• Clark, Clare, The Nature of Monsters
• Dumas, Alexandre, The Black Tulip, The Vicomte de Bragelonne
• Eyre, Hermione, Viper Wine
• Fletcher, Susan, Corrag
• Freemantle, Elizabeth, The Poison Bed
• George, Sara, The Journal of Mrs. Pepys
• Gregory, Philippa, Tidelands
• Hargrave, Kiran Millwood, The Mercies
• Howe, Katherine, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
• Kadish, Rachel, The Weight of Ink
• Kidd, Jess, The Night Ship
• Lea, Caroline, The Glass Woman
• Lovett, Charlie, The Bookman’s Tale
• Magnusson, Sally, The Sealwoman’s Gift
• Morgan, Jude, The Secret Life of William Shakespeare
• Nesbit, TaraShea, Beheld
• Norfolk, Lawrence, John Saturnall’s Feast
• Purcell, Laura, The Silent Companions
• Sabatini, Rafael, The Lovers of Yvonne
• Salgari, Emilio, The Queen of the Caribbean
• Scott, Walter, The Bride of Lammermoor, Waverley
• Smith, Dominic, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
• Steadman, Helen, Widdershins
• Taylor, Andrew, The Ashes of London, The Fire Court. The King’s Evil, The Last Protector, The Royal Secret
• Thorpe, Adam, Ulverton
• Tremain, Rose, Merivel: A Man of His Time
• Watson, Sally, Lark
• Winterson, Jeanette, The Daylight Gate

18th Century

• Barton, Emily, Brookland
• Burton, Jessie, The House of Fortune
• Carey, Edward, Little
• Chevalier, Tracy, Burning Bright
• Clement, Katherine, The Coffin Path
• Crace, Jim, Harvest
• Dickens, Charles, A Tale of Two Cities
• Drabble, Margaret, The Red Queen
• Dumas, Alexandre, Captain Paul
• Du Maurier, Daphne, Jamaica Inn
• Dunmore, Helen, Birdcage Walk
• Ehle, John, The Land Breakers
• Ekbäck, Cecilia, Wolf Winter
• Fraser, George MacDonald, Captain in Calico
• Gowar, Imogen Hermes, The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
• Graham, Winston, The Angry Tide, The Black Moon, Demelza, The Four Swans, Jeremy Poldark, Ross Poldark, Warleggan
• Grenville, Kate, A Room Made of Leaves
• Gyasi, Yaa, Homegoing
• Halls, Stacey, The Foundling
• Harris, Jane, Sugar Money
• Heyer, Georgette, The Convenient Marriage, Faro’s Daughter, Snowdrift and Other Stories, The Talisman Ring
• Hodgson, Antonia, A Death at Fountains Abbey, The Devil in the Marshalsea, The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins, The Silver Collar
• Keaney, Brian, The Alphabet of Heart’s Desire
• Kearsley, Susanna, The Winter Sea
• Laxness, Halldór, Iceland’s Bell
• Mazzola, Anna, The Clockwork Girl
• Miller, Andrew, Pure
• Mitchell, David, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
• Myers, Benjamin, The Gallows Pole
• Naslund, Sena Jeter, The Fountain of St. James Court or, Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman
• Nordhoff, Charles and James Norman Hall, Men Against the Sea, Mutiny on the Bounty, Pitcairn’s Island
• Scott, Walter, The Antiquary, Guy Mannering, Waverley
• Spufford, Francis, Golden Hill
• Stachniak, Eva, Empress of the Night, The Winter Palace
• Stevenson, Robert Louis, Kidnapped, Treasure Island
• Thorpe, Adam, Ulverton
• Unsworth, Barry, The Quality of Mercy
• Wade, Christine, Seven Locks
• Wilder, Thornton, The Bridge of San Luis Rey
• Wyld, Evie, The Bass Rock

19th Century

• Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart
• Atwood, Margaret, Alias Grace
• Baker, Jo, Longbourn, The Mermaid’s Child
• Barry, Sebastian, Days without End
• Beauregard, Mark, The Whale: A Love Story
• Birch, Carol, Jamrach’s Menagerie, Orphans of the Carnival
