Subject: Historical Fiction | Page #5
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The Cannibal Islands R. M. Ballantyne
Travel back to the late eighteenth century and join Captain James Cook on his scientific expeditions to such exotic places as Tierra del Fuego, the islands of Tahiti and New Zealand, and the scene of the closing of his great career as navigator and discoverer. Learn from Cook's own observations and Ballantyne's... read more »
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The Captain from Connecticut C. S. Forester
No one but a madman would put to sea in such conditions. A blizzard cut visibility to yards. Long Island Sound was galloping whitecaps. But in this second year of the war of 1812, conditions like these spelled opportunity to Captain Josiah Peabody. His mission: break the British Blockade. The only thing in his favor... read more »
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The Cat of Bubastes G. A. Henty
The sacred cat of Bubastes has accidentally been slain; now young Chebron must pay for the offence with his own life, as this is the law of the Pagans in Egypt, 1250 BC. Chebron, the son of a high Egyptian priest, flees for his life taking his sister Mysa, one of the household slaves Amuba and several companions... read more »
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The Celestial City Emma Orczy
Historical adventure novel set during the French Revolution On the rare occasions when Lady Chartley was “at home,” the whole of the élite of Cannes society and of the neighbourhood got into its motors and drove over to the beautiful Château de Pertuis. These were memorable afternoons. There had only been... read more »
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The Chequer Board Nevil Shute
John Turner, a young man with a checkered past, has been told he has just one year to live. He decides to use his remaining time in search of three very different men he met in the hospital during the war, each of them in trouble of some kind: a pilot whose wife had betrayed him, a young corporal charged with... read more »
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The Conspirators Alexandre Dumas
Dumas manages to jam enough action and storyline into the novel to make it worth the read. Despite being a weaker work in Dumas' bibliography, it displays the craftsmanship in blending action and suspense that were so common to his novels. read more »
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The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
Edmond Dantes, a nineteen-year-old sailor from Marseilles, is soon to be captain of his own ship and to marry his beloved, the beautiful Mercedes. But spiteful enemies provoke his arrest on his wedding day, and he is condemned to life in prison. His sole companion is the 'crazy' priest Faria, who shares with Edmond... read more »
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The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio
In the summer of 1348, with the plague ravaging Florence, ten young men and women take refuge in the countryside, where they entertain themselves with tales of love, death, and corruption, featuring a host of characters, from lascivious clergymen and mad kings to devious lovers and false miracle-makers. Named after... read more »
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The Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper
Set in 1740 during the French and Indian Wars, The Deerslayer testifies to the murderous humanity and natural beauty on which the history of America was written. In the climactic novel of the Leather-stocking Tales, Hawkeye, the noble white youth, learns to sacrifice self-interest for the common good and discovers... read more »
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The Deluge: Volume 1 Henryk Sienkiewicz
Split into two volumes due to length, this work is the sequel to With Fire and Sword, a massive book called one of the greatest in European literature. The Deluge continues the sweeping saga of war and rebellion that threatened the kingdom of Poland and changed the face of Eastern Europe in the 17th Century. This... read more »
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The Deluge: Volume 2 Henryk Sienkiewicz
This is volume two of a two-volume work, the sequel to With Fire and Sword, a massive book called one of the greatest in European literature. Number two in his trilogy on the history of Poland, it tells the love story of a man and a woman tragically separated by foolishness, pride, confusion and the Swedish invation... read more »
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The Elusive Pimpernel Emma Orczy
It is the early days of the French Republic, and Robespierre's revolutionaries find their wicked schemes repeatedly being thwarted. It appears that Sir Percy Blakeney--the cunning and heroic Pimpernel--is more than a match for them all. But Sir Percy's spy-catching archenemy, Chauvelin, has devised a plan. In this... read more »
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The Eustace Diamonds Anthony Trollope
The Eustace Diamonds is a social comedy of greed and deception that meticulously studies the Victorian society. The protagonist, Lizzie is a beautiful but wicked young woman who is underprivileged and her ambition drives her to unparalleled heights. The novel portrays the corrupting influence of money and the... read more »
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The Fifth Queen Crowned Ford Madox Ford
This masterful performance of historical fiction centers on Katharine Howard--clever, beautiful, and outspoken--who catches the jaded eye of Henry VIII and becomes his fifth Queen. Corruption and fear pervade the King's court, and the dimly lit corridors vibrate with the intrigues of unscrupulous courtiers hungry... read more »
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The Fortress Hugh Walpole
It had been the wish of her whole life to flee from all the Herries, but Walter Herries had challenged her, and she had taken up the challenge'. Judith Paris, now middle aged returns to the Lakes to deal with the bitter feud between the two branches of the family. A feud culminating in the construction by one branch... read more »
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The Fortune of the Rougons Émile Zola
