Novels of the Seventeenth Century

The seventeenth century offers a variety of stirring historical settings, including the Civil Wars in England between the Royalist supporters of King Charles I and the Puritan Parliamentarians; the Thirty Years War that engulfed Germany and its neighbors; the migration from the Old World to the American Colonies and Canada; the last of the witch persecutions, especially the hysteria in the Puritan colony of Salem; and major advances in science led by mathematicians like Kepler and alchemists like Isaac Newton.

For the migration-rich seventeenth century, it is difficult to classify novels set partly in North America and partly in Europe by setting, so all novels set in North America appear in either the British Isles or the Continental Europe categories, depending on where the immigrant characters in a stand-alone novel or series of novels primarily came from. Novels with seventeenth-century settings outside Europe and North America (Africa, Asia, Australia and the Middle East) will be grouped in separate pages, by continent, when posted.

Novels are listed alphabetically by author within the following categories:

The British Isles and North America in the 17th Century
Mysteries: 17th Century Britain
Continental Europe and North America in the 17th Century
Mysteries: 17th Century European Continent

The British Isles and North America
in the 17th Century

Vanessa Alexander, The Loving Cup (2001), about a love affair between the poor clerk of Samuel Pepys and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine who run afoul of the Restoration-era "papist plot" to overthrow King Charles

Valerie Anand, The Faithful Lovers, family saga about seventeenth-century descendants of English serfs; #4 in the Bridges Over Time series (see the "Medieval" page for #1 in the series)

John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor, a humorous literary novel about a seventeenth century Englishman in America

Andrew Beahrs, Strange Saint, about seventeenth century immigrants to the Plymouth Colony in America

Pamela Belle, The Moon in the Water, about a seventeenth century royalist family during the English Civil War; #1 in the Heron series

Pamela Belle, The Chains of Fate, about a seventeenth century royalist family during the English Civil War; #2 in the Heron series

Pamela Belle, Alathea, about a seventeenth century royalist family during the English Civil War; #3 in the Heron series

Pamela Belle, The Lodestar, about a seventeenth century royalist family during the English Civil War; #4 in the Heron series

Pamela Belle, Wintercombe, about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #1 in the Wintercombe series

Pamela Belle, Herald of Joy, about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #2 in the Wintercombe series

Pamela Belle, A Falling Star, about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #3 in the Wintercombe series

Pamela Belle, Treason's Gift, about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #4 in the Wintercombe series

Vanora Bennett, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, about a foster daughter of Thomas More and her attraction to two very different men, the portrait-painter Hans Holbein and a student of medicine with a mysterious background

Pauline Bentley, The Cavalier's Masque, historical romance set during the English Civil War

Pauline Bentley, Silk and Sword, historical romance set during the English Civil War

Pauline Bentley, Fallen Angels, about a family of traveling players during the English Civil War and the Restoration; sequel to Rogues and Players, set in Renaissance England

Virginia Bernhard, A Durable Fire, about women immigrants to the Jamestown Colony in early seventeenth century Virginia

Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders, about a woman in a plague-stricken English town that altruistically barricades itself away from the outside world

Bryher, The Player's Boy, about an apprentice actor in early seventeenth century England; Bryher was the pen name of Annie Winnifred Ellerman

Megan Chance, Susannah Morrow: A Novel of Salem, about the Salem witch persecutions

Maryse Condé, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, a literary novel which borrows historical incidents from the Salem witch persecutions and blends them with a modern sensibility and fictional characters like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter to make a point about racist and sexist attitudes

Bruce Cook, Young Will, an aging Shakespeare writes a memoir of his misspent youth

Bernard Cornwell, A Crowning Mercy, about a woman in seventeenth century London

Jan de Hartog, The Peaceable Kingdom, about the seventeenth-century Quaker migration to America; #1 in the Quaker trilogy

Jan de Hartog, The Lamb's War, about the seventeenth-century Quaker migration to America; #2 in the Quaker trilogy

Jan de Hartog, The Peculiar People, about the seventeenth-century Quaker migration to America; #3 in the Quaker trilogy

Christie Dickason, The Lady Tree, about a young Englishman blackmailed into traveling to the Netherlands on a financially risky venture during the "Tulipmania"; #1 in the Lady Tree trilogy

Christie Dickason, Quicksilver, about a young musician in the court of Charles I who fears he may have become a werewolf; #2 in the Lady Tree trilogy

