News and Random Musings about Historical Novels

Thurs., May 10: Review of The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb

Thu, 10 May 2012 05:55:22 GMT

Newly out in paperback last month, Melanie Benjamin's The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is a treat: a warmly intelligent novel about a miniature woman (two feet, eight inches tall) with a big personality. Lavinia Warren was a real person, whose marriage to "General Tom Thumb" in 1863 pushed Civil War news out of the headlines. For more about this novel, see the review of The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Thurs., May 3: New Listings

Thu, 03 May 2012 07:01:55 GMT

Over the last few days, new listings have been added to Medieval, Renaissance, Seventeenth-Century and Eighteenth-Century pages. Some notable historical novels released in the last three months include: Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Corner That Held Them (originally published in 1948), about a community of Benedictine nuns in Norfolk during a fourteenth-century outbreak of the Black Plague. Vilborg Davidsdottir, On the Cold Coasts, about the love between an unmarried mother and an ambitious priest in fifteenth-century Iceland. Jude Morgan, The Secret Life of William Shakespeare, about Shakespeare and his wife. Stacia M. Brown, Accidents of Providence, about an unmarried woman in London accused of killing her child under a new law passed after Cromwell takes over the government. Giles Kristian, The Bleeding Land (2012), about a royalist father and his two sons who fight on opposite sides of the English Civil War; #1 in a planned trilogy. Andrew Motion, Silver, a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson'sTreasure Island, in which the son and daughter of two former pirates set out to find the remainder of the treasure their fathers left behind forty years previously. ... and a lot of mysteries: Michelle Diener, Keeper of the King’s Secrets, about a Dutch woman painter in the service of Henry VIII who must find a missing diamond with the help of her betrothed after an attempt to kill her; #2 in the Susanna Horenbout series. Victoria Lamb, The Queen’s Secret, about a young black singer who, while spying on the Earl of Leicester for Queen Elizabeth, discovers a conspiracy to murder the queen. Lloyd Shepherd, The English Monster, about a Thames River Police officer investigating murders in 1811 which link back to the first English slaving voyage during Elizabeth I's reign in 1564. S.J. Parris, Sacrilege, a thriller featuring Italian scientist Giordano Bruno investigating a murder which may be connected to the murder of St. Thomas Becket 400 years previously; #3 in the Giordano Bruno mystery series. Imogen Robertson, Circle of Shadows, about a pioneering anatomist and a society woman who travel to a German principality to help clear her brother-in-law of a murder charge; #4 in the Crowther and Westerman mystery series. ... as well as some Christian-themed romantic novels: Kelly Long, Arms of Love, about a young Amish man whose sympathies are with the American patriots, and the woman he loves, whose father is jailed as a conscientious objector; #1 in the planned Amish Beginnings series. Siri Mitchell, The Messenger, about a young Quaker woman whose brother runs away from home to join the rebel army during the American Revolution; Christian message.