• Brennert, Alan, Moloka’i
• Brightwell, Geri, The Dark Lantern
• Brooks, Geraldine, People of the Book
• Burnet, Graeme Macrae, His Bloody Project
• Busch, Frederick, The Night Inspector
• Byatt, A. S., The Children’s Book
• Carey, Peter, Jack Maggs, Parrot and Olivier in America
• Catton, Eleanor, The Luminaries
• Chevalier, Tracy, Remarkable Creatures
• Clark, Janice, The Rathbones
• Coates, Ta-Nehisi, The Water Dancer
• Conley, Robert J., Strange Company
• Coplin, Amanda, The Orchardist
• Crummey, Michael, Galore, River Thieves
• DeWitt, Patrick, The Sisters Brothers
• Donoghue, Emma, The Wonder
• Du Maurier, Daphne, Castle Dor
• Ebershoff, David, The 19th Wife
• Eco, Umberto, The Prague Cemetery
• Edugyan, Esi, Washington Black
• Ehle, John, The Road
• Ekbäck, Cecilia, In the Month of the Midnight Sun
• Evans, Margiad, Country Dance
• Evison, Jonathan, West of Here
• Farrell, J. G., The Siege of Krishnapur
• Faye, Lyndsay, Jane Steele
• Fergus, Jim, One Thousand White Women, The Vengeance of Mothers
• Ferguson, Ruby, Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary
• Fletcher, Susan, House of Glass, Let Me Tell You about a Man I Knew
• Foote, Shelby, Shiloh
• Foulds, Adam, The Quickening Maze
• Fowler, Karen Joy, Booth, Sister Noon
• Fraser, George MacDonald, Flashman
• Frazier, Charles, Varina
• Freeman, Judith, Red Water
• Fuller, Iola, The Loon Feather
• Gale, Patrick, A Place Called Winter
• Garfield, Leon, Smith, The Story of a Pickpocket
• Gault, Cinda, This Godforsaken Place
• Ghosh, Amitav, Flood of Fire, River of Smoke, Sea of Poppies
• Gifford, Elisabeth, The Sea House
• Gilbert, Elizabeth, The Signature of All Things
• Graham, Winston, Bella Poldark, The Loving Cup, The Miller’s Dance, The Stranger from the Sea, The Twisted Sword
• Grenville, Kate, The Secret River
• Gyasi, Yaa, Homegoing
• Hand, Elizabeth, Mortal Love
• Hardy, Thomas, The Mayor of Casterbridge
• Harris, Robert, An Officer and a Spy
• Heyer, Georgette, Black Sheep, A Civil Contract, The Corinthian, Cotillion, Cousin Kate, Frederica, Friday’s Child , The Grand Sophy, The Nonesuch, Regency Buck, Snowdrift and Other Stories, Sprig Muslin, Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle, The Toll-Gate, Venetia 
• Horan, Nancy, Under the Wide and Starry Sky
• Hughes, Richard, A High Wind in Jamaica
• Hunt, Laird, Neverhome
• Jensen, Carsten, We, The Drowned
• Jiles, Paulette, Simon the Fiddler
• Jones, Edward P., The Known World
• Kelly, Mary Pat, Galway Bay
• Kennedy, Margaret, Troy Chimneys
• Kent, Hannah, Burial Rites, The Good People
• Kidd, Jess, Things in Jars
• Kidd, Sue Monk, The Invention of Wings
• Kingsolver, Barbara, Unsheltered
• Levy, Andrea, The Long Song
• Lynch, Paul, Grace
• McBride, James, The Good Lord Bird
• McCrea, Gavin, Mrs. Engels
• McCrumb, Sharyn, The Unquiet Grave
• Martin, Valerie, The Ghost of the Mary Celeste
• Mazzola, Anna, The Story Keeper
• Meyer, Philipp, The Son
• Miller, Andrew, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free
• Mitchell, David, Cloud Atlas
• Morgan, Jude, Charlotte and Emily
• Morgan, Jude, Indiscretion
• Morgan, Jude, Passion
• Morrison, Toni, Beloved
• Morton, Kate, The Clockmaker’s Daughter
• Naivo, Beyond the Rice Fields
• Naslund, Sena Jeter, Ahab’s Wife: or, The Star-Gazer
• Nicholson, William, Amherst
• O’Connor, Joseph, Shadowplay
• O’Connor, Nuala, Miss Emily
• O’Loughlin, Ed, Minds of Winter