Christie Dickason, The Memory Palace, about a young pregnant woman struggling to survive after her baby's father is exiled; #3 in the Lady Tree trilogy

Christie Dickason, The Firemaster's Mistress, a seventeenth century explosives expert is forced to infiltrate the Gunpowder Plot conspirators as a government spy

Christie Dickason, The Principessa, an English gunpowder expert, sent to Italy as a spy, meets his match in a wily and beautiful young widow; sequel to The Firemaster's Mistress

Susan Donnell, Pocahontas, a romantic novel about Pocahontas which portrays her and John Smith as lovers

Daphne du Maurier, Frenchman's Creek, set in seventeenth century Cornwall

Daphne du Maurier, The King's General, set in the period between the First and Second English Civil Wars

Rose Earhart, Dorcas Good: The Diary of a Salem Witch, about the 1692 Salem witch trials

Robert Edric, The Earth Made of Glass, a literary novel about an investigation into missing church funds in a small town in seventeenth century Lancashire

Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Calligraphy of the Witch, about a Mexican servant girl caught up in the Salem witch hunt

Denise Giardina, Fallam's Secret, about a modern woman who travels back in time to Cromwell's England. More info

Kathleen Givens, The Legend, during the time of William and Mary, a highborn Scottish lass stumbles into romance while on her way to warn her cousin of a murder plot

Kathleen Givens, The Destiny, during the time of William and Mary, a young woman in a precarious position after her father's death takes the risk of freeing a spy caught in her family home; sequel to The Legend

Elizabeth Goudge, The Child from the Sea, about Lucy Walter, who may have been the secret wife of King Charles II and the mother of his son, the Duke of Monmouth

Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch, about a wisewoman, the daughter of a gypsy, whose family members fight on different sides during the English Civil War

Philippa Gregory, Earthly Joys, about a seventeenth century gardener at Buckingham Palace

Philippa Gregory, Virgin Earth, a former Buckingham Palace gardener flees to America; sequel to Earthly Joys

Michael Gruber, The Book of Air and Shadows, a thriller about a contemporary bookstore employee who discovers a seventeenth-century letter which sends him on a quest for an undiscovered work by William Shakespeare

Diane Haeger, The Perfect Royal Mistress, about Nell Gwynne, the actress who became mistress of the seventeenth century Restoration King Charles II

Simon A. Hart, A Silver Bullet, set during the first Jacobite rebellion in 1689 Scotland

Georgette Heyer, Royal Escape, about the seventeenth century King Charles II; uncharacteristically for the queen of the Regency Romance, this is not a romance

Deborah Homsher, The Rising Shore: Roanoke, about the doomed American colony

Wayne Karlin, The Wished-For Country, about a feud between a man and his former slave in seventeenth century Colonial America

Brian Keenan, Turlough (2000), about the blind Irish harper and composer Turlough O'Carolan

Karleen Koen, Dark Angels, about a lady-in-waiting in the Restoration court of Charles II

Rosalind Laker, Far Seeks the Heart, a romantic novel about a seventeenth century Scottish chieftain's wife

Rosalind Laker, Circle of Pearls, about a woman in Puritan England who safeguards the last remaining gown of Queen Elizabeth I

Dinah Lampitt, Banishment, a time-travel romance in which a woman finds herself in seventeenth century England during the time of the Civil War

Patricia Lawson, A Price Above Rubies (1991), about a young woman, the daughter of a weaver in the Cotswolds, as tensions leading to the English Civil War begin to rise

Hilda Lewis, Wife to Charles II, about Catherine of Braganza, who coped with her husband's notorious womanizing and her own inability to bear a child

Norah Lofts, Pargeters, about the family who lives in a house named for the pargeter (plasterer) whose skilled work embellished it, and the daughter who agrees to an unhappy marriage during the English Civil War in order to continue living there.

Robert Lund, Daishi-San, about a English sailor who lands in Japan during the seventeeth century

Rose Macaulay, They were Defeated (titled The Shadow Flies in the U.S.), about the poet Robert Herrick and his friends during the seventeenth century reign of Charles I as the English Civil War looms; published in 1932.