Weds., May 2: Interview with author Gerald Kolpan

Wed, 02 May 2012 05:31:30 GMT

It's great to have Gerald Kolpan here to talk about his novel Magic Words, about a Jewish frontiersman and his stage magician cousins.
Your historical characters lead such unexpected lives! How did you discover Julius Meyer and the Herrmann brothers? I found out about Julius while watching a PBS special on the Jews in America. There was about a ten second clip showing a nineteenth century studio photo of a young, curly-haired white man with four Indian chiefs. The voiceover said something like, this is Julius Meyer, a Jewish immigrant from Europe who eventually became the interpreter for many famous Indians. I said, "I got to find out more about this guy. He's my next novel." While researching Julius, I found out about an incident in which he invited a magician named "Herman" to perform for the Ponca tribe. He did a great show around their fire, they were properly amazed and that night one of the Ponca men tried to kill the magician for his hat! I later found out that this "Herman" was actually Alexander Herrmann, the Great Herrmann, who was the most famous magician in the world at the time, the guy who sold out the Egyptian Theatre in London for one thousand straight nights. Finding him was great because it led to the London and Brooklyn scenes in the book - and of course, it also led to finding my villain, his older brother, Compars, who was The Great Herrmann before Alex. And hey, what author doesn't want a magician in his book, to say nothing of two!
As part of your research, did you try to reproduce one of the Herrmann brothers' magic tricks? Anybody who knows me also knows I have the manual dexterity of a sloth...and they only have three toes. So, no.
Some characters one might expect to be highly prejudiced are actually quite tolerant of the Jewish characters' practices and faith. What made you decide to portray them in this way? There is prejudice among the characters, but it's more like the common stereotypes of the day. It's not like anyone's in the Klan or anything. Most of the characters are either like Lady-Jane, the prostitute who's trying to survive, or Prophet John, my clairvoyant Indian Scout who's always after the next drink or woman, or Adelaide, the dancer who's literally starving when we meet her. They're just too busy with their own issues to spend much time on hating someone without a good reason. Other characters, like Thomas Henry Tibbles and Lady Caroline Carstairs are fighters for Indian freedom, so they're a little less likely to be bigoted about the Jews. The rest, like Mrs. McGreevy, Julius' Uncle Eli's landlady, have probably become less prejudiced from exposure to a nice Jewish guy. I mean, that Eli...he's got charm, you know?
Thanks for a delightful interview! Readers may want to check out our review or the listings at Powell's Books or Amazon.com.

Tues., May 1: Review of Gerald Kolpan's Magic Words

Tue, 01 May 2012 05:58:37 GMT

Magic Words is Gerald Kolpan's new novel about a Prussian Jew on the American frontier, a pair of stage magicians, and a murderous prostitute, among other colorful characters. There really was a Prussian Jew who served as an Indian interpreter, and there really were a pair of magicians who dazzled American stages around the same time. I found Magic Words dazzlingly entertaining. For more about this novel, see the review of Magic Words. Coming tomorrow: an interview with author Gerald Kolpan

Sat., April 28: Top 21 Historical Fiction Authors

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:26:02 GMT

Survey results at the Reading the Past blog tally the 21 favorite historical fiction authors of the readers surveyed. Is your own favorite on the list? Reviews of novels by almost all of these authors appear here at HistoricalNovels.info. A few of my own favorites include Anya Seton's The Winthrop Woman (see review), Elizabeth Chadwick's To Defy a King (see review), C.W. Gortner's The Confessions of Catherine de Medici (see review), Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt (see review), Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (see review), and many others. Edith Pargeter appears in the top 21 list by the pen name, Ellis Peters, which she used for her Brother Cadfael mysteries, which are excellent - but her more serious novels, The Heaven Tree and A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury (see review) should not be missed. For more reviews of novels by these authors, browse the Book Reviews page. Some other truly outstanding authors did not make the list: What happened to Mary Renault, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Cecelia Holland, to name just three? It's just a reminder how many fine novels, with much to say that resonates in the lives of people today, have been set in historical periods.

Thurs., April 26: Review of The Glass Harmonica

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:55:38 GMT

Until I discovered The Glass Harmonica, a novel by Dorothee E. Kocks, I had never heard of the eerily beautiful musical instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin. The novel is as sensual and original as the instrument itself. Published by a small press, it may also be as much a secret to most readers as the glass harmonica and its music. For more about this novel and its charming heroine, see the review of The Glass Harmonica. The review page includes links to sites where you can hear examples of the glass harmonica's haunting music, which fell out of fashion after it was condemned as scandalous and possibly dangerous to body and psyche.

Weds., April 25: New Listings

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:09:17 GMT

The new listings for February, March and April are in the process of going onto the website. The Prehistoric, Ancient History, and some of the Medieval pages have been updated, with more to come. A couple of the new listings that look especially interesting include: Lindsey Davis, Master and God, about the unlikely friendship between a Praetorian Guard and a style-setting woman who makes wigs for the Emperor Domitian, and the choices they must make as Domitian descends into madness. Frederick Ramsay, The Eighth Veil, a rare mystery set in Biblical times, about a Talmudic scholar in Jerusalem required by Pontius Pilate to investigate the murder of a servant girl in Herod's palace.

