Talk:List of historical novels

Old discussion
Erik Lason's book Devil in the White City is NOT a historical novel. It is narrative non-fiction. Someone needs to police this list.

I will never understand what makes people remove information from an article. There was a nice, short and annotated list of historical novels illustrating the article. Now what we've got is a long list in a separate article, but it's basically just authors and titles. For example, no one will realize that William Irish (no article) is Cornell Woolrich. And why delete the note on the two filmed versions? Again, I just don't understand it, but as I hate edit wars, so be it. --KF 21:25 23 May 2003 (UTC)


 * I reverted the historical novel article to include the annotated list. I see your point about its importance. As for this list, it is helpful to have a quick reference of the many historical novels that exist. Kingturtle 21:44 23 May 2003 (UTC)


 * Thanks! --KF 21:49 23 May 2003 (UTC)

Okay, I admit it. I don't understand the point of this list. First, it's just a sampling, and a very thin sampling at that. Just off the top of my head, I can come up with several dozen authors who aren't represented at all. Are all historical novels discussed on Wikipedia meant to be included? Second, what do you plan to do about novels like O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, which are set all over the world and not in any particular place? Michael K. Smith 22:27, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * The point of this list is to have a resource to track down different historical novels. if you can think of seven dozen authors, why don't you add them? that is what makes wikipedia work. i don't understand why you haven't added them. Kingturtle 08:14, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * It might be useful to have a list sorted by era rather than country.  This would also cater better for O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin seriesDejvid 16:26, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Sorting by era would be a huge step forward. For instance, I added an article on Gillian Bradshaw yesterday. Her first novels take place in Arthurian Britain. It'd bother me to add those (the "Down the Long Wind"-trilogy) under the Great Britain header. Likewise I've just started reading Anderson's "Mother of Kings". So far, it takes place in Norway, but I'd be very surprised if the action doesn't move elsewhere as well, so that the appropriate "area" probably ends up being "The Viking World". And so forth and so on... Sorting by era instead of area would be a huge step forward. --Peter Knutsen 04:14, 14 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I agree. This is a pitiful sampling.  Obviously the "list of historical novels" is many thousands of titles long, and yet this page lists only about two hundred novels.  The criteria for inclusion on a list should be as close to unambiguous as possible, and "historical fiction" is pretty ambiguous.  A good editor (that's not me) should see if this topic really makes sense according to Wikipedia's definition of a list. Ccady 17:06, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Why by country?
Why sort this list by country in which the story takes place? That just seems like it would make things more complicated than necessary. Wouldn't it do better to sort by the time period in which it takes place or something like that? Hewinsj 12:50, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree, to sort by era would be more sensible since the point is that these are historical novels. But the list as it stands is a useful resource, as well as representing a lot of work. Would it be too bold a move to start a new list of "historical novels by era" and retitle this "historical novels by country"?  Robina Fox 16:58, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I would consider that a better identifier for this article. Also, if people don't mind assembling a list by historical period I doubt it would hurt anything. Hewinsj 21:20, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
 * it would be more useful by period --88.5.196.220 (talk) 18:00, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

ISBN nos
As only a handful of books gave the ISBN nos, I removed the numbers in the interests of consistency, but preserve them here:
 * Julian by Gore Vidal (ISBN 0-375-72706-X)
 * Death of a Circus by Chandra Prasad (New England, Traveling Circus, rustabouts, fire eater, wirewalker, intrigue and poverty of 1930s) - ISBN 1-59709-024-7
 * To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark by Frances Hunter - ISBN 0-9777636-2-5
 * Burr (ISBN 0-375-70873-1), 1876 (ISBN 0-375-70872-3), and Lincoln (ISBN 0-375-70876-6) by Gore Vidal  Robina Fox 21:51, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Russian classics
Under Russia, the list from Onegin downwards consists of books written in the nineteenth century which appear to have been contemporary when written. I suggest these do not belong in a list of historical novels unlike War and Peace which is set in an earlier period. Unless there are any objections, I will remove them. If you know of any other books in the list being contemporary, please consider deleting them. Robina Fox (talk) 18:25, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Macedonia and Alexander
The recent renaming of the Macedonia section as FYROM prompted me to move the books about Alexander the Great to the Greece section, as ancient Macedonia is now substantially part of Greece. The "former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia" contains only about a quarter of that territory and not the historically significant part. See the Wikipedia articles on Macedonia and The Truth about Macedonia... There might be a case for having a section "Ancient Macedonia" as there is for the "Roman Republic and Empire". Robina Fox (talk) 07:10, 24 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Better yet, let's move "Greece" to "Turkey," in order to better reflect its historical status. Dawud (talk) 09:30, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

The Kite Runner
How on earth does a novel set in the 1980s and 90s that was published in 2003 qualify as historical fiction? john k (talk) 21:27, 26 October 2012 (UTC)

WorldCat Genres
Maximilianklein (talk) 23:31, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Non-notable entries
There is a very clear set of criteria established for this article:

******************************** NOTE ******************************** NOTABLE WORKS ONLY - DO NOT ADD WORKS UNLESS EITHER THE AUTHOR OR THE WORK HAS A WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE

Despite this, 90.175.125.105 has repeatedly added entries that don't meet the criteria. 90.175.125.105 has already been warned about this, but persists in this edit-warring behavior. Perhaps 90.175.125.105 could explain the persistent additions of entries that don't meet the well-established criteria. 32.218.46.132 (talk) 18:40, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Other languages
As this is the English-language Wikipedia, I suggest that novels in other languages that have not been translated into English do not belong on this list even if the author has an article in this Wikipedia. I would recommend the creation in other language Wikipedias of lists of historical novels, which can then be linked with this list. If a novel has been translated into English, it would be better to use the English language title. Robina Fox (talk) 01:13, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

Nothing by Thomas B. Costain?
The title says it all. How can I trust a list with a glaring omission? ref: Thomas B. Costain Tex (talk) 16:58, 10 March 2023 (UTC)