Kate McCafferty, Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl, about an Irish girl kidnapped at the age of 10 and sold into slavery in Barbados. More info

Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird, about a witch persecution in 1699 Carolina

Robert McCammon, The Queen of Bedlam, sequel to Speaks the Nightbird

Maria McCann, As Meat Loves Salt, about a servant during the seventeenth century English Civil War Review

Deborah Moggach, Tulip Fever, about a Dutch painter in seventeenth century Amsterdam

Jude Morgan, The King's Touch, set in Restoration England in 1660

James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder, set in late seventeenth century England and America

Annette Motley, The Quickenberry Tree, set during the seventeenth century English Civil War

Kerry Newcomb, Mad Morgan, about a Welshman who escapes from slavery in the Caribbean and turns pirate

Diana Norman, The Vizard Mask, about two women who use their wits to escape debtors' prison and become involved in intrigues in the Restoration court of Charles II

Robert Nye, Mrs. Shakespeare: The Complete Works, a humorous, bawdy novel about Shakespeare's wife

Robert Nye, The Late Mr. Shakespeare, a humorous, bawdy novel narrated by a player in Shakespeare's troupe

Christopher Peachment, The Green and the Gold: A Novel of Andrew Marvell, Spy, Politician, Poet, about the seventeenth century Englishman of the title

Clive Perry, Faith, Hope and Christopher, about the seventeenth century architect Sir Christopher Wren and Faith Coghill, the woman he married; self-published through AuthorHouse U.K.

Jean Plaidy, Myself My Enemy, about the wife of the seventeenth century English King Charles I

Jean Plaidy, The Wandering Prince, about the Restoration King Charles II, #1 in the Charles II trilogy

Jean Plaidy, Health Unto His Majesty, about the Restoration King Charles II, #2 in the Charles II trilogy

Jean Plaidy, Here Lies Our Sovereign Lord, about the Restoration King Charles II, #3 in the Charles II trilogy

Jean Plaidy, The Merry Monarch's Wife: The Story of Catherine of Braganza (also titled The Pleasures of Love) (1991), about the Portuguese wife of the promiscuous Restoration king Charles II; #9 in the Queens of England series

Jean Plaidy, The Queen's Devotion (previously titled William's Wife) (1992), about Mary, the daughter of King James II of England, who married William of Orange, with whom she ruled jointly as a co-equal monarch after her father's death; #10 in the Queens of England series

Jean Plaidy, The Three Crowns, about King James II and King William and Queen Mary, #1 in the Stuart Saga

Jean Plaidy, The Haunted Sisters, about King James II and King William and Queen Mary, #2 in the Stuart Saga

Jean Plaidy, The Queen's Favorites, about Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart line, #3 in the Stuart Saga

Dudley Pope, Galleon: A Novel, about seafaring during the time of King Charles II

Lucia St. Clair Robson, Mary's Land, set in seventeeth century Colonial Maryland

Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood, an Englishman sent into slavery in the Caribbean escapes and turns pirate

Susan Holloway Scott, Royal Harlot, about the mistress of Charles II

Susan Holloway Scott, Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill, about an ancestress of Winston Churchill at the Restoration court of Charles II

Sir Walter Scott, Old Mortality, set during the English Civil War; published in 1816

Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, a tragic romance in seventeenth century Scotland; published in 1819

Sir Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose, set during the English Civil War; published in 1819

Sir Walter Scott, Peveril of the Peak, set during the English Civil War; published in 1822

Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, about King James I of England; published in 1822

Sir Walter Scott, Woodstock, set during the English Civil War; published in 1826

Anya Seton, The Winthrop Woman, about a seventeenth century Englishwoman who migrates to America with the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Company. Review

Tim Severin, Corsair, about a seventeen-year-old Irish boy kidnapped by corsairs from North Africa and sold into slavery in Algiers. More info

Mary Lee Settle, I, Roger Williams, about the man who was secretary to the English jurist Sir Edward Coke and founded Rhode Island, working for the separation of church and state; #1 in the Beulah Quartet (third in the quartet to be published)

Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, about the scientific discoveries of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; set in England, France, the Netherlands and America; #1 in the Baroque Cycle

Neal Stephenson, The Confusion, about the scientific discoveries of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; set in England, France, the Netherlands and America; #2 in the Baroque Cycle

Neal Stephenson, The System of the World, about the scientific discoveries of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; set in England, France, the Netherlands and America; #3 in the Baroque Cycle

Jane Stevenson, The Winter Queen, about a love affair between an African prince and the exiled Queen of Bohemia in seventeenth century Holland; #1 in the Queen of Bohemia trilogy

Jane Stevenson, The Shadow King, about the son of an African prince and the exiled Queen of Bohemia in seventeenth century Holland; #2 in the Queen of Bohemia trilogy (#3, The Empress of the Last Days, is set in contemporary England)

Rosemary Sutcliff, The Rider of the White Horse, about the Parliamentarian general Sir Thomas Fairfax and his wife Anne, who traveled with him on campaign during the English Civil War.