Weds., March 21: "Your Brain on Fiction"

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 05:25:38 GMT

The New York Times has a fascinating article about what happens in your brain when you read a novel. In "Your Brain on Fiction," journalist Annie Murphy Paul writes about a neurological study that shows, among other things, that our brains light up differently when we read a metaphor than when we read a less evocative description of something. Ha! You knew it all the time, didn't you?

Weds., March 14: Review of Go Ask the River

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:35:09 GMT

Sweetly moving and melancholy, Evelyn Eaton's 1969 novel Go Ask the River is also a carefully researched story of ninth-century China and one of its foremost woman poets, Hung Tu - usually known now by her birth name, Xue Tao. It's a quiet novel, but beautifully insightful - like Hung Tu's poems. For more, see the review of Go Ask the River.

Tues., March 6: Review of The Noble Assassin

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 06:20:46 GMT

Annis contributes another of her sensitive reviews, this time of Christie Dickason's most recent novel, The Noble Assassin, about the vivacious Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, who made a splash at the court of James I and fell in love with poet John Donne. For more about this "entrancing story of love, poetry and politics," see the review of The Noble Assassin.

Sat., Feb. 18: Review of The Leopard and the Cliff

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:55:09 GMT

Reviewer Annis admires both the action-filled story values of Wallace Breem's 1978 novel The Leopard and the Cliff and its serious purpose as a psychological study of grace under pressure in an ill-conceived military intervention. Newly relevant as the present war in Afghanistan continues, the novel came out in a new edition from Faber & Faber in 2010. For more, see Annis's review of The Leopard and the Cliff.

Weds., Feb. 15: Interview with author Roberta Rich

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:23:30 GMT

It's great talking with Roberta Rich, author of The Midwife of Venice, about a Jewish midwife in sixteenth-century Venice. Welcome, Roberta!
In your author's note, you remark, "the history of women, their fortitude and accomplishments, is written in water." That said, what concrete factual detail most inspired your vision of Hannah Levi? Hannah is purely a creature of my imagination, but I like to think that she, or someone very like her, might have existed. So much of women's history has been lost. Ordinary women were so busy cooking, birthing babies, and caring for children that only a few of the most privileged women had time to write their thoughts and accomplishments. We are fortunate to have diaries from a few famous midwives like Martha Ballem of Maine. Justine Siegemund of Germany, who was midwife to the Hapsburg family, wrote a wonderful textbook on the art of midwifery. Both books fueled my imagination. I found my research so interesting I asked my editor to add a "Further Reading" page for those who might wish to learn more.
Do any tiny apartments like Hannah's still exist in Venice's old Jewish quarters? Perhaps, but they are not open to the public. The Venetian ghetto is a fascinating collection of tall, tenement-like buildings, but only a few synagogues are open for tours. There is also a museum of silver and religious artifacts, but not private dwellings. It is easy, however, to visualize Hannah's apartment - small, dank, airless and sunless. In creating the atmosphere of Hannah's dwelling, I was inspired by my favorite museum, the Tenement Museum on the Lower Eastside in New York. It has given me an idea for a book I want to write about a serial killer in New York in the 1930s who murders girls who work in a ladies' shirtwaist factory. This museum has duplicated as accurately as possible the furnishings and atmosphere of a Jewish, a Polish, and an Italian family's apartments. A Lower Eastside tenement would be luxurious compared to its sixteenth-century Italian counterpart, which had no running water, no inside toilets, and no heat other than charcoal braziers.
Hannah's rabbi causes her almost as much trouble as some of the Venetian Christians. What inspired you to depict him in this way? I came across the autobiography of Leon Modena, a seventeenth-century rabbi who was, during his long and brilliant career as a learned rabbi, a supremely unhappy man. He suffered from every physical affliction imaginable from shortness of breathe to carbuncles, his children were ungrateful, his favorite son ran away to Brazil, his marriage was a misery, his wife's tongue was as sharp as a razor. I felt anyone so grouchy and misanthropic belonged in my novel.
Thanks, Roberta, for this fascinating tour of your research! Readers may be interested in our review or the listings at Powell's Books or Amazon.com.