• Owen, Lauren, The Quick
• Palliser, Charles, Rustication
• Parker, Robert B., Appaloosa
• Perry, Sarah, The Essex Serpent
• Poland, Marguerite, A Sin of Omission
• Portis, Charles, True Grit
• Powning, Beth, The Sea Captain’s Wife
• Purcell, Laura, The House of Whispers, The Poison Thread, The Shape of Darkness, The Silent Companions
• Quinn, Anthony, The Streets
• Ray, Kalyan, No Country
• Ridgway, Bee, The River of No Return
• Rivers, Susan, The Second Mrs. Hockaday
• Rölvaag, O. E., Giants in the Earth
• Russell, Mary Doria, Doc
• Scharper, Hilary, Perdita
• Schmidt, Sarah, See What I Have Done
• Scott, James, The Kept
• See, Lisa, Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
• Setterfield, Diane, Bellman & Black
• Shepherd, Lynn, A Fatal Likeness, The Solitary House
• Smiley, Jane, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton
• Stevenson, Robert Louis, Weir of Hermiston. Some Unfinished Stories
• Stone, Irving, Immortal Wife
• Sutcliff, Rosemary, Blood & Sand
• Thackeray, William Makepeace, Vanity Fair
• Thorpe, Adam, Ulverton
• Tóibín, Colm, The Master
• Treloar, Lucy, Salt Creek
• Vidal, Gore, 1876
• Vreeland, Susan, Clara and Mr. Tiffany
• Warner, Sylvia Townsend, Summer Will Show, The True Heart
• Waters, Sarah, Affinity
• White, Karen, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig, The Forgotten Room
• Whitehead, Colson, The Underground Railroad
• Wilcox, Victoria, Inheritance
• Williams, Andrew, To Kill a Tsar
• Williams, Niall, The Fall of Light
• Williams, Pip, The Dictionary of Lost Words
• Witliff, Bill, The Devil’s Backbone
• Woolf, Virginia, Flush: A Biography

20th Century (first half or so)

• Amend, Allison, Enchanted Islands
• Amis, Martin, The Zone of Interest
• Atkinson, Kate, A God in Ruins, Life After Life, Shrines of Gaiety, Transcription
• Baker, Jo, A Country Road, A Tree
• Barbeau-Lavalette, Anaïs, Suzanne
• Barker, Pat, Toby’s Room
• Belfoure, Charles, The Paris Architect
• Black, Benjamin, The Secret Guests
• Bloom, Amy, Lucky Us, White House’s
• Boyd, William, Love Is Blind, Sweet Caress
• Boyne, John, The House of Special Purpose
• Brennert, Alan, Moloka’i
• Brock, Kimberly, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare
• Brooks, Geraldine, People of the Book
• Brown, Eleanor, The Light of Paris
• Burton, Jessie, The Muse
• Byatt, A. S., The Children’s Book, A Whistling Woman
• Carey, Peter, A Long Way from Home
• Chabon, Michael, Moonglow
• Chapman, Maille, Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto
• Chevalier, Tracy, A Single Thread
• Christie, Michael, Greenwood
• Cleave, Chris, Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
• Cline, Emma, The Girls
• Connolly, Cressida, After the Party
• Conte, Steven, The Tolstoy Estate
• Cunningham, Michael, The Hours
• Darznik, Jasmin, Song of a Captive Bird
• Delderfield, R. F., Long Summer Day
• Diamant, Anita, The Boston Girl
• Doerr, Anthony, All the Light We Cannot See
• Donoghue, Emma, The Pull of the Stars
• Dunmore, Helen, The Greatcoat, The Lie
• Ebershoff, David, The Danish Girl
• Edugyan, Esi, Half-Blood Blues
• Egan, Jennifer, Manhattan Beach
• Ekbäck, Cecilia, The Historians
• Eng, Tan Twan, The Garden of Evening Mists
• Erdrich, Louise, The Night Watchman
• Fagan, Jenni, Luckenbooth
• Farrell, J. G., The Singapore Grip, Troubles
• Faye, Lyndsay, The Paragon Hotel
• Fitch, Janet, The Revolution of Marina M.