Grace Tiffany, My Father Had a Daughter, about William Shakespeare's daughter Judith

Grace Tiffany, Will, about William Shakespeare's youth

Nigel Tranter, The Wisest Fool, about the friendship of James VI of Scotland (later James I of England), his cousin the Duke of Lennox, and master goldsmith George Heriot; set in seventeenth century London

Nigel Tranter, Poetic Justice, about William Alexander, who translated the Psalms for the King James Bible

Nigel Tranter, Unicorn Rampant, about the 1617 return visit of King James I of England to Scotland, where he had ruled as King James VI

Nigel Tranter, Mail Royal, about a seventeenth century quest to find the letters of Mary Queen of Scots that had incriminated her in a plot against Queen Elizabeth and sealed her fate

Nigel Tranter, The Young Montrose, about James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose, and his difficult relationship with King Charles I

Nigel Tranter, Montrose: The Captain-General, about about James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose, during the Cromwell years and the Restoration; sequel to The Young Montrose

Nigel Tranter, Honours Even, about the exile of young Charles II in Scotland during the Cromwell years

Nigel Tranter, Hope Endures, about Thomas Hope, the Scottish lawyer who advised James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) and Oliver Cromwell

Nigel Tranter, Triple Alliance, about Colonel James Stansfield, who founded the woolen mills at Haddington, Scotland

Nigel Tranter, The Patriot, about the Scottish republican Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun

Rose Tremain, Music and Silence, about an English lute player at the court of the Danish King Christian IV in 1629

Rose Tremain, Restoration, about a surgeon in the court of King Charles II

Elizabeth Gray Vining, Take Heed of Loving Me, about the poet John Donne

William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows, about conflicts between European colonists and Native North Americans; #2 in the Seven Dreams series (see the Medieval Viking section for #1, The Ice Shirt)

William T. Vollmann, The Rifles, about conflicts between European colonists and Native North Americans; #6 in the Seven Dreams series (published out of chronological order)

William T. Vollmann, Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, about conflicts between European colonists and Native North Americans; #3 in the Seven Dreams series (published out of chronological order)

Leslie Turner White, James, by the Grace of God, a sympathetic portrait of James II, the last Catholic King of England

Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber, the forerunner of the bodice-ripper historical romance genre, this novel was first published in 1944; about a mistress of Charles II who survives plague and the Great Fire of London

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry, a literary novel about a seventeenth century London woman and the child she took in after finding him floating in the Thames

Marly Youmans, Catherwood, about a woman in seventeenth century Colonial New England

Mysteries: 17th Century Britain

Susanna Gregory, A Conspiracy of Violence, about a reluctant spy for the government of King Charles II; #1 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series

Susanna Gregory, Blood on the Strand, about a reluctant spy for the government of King Charles II; #2 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series

Susanna Gregory, the Butcher of Smithfield, about a reluctant spy for the government of King Charles II; #3 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series

Philip Kerr, Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton, set in seventeenth-century London

Ross King, Ex-Libris, a literary thriller featuring a seventeenth-century London bookseller

Edward Marston, The King's Evil, an architect investigates murders in London after the Great Fire of 1666; #1 in the Christopher Redmayne series

Edward Marston, The Amorous Nightingale, an architect investigates murders in London after the Great Fire of 1666; #2 in the Christopher Redmayne series

Edward Marston, The Repentant Rake, an architect investigates murders in London after the Great Fire of 1666; #3 in the Christopher Redmayne series

Edward Marston, The Frost Fair, an architect investigates murders in London after the Great Fire of 1666; #4 in the Christopher Redmayne series

Edward Marston, The Parliament House, an architect investigates murders in London after the Great Fire of 1666; #5 in the Christopher Redmayne series

Edward Marston, The Painted Lady, an architect investigates murders in London after the Great Fire of 1666; #6 in the Christopher Redmayne series

Fidelis Morgan, Unnatural Fire, a humorous mystery about a former mistress of Charles II who turns to scandal-sheet journalism with the assistance of her maidservant and stumbles across a murder; #1 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series

Fidelis Morgan, The Rival Queens, a humorous mystery about a countess and her maidservant who witness a murder in a concert hall while evading a bailiff; #2 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series

Fidelis Morgan, The Ambitious Stepmother, a humorous mystery about a countess and her maidservant who encounter a case of poisoning while in France; #3 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series