Tues., Feb. 14: Review of The Midwife of Venice

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:28:20 GMT

A swashbuckling Jewish midwife, her devoted but absent husband, a desperate Christian family and the plague figure in Roberta Rich's novel The Midwife of Venice, set in the sixteenth century. For more about this hair-raisingly suspenseful novel, see the review of The Midwife of Venice. Last night, my boyfriend reminded me it was going to be Valentine's Day today (I forget these things, actually), and warned me that he considers it an occasion invented and perpetuated by crass commercial interests and that he does not celebrate it. Then he showed me perhaps the most outrageously, mysteriously romantic movie ever made: The Double Life of Veronique . Not historical, but it has a certain otherworldly sensibility to it that I found transporting in a similar way. If you show it to your sweetie, don't expect a traditionally romantic storyline, but do expect shivers of rapture. Tomorrow: An interview with The Midwife of Venice author Roberta Rich

Sat., Feb. 11: Serial Episode Chapter 17, #6: The Charm

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:51:41 GMT

(see previous episodes)

ithin the week, Kriemhild kept her promise and gave me a packet of herbs sewn into a square of fine linen. When I handled it, a scent of roses and myrrh wafted up and, behind those sweeter scents, something sharp and sour. I could feel the twisting shapes of roots among the dried leaves within. She told me a charm to say before I undressed each night: "Maria, Jesu, Josef, bless our union, for three is the holy number." The charm could not be wicked, invoking such holy names. More...

Weds., Feb. 8: Review of Nonna's Book of Mysteries

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:30:37 GMT

In the Middle Ages, alchemy was not just a method by which people tried to turn metals into gold. It was understood symbolically as a way of purifying one's soul and learning how to live a spiritually blessed life. Mary Osborne's YA novel Nonna's Book of Mysteries is about a girl in Florence, Italy, at the dawn of the Renaissance. She has inherited her great-great-great-grandmother's book on alchemy. Her study of it changes her, just as some of the philosophers whose words are quoted in the old book are beginning to change the world around her. For more about this charming novel, see the review of Nonna's Book of Mysteries.

Tues., Jan. 24: Review of Siddhartha

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:27:39 GMT

The first time I read Hermann Hesse's classic Siddhartha, I was in high school. It impressed me, and when my old copy turned up during a recent reorganization of my bookshelves, I was drawn to reread this slender novel. It will be a leading candidate for my "Best I Read in 2012" list. For more about this simply told, profound story, see the review of Siddhartha.

Weds., Jan 18: Review of The Last Nude

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:49:23 GMT

Ellis Avery's The Last Nude is about a love affair between two women in 1920s Paris, artist Tamara de Lempicka and the model for one of her most celebrated paintings. For more about this lushly beautiful but unsparingly realistic novel, see the review of The Last Nude.

Thurs., Jan. 12: Review of Hawk Quest

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:08:17 GMT

Annis does love a well-written epic high adventure story, and Robert Lyndon's debut novel, Hawk Quest, delighted her. It's about an eleventh-century Frankish outlaw who takes on a difficult quest to ransom an Anglo-Norman knight captured by the Seljuk Turks. For more about this novel, see Annis's review of Hawk Quest.

Weds., Jan. 11: Interview with author Eva Stachniak

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:32:27 GMT

It's great to have Eva Stachniak visit the blog today to talk about her novel The Winter Palace, about a woman who becomes a spy for Catherine the Great.
In your research, what did you learn about Catherine the Great that made you feel you could tell a part of her story not dealt with in previous novels? Amazing as this may seem there've been no mainstream novels about Catherine the Great in English for years. There were, however, many excellent biographies of her. In The Winter Palace I was able to tell the story of Catherine's rise to power from a unique point of view of a palace spy. Historical sources often mention that Catherine kept spies - she admits to it herself in her letters - but the biographies don't dwell on this part of her story. Understandably, historians have to focus on what is known and documented, while a fiction writer is free to explore the past in a more imaginative way.
Varvara's plight after her parents die is heart-wrenching. Did the real Empress Elizabeth take orphaned girls into her court? Elizabeth Petrovna was a passionate woman with a soft heart for children and animals, but also with a short attention span and unwillingness to bother with the details of life. We know, for instance, that she took care of children by her deceased friends or servants by entrusting them to her attendants. Visitors to the Russian court wrote about these "palace wards," speculating if some of them might not be Elizabeth's own illegitimate children. I haven't found any convincing evidence that Elizabeth indeed had children of her own, but she had strong maternal feelings and could be quite generous to those who appealed to them.
The scenes involving Catherine and Stanislav Poniatowski, the future Polish king, are touching. How much does history tell us about their actual relations? Stanislav wrote about his love for Catherine in his diaries, published after his death. He described her "dazzlingly white complexion ... a mouth which seemed to invite kisses - a laugh as merry as her disposition." He wrote of their common passions for serious books and his pain of having to leave St Petersburg without her. In addition to his testimony we have Catherine's letters to Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams, from the time of her relationship with Stanislav. These letters are touching, for they are written by a woman in love who longs to talk about her beloved with a mutual friend. In the end, however, their relationship didn't survive the test of time, politics, and Russian imperial ambitions, but this is the topic of my second Catherine novel, The Empire of the Night, which I'm working on right now.
Thanks, Eva! Readers may be interested in the review of The Winter Palace or the listings at Powell's Books or Amazon.com.