The first in Zola's famous Rougon-Macquart series of novels. In it we learn how the two branches of the family came about, and the origins of the hereditary weaknesses passed down the generations. Murder, treachery, and greed are the keynotes, and just as the Empire was established through violence, the "fortune" of... read more »
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The General C. S. Forester
Herbert Curzon is a former cavalry officer who earned fortuitous distinction in the Boer War. He knew little then; he learned nothing since. But the army, desperate for officers in the opening months of WW I, hands Curzon, a new division to train. A few months later his formations dissolve at the Somme, hosed down... read more »
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The Happy Return C. S. Forester
June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua-a site suitable for spectacular sea battles. The Admiralty has ordered Captain Horatio Hornblower, now in command of the thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia, to form an alliance against the Spanish colonial government with an insane Spanish landowner; to find a water route across the... read more »
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The Heart of Midlothian Walter Scott
This novel, regarded as one of Scott's finest, opens with the Edinburgh riots of 1736. The people have been infuriated by the actions of John Porteous, Captain of the Guard; when his life is saved by the distant monarch they ignore the Queen and resolve to take their own revenge. Closely connected with these events... read more »
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The Honourable Jim Emma Orczy
Orczy tells of those three—the woman, and the two men—playmates, enemies, lovers in turn. It seemed well-nigh impossible to attempt the isolation of the one sentimental thread from the tangled skein of passions and of hate which seventeenth century England hath flung to us out of the whirlpool of civil war and... read more »
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The Hounds of God Rafael Sabatini
When Don Pedro is shipwrecked and captured by the formidable Lady Margaret Trevanion, he doesn't expect is to fall in love and run away with her. And he certainly hadn't expected that the officers of the Spanish Inquisition would be so ruthless that the lovers are forced to enlist the help of the Queen of England... read more »
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The House by the Churchyard Sheridan Le Fanu
Set in the village of Chapelizod, near Dublin, in the 1760s the story opens with the accidental disinterment of an old skull in the churchyard, and an eerie late-night funeral. This discovery relates to murders, both recent and historical whose repercussions disrupt the complacent pace of village affairs and change... read more »
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The Knights of the Cross Henryk Sienkiewicz
The time and scene of the noble story are laid in the middle ages during the conquest of Pagan Lithuania by the military and priestly order of the "Krzyzacy" Knights of the Cross. And the story exhibits with splendid force the collision of race passions and fierce, violent individualities which accompanied that... read more »
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The Last Days of Pompeii Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Classic Victorian tale of the last days of Pompeii, doomed city that lay at the feet of Mount Vesuvius. From poets to flower-girls, gladiators to Roman tribunes, here is a plausible story of their lives, their loves, and the tragic fate that awaited them. The novel uses its characters to contrast the decadent... read more »
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The Last of the Barons Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Considered Bulwer-Lytton's best romance novel, in The Last of the Barons, as in Harold, the aim has been to illustrate the actual history of the period, and to bring into fuller display than general History itself has done the characters of the principal personages of the time, the motives by which they were... read more »
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The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper
While the French and Indians besiege Fort William Henry, Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of the English commander, are on their way to join him. They are accompanied by Major Duncan Heyward, Alice's fiance, and by the treacherous Indian Magua, who secretly serves the French. Magua plans to betray the party to the... read more »
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The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel Emma Orczy
More adventures amongst the terrors of revolutionary France. No one has uncovered the identity of the famous Scarlet Pimpernel - no one except his wife Marguerite and his arch-enemy, citizen Chauvelin. Sir Percy Blakeney is still at large however, evading capture... read more »
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The Light That Failed Rudyard Kipling
The Light That Failed is a haunting and powerful novel of human suffering, love and loss. In Dick Heldar, artist and journalist, we see a man struggling to rise above his cruel beginnings and neglected childhood to grasp at a chance for happiness in later life. However as his hopes slowly turn to dust, his... read more »
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The Lion's Skin Rafael Sabatini
Since childhood and his mother's cruel death, young Caryll had been bred in France by his guardians for one purpose—to wreak their vengeance on the father who had never known him. But Caryll did not complete his mission. Instead, he sailed for England and plunged into a maelsrom of dissension and revolt that... read more »
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The Man in the Iron Mask Alexandre Dumas
Deep inside the dreaded Bastille, a twenty-three-year-old prisoner called merely "Philippe" has languished for eight long, dark years. He does not know his real name or what crime he is supposed to have committed. But Aramis, one of the original Three Musketeers, has bribed his way into the cell to reveal the... read more »