Fidelis Morgan, Fortune's Slave, a humorous mystery about a countess and her maidservant who attract murderous ruffians when they seek investment advice during a time of frenzied financial speculation; #4 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series

Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost, a thriller set in seventeenth-century Oxford

Elizabeth Redfern, Auriel Rising, a murder mystery set in 1609 London, a time of religious conflict

Martin Stephen, The Desperate Remedy: Henry Gresham and the Gunpowder Plot, a mystery set during the reign of James I; #1 in the Henry Gresham mystery series

Martin Stephen, The Conscience of the King: Henry Gresham and the Shakespeare Conspiracy, a mystery set during the reign of James I; #2 in the Henry Gresham mystery series (#3 and #4 are set during the time of Queen Elizabeth I; see the Renaissance section)

Betsy Tobin, Bone House, a murder mystery set in an English village in 1603; debut novel

Leonard Tourney, Time's Fool, as an old man, William Shakespeare is forced to turn sleuth

Continental Europe and North America in the 17th Century

Ronald Bassett, Witchfinder General (1966), a novel about Matthew Hopkins, who tortured and prosecuted witches during the seventeenth century English Civil War; the 1968 horror movie Witchfinder General is supposed to have been based on this novel.

Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock, set in seventeenth-century Quebec

Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring, about a servant girl who works for the artist Vermeer in seventeenth-century Holland

Andrei Codrescu, The Blood Countess, about Elizabeth Bathory, a seventeenth-century Hungarian countess who murdered young women to bathe in their blood

Thomas B. Costain, High Towers, about seventeenth-century Frenchmen in Canada

Daniel Defoe, Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720), a novel written in the form of a memoir by an English mercenary who fought in the armies of the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus and the English King Charles I from 1632 to 1648 during the latter part of the Thirty Years War

Brian Deming, Wind Time, Wolf Time, about a brother and sister during the Thirty Years War in early seventeenth century Germany

Henrietta Drake-Brockman, The Wicked and the Fair (1957), about the 1629 shipwreck of the Batavia off the coast of Australia and the subsequent mutiny by a small group of sailors who murdered many of the survivors

Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip, set in seventeenth-century Holland

Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, about three soldiers in seventeenth-century France; #1 in the Three Musketeers series

Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After, about three soldiers in seventeenth-century France; #2 in the Three Musketeers series

Alexandre Dumas, The Vicomte de Bragelonne, about three soldiers in seventeenth-century France; #3 in the Three Musketeers series

Alexandre Dumas, Louise de la Valliere, about three soldiers in seventeenth-century France; #4 in the Three Musketeers series

Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask, about three soldiers in seventeenth-century France; #5 in the Three Musketeers series

Susanne Dunlap, Emilie’s Voice, about a beautiful singer in seventeenth century Paris and Versailles

Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before, set in seventeenth-century Paris during the age of astronomical discoveries

Arabella Edge, The Company, about a disastrous 1629 voyage of the Dutch East India Company

Kathleen O'Neal Gear, This Widowed Land, set in seventeenth-century Quebec

Mary Gentle, A Sundial in a Grave: 1610, about an impoverished aristocrat who acts as a spy for the French finance minister in 1610 as a plot to assassinate King James I of England is being hatched. More info

Anne Golon, Angelique: Marquise of the Angels, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who joins the local peasant children in their games; #1 in the Angelique series (originally published in a single volume with The Road to Versailles)

Anne Golon, Angelique: The Road to Versailles, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who wins favor at court; #2 in the Angelique series (originally published in a single volume with Marquise of the Angels)

Anne Golon, Angelique and the King, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in the court of the Sun King at Versailles; #3 in the Angelique series

Anne Golon, Angelique and the Sultan, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave; #4 in the Angelique series

Anne Golon, Angelique in Revolt, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who comes into conflict with the French king during the Huguenot rebellion; #5 in the Angelique series

Anne Golon, Angelique in Love, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who flees France and sails to America; #6 in the Angelique series

Anne Golon, The Countess Angelique (originally published in two parts in 1966 as Land of the Redskins and Prisoner of the Mountains), about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in the wilderness of North America; #7 in the Angelique series

Anne Golon, The Temptation of Angelique , about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in North America during the hostilities between the Indians and the English settlers; #8 in the Angelique series

Anne Golon, Angelique and the Demon, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in North America; #9 in the Angelique series