Tues., Jan. 10: Review of The Winter Palace

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:03:38 GMT

As far as I can tell, it's been over twenty years since a new novel about Catherine the Great of Russia appeared. Eva Stachniak's The Winter Palace, on bookstore shelves today, revolves around a woman coerced into spying for Empress Elizabeth and her chancellor while the young Catherine is still a lonely, powerless figure married to Russia's mentally disturbed heir. For more about this intriguing novel, see the review of The Winter Palace.

Mon., Dec. 19: Review of How Far to Bethlehem?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:17:50 GMT

Just in time for Christmas, Annis has contributed a review of Norah Lofts' 1965 classic How Far to Bethlehem?, a warm-hearted retelling of the Nativity story. For more, see the review of How Far to Bethlehem?.

Sat., Dec. 17: Sharon Kay Penman's "Best of 2011" List

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:10:29 GMT

Sharon Kay Penman picked five books as her choice for the very best historical novels of 2011. I wish I had read more of them. Perhaps I will catch up with some of them in 2012, which seems to be rocketing our way with tremendous speed. Here's my list for not necessarily the best historical novels published in 2011, but the best of the bunch that I read in 2011: Best Historical Novels of 2011

Fri., Dec. 16: Review of The Spring of the Ram

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:16:20 GMT

Second in Dorothy Dunnett's "House of Niccolo" series about a rising Flemish cloth merchant, The Spring of the Ram is classic Dunnett, a rich and complex adventure story for highly intelligent readers. I've just posted a review of The Spring of the Ram for those of you who have read the first in the series and are wondering whether you might want to read on. If you haven't read any Dorothy Dunnett yet, or if you've only read her "Lymond Chronicles" series, you might like to read the review of the first novel in the "House of Niccolo" series, Niccolo Rising. Coming soon: A review by Annis of a Christmas classic by Norah Lofts, How Far to Bethlehem?

Fri., Dec. 9: The Best Historical Novels I Read in 2011

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:47:26 GMT

My list of the Best Historical Novels I Read in 2011 is compiled and posted now. This year, I read eleven novels, one children's story, and two mysteries that qualified for the list. Although the list is not quite as long as some of the lists for previous years, that's no reflection on the quality of historical novels published in 2011. I moved to a new house this summer, which really cut into my reading time. Most of what I did have time to read, I heartily enjoyed, and this list includes some richly rewarding novels. I hope some of my website visitors will enjoy one or more novels from this year's list just as much!

Thurs., Dec. 8: Review of The House of Silk

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:17:30 GMT

Can a new Sherlock Holmes mystery authorized by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate be as juicy a read as one of the many unauthorized Holmes mysteries? Yes, says Annis, of Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk. She calls it "a cracker of a period mystery." See the full review.

Tues., Dec. 6: Review of The Richest Hill on Earth

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:21:33 GMT

Readers interested in a cynical - and justifiably so - tale of mining rivalry in nineteenth-century Butte, Montana, will likely enjoy Richard S. Wheeler's latest novel, The Richest Hill on Earth. Wheeler is a five-time winner of the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. For more about this novel, see the review of The Richest Hill on Earth.