General Discussion about Historical Fiction and Reading

I think in part it's because women write most historical novels and women reads most historical novels. Apparently women read the most fiction, too, so that's not entirely surprising. Since the actions of women are less recorded, novelists also have much more freedom to imagine their daily lives and thoughts - so when a novelist chooses a historical main character, it's a lot easier to play with a woman's life than a man's.

I've read several historical novels that are narrated by men. The ones that spring to mind are those written by Bernard Cornwell (who to be honest isn't very good at writing women, but that's his only weak spot) and The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

I'll be very interested to see other responses to this question.

I just spent some time looking through the books on LibraryThing I have tagged as historical fiction. Yes, most of them were narrated by women, but not as many as I thought there would be. Plus, Jean Plaidy's "Queens of England" series sort of skews my numbers. I wonder if it only seems that most historical fiction is narrated by women due to the popularity of the Boleyns and the Tudors - Mary, Anne, Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots. I also think that Meghan has a good point in the matter of the historical record being skewed in favor of men, leaving novelists more leeway when writing from a woman's perspective.

Good point, Meghan.

I do think women make more interesting narrators, in general, although that is purely personal preference and I can cite exceptions.

Jen, have you read much Plaidy?

I've read The Thistle and the Rose, which is about Margaret Tudor who marries James of Scotland. Her writing style is very different from, say, Philippa