Anne Golon, Angelique and the Ghosts, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter journeys to Quebec; the author feels this is misnamed in English, as the literal translation of the French title would be "Conspiracy of Shadows"; #10 in the Angelique series

Michael Gruber, The Forgery of Venus, about a modern artist who finds himself plunged into the world of the seventeenth century painter Velázquez

Joanne Harris, Holy Fools, set in seventeenth-century France

Kathryn Harrison, Poison, about two women in seventeenth-century Spain during the Inquisition

Kathryn Heyman, The Accomplice (2004), about a young woman who survived the 1629 shipwreck of the Batavia and became the mistress of one of the mutineers who murdered many of the other survivors

Margaret Irwin, Stranger Prince: The Story of Rupert of the Rhine, about the seventeenth century German prince who fought for the Royalists in the English Civil War, earning the nickname "the Mad Cavalier;" originally published in 1938. More info

Jane Johnson, Crossed Bones (titled The Tenth Gift in the U.S.), about a young Cornishwoman kidnapped by Barbary pirates to be sold as a slave in seventeenth century Morocco and the modern London woman who discovers her diary

Michael Kernan, The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals (1995), about a graduate student who finds a set of centuries-old notebooks in a garage and becomes absorbed in translating what seem to be the diaries of the seventeenth century Dutch painter Frans Hals

Rosalind Laker, Sail a Jewelled Ship, about the builders of a ship and the women who loved them in seventeenth-century Sweden

Rosalind Laker, The Golden Tulip, about a fictional woman apprentice to the Dutch artist Jan Vermeer

Rosalind Laker, To Dance With Kings, set in Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV

Alexandra Lapierre, Artemisia, about the seventeenth century Italian woman painter Artemisia Gentileschi

Tobsha Learner, The Witch of Cologne, about a Jewish midwife accused by the Inquisition in the seventeenth-century German city of Cologne

Stephen Marlowe, The Death and Life of Miguel De Cervantes (1996), about the author of the seventeenth century Spanish classic Don Quixote, who survived war and a life as a captive in Algiers before he began to write

Arthur Meeker, The Ivory Mischief, about two seventeenth-century Frenchwomen whose lives take different directions

Sarah Emily Miano, Van Rijn (2006), about a young publisher in 1667 Amsterdam who arranges to meet the aging artist Rembrandt van Rijn, and a woman poet whose fascination with the artist matches the publisher's

Arturo Perez-Reverte, Captain Alatriste, about a swordsman in seventeenth-century Spain; #1 in the Captain Alatriste series

Arturo Perez-Reverte, Purity of Blood, about a swordsman in seventeenth-century Spain; #2 in the Captain Alatriste series

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Sun Over Breda, about a swordsman in seventeenth-century Spain; #3 in the Captain Alatriste series

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The King's Gold (2008), about a swordsman in seventeenth-century Spain; #4 in the Captain Alatriste series. More info

Donald Michael Platt, Rocamora, about the spiritual director of the Spanish Infanta, set in seventeenth century Spain and Amsterdam; forthcoming in 2008

Frederic Richaud, Gardener to the King, about the gardener at Louis XIV's Versailles

Carme Riera, In the Last Blue, about Conversos (Spanish Jews who converted to Catholicism) on the Island of Majorca during the time of the Spanish Inquisition

Judith Merkle Riley, The Oracle Glass, about a young woman in seventeenth-century Paris who makes her living masquerading as a 150-year-old sorceress

Frances Sherwood, The Book of Splendor, about Prague during the seventeenth-century reign of Rudolph II

Henryk Sienkiewicz, With Fire and Sword, about heroic knights who fight to preserve Polish unity when an alliance of Cossacks, Tatars and peasants rebel; published in 1884; #1 in the Polish trilogy

Henryk Sienkiewicz, The Deluge, about heroic Polish knights during a war between Poland and Sweden; published in 1886; #2 in the Polish trilogy

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Fire in the Steppe, (also titled Colonel Wolodyjowski), about a courageous husband and wife who fight to preserve Polish unity; published in 1887; #3 in the Polish trilogy

Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Slave, about a seventeenth century Polish Jew forced into slavery after an uprising who regains his freedom and falls in love with a Christian

Beverly Swerling, City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan, about immigrants to New York in 1661

Susan Vreeland, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, a series of linked short stories which follow a Vermeer painting back through time to its genesis in seventeenth century Holland

Mysteries: 17th Century European Continent

Francesco Sorti, Imprimatur (2008), a thriller about a plot to assassinate the pope in 1683

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