• Flanagan, Richard, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
• Follett, Ken, The Man from St. Petersburg
• Foulds, Adam, In the Wolf’s Mouth
• Fowler, Therese Anne, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
• Franklin, Tom and Beth Ann Fennelly, The Tilted World
• Fuller, Claire, Bitter Orange
• Furst, Alan, Midnight in Europe
• Gale, Patrick, A Place Called Winter
• Galgut, Damon, Arctic Summer
• Gardam, Jane, Last Friends, The Man in the Wooden Hat, Old Filth
• Ghosh, Amitav, The Glass Palace
• Gilbert, Elizabeth, City of Girls
• Gray, Juliana, A Strange Scottish Shore
• Gruen, Sara, At the Water’s Edge
• Gurnah, Abdulrazak, Afterlives
• Gyasi, Yaa, Homegoing
• Hammad, Isabella, The Parisian
• Hannah, Kristin, The Nightingale
• Harding, Paul, Tinkers
• Harris, Robert, Munich, V2
• Hayes, Suzanne and Nyhan, Loretta, Empire Girls
• Hickey, Christine Dwyer, The Narrow Land
• Hobson, Charlotte, The Vanishing Futurist
• Hodgkinson, Amanda, 22 Britannia Road
• Hollinghurst, Alan, The Stranger’s Child
• Howe, Katherine, The House of Velvet and Glass
• Ishiguro, Kazuo, The Remains of the Day
• Jacobsen, Roy, The Unseen, White Shadow
• James, Marlon, A Brief History of Seven Killings
• Jefferies, Dinah, The Sapphire Widow
• Jones, Addison, Wait for Me, Jack
• Jones, Edward P., All Aunt Hagar’s Children
• Jones, Sadie, The Uninvited Guests
• Kelly, Martha Hall, Lilac Girls
• Kenneally, Thomas, The Daughters of Mars
• Kidd, Jess, Himself, The Night Ship
• King, Lily, Euphoria
• Kingsolver, Barbara, The Lacuna
• Kushner, Rachel, The Flamethrowers
• Lawhon, Ariel, Flight of Dreams
• Lawson, Mary, The Other Side of the Bridge
• Lea, Caroline, The Metal Heart
• Lecoat, Jenny, The Girl from the Channel Islands
• Lee, Min Jin, Pachinko
• MacLennan, Hugh, Barometer Rising
• Maine, Sarah, The House Between Tides
• Malamud, Bernard, The Fixer
• Malik, Rachel, Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves
• Mawer, Simon, The Glass Room
• McCarthy, Tom, C
• McClain, Paula, Circling the Sun
• McEwan, Ian, Atonement
• McGrath, Patrick, The Wardrobe Mistress
• Mawer, Simon, The Glass Room, Tightrope
• Merrell, Susan Scarf, Shirley
• Mitchell, David, Cloud Atlas, Utopia Avenue
• Mohamed, Nadifa, The Fortune Men
• Moorhouse, Frank, Cold Light, Dark Palace, Grand Days
• Morgan, C. E., The Sport of Kings
• Morton, Kate, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, The Distant Hours, The Forgotten Garden, The Lake House, The Secret Keeper
• Mukherjee, Neel, The Lives of Others
• Nesbit, TaraShea, The Wives of Los Alamos
• Norman, Howard, The Bird Artist, The Haunting of L., The Museum Guard
• O’Connor, Joseph, Ghost Light
• O’Farrell, Maggie, Instructions for a Heatwave, The Hand That First Held Mine, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
• O’Hara, Maryanne, Cascade
• Ólafsdóttir, Auður Ava, Miss Iceland
• O’Loughlin, Ed, Minds of Winter
• Ondaatje, Michael, Warlight
• Orringer, Julie, The Flight Portfolio, The Invisible Bridge
• Pears, Tim, The Horseman, The Redeemed, The Wanderers
• Quinn, Kate, The Alice Network
• Robertson, Robin, The Long Take
• Robinson, Marilynne, Gilead, Lila
• Roy, Anuradha, An Atlas of Impossible Longing
• Schroller, Elaine Aucoin, Dare Not Tell
• See, Lisa, Shanghai Girls
• Shamsie, Kamila, A God in Every Stone
• Shapiro, B. A., The Collector’s Apprentice
• Shattuck, Jessica, The Women in the Castle
• Shipstead, Maggie, Astonish Me, Great Circle
• Shreve, Anita, The Stars Are Fire
• Simonson, Helen, The Summer Before the War
• Singleton, Elyse, This Side of the Sky
• Smiley, Jane, Early Warning, Some Luck
• Smyth, Amanda, Fortune
• Soueif, Ahdaf, The Map of Love
• Swift, Graham, Mothering Sunday
• Szado, Ania, Studio Saint-Ex
• Tan, Amy, The Kitchen God’s Wife
• Thien, Madeleine, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
• Thorpe, Adam, Ulverton
• Tóibín, Colm, Brooklyn, The Magician
• Towles, Amor, A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility
• Tremain, Rose, The Gustav Sonata
• Trigiani, Adriana, The Shoemaker’s Wife
• Urquhart, Jane, The Night Stages
• Vreeland, Susan, Lisette’s List
• Walter, Jess, The Cold Millions
• Waters, Sarah, The Paying Guests
• Weisgarber, Ann, The Promise
• Werfel, Franz, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
• West, Mathew, The House of Footsteps
• White, Karen, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig, The Forgotten Room
• Whitehead, Colson, Harlem Shuffle, The Nickel Boys
• Williams, Beatriz, The Summer Wives
• Williams, Niall, This Is Happiness
• Willig, Lauren, The Other Daughter
• Wood, Naomi, Mrs. Hemingway
• Wyld, Evie, After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, The Bass Rock
• Yan, Mo, Red Sorghum
• Zusak, Markus, The Book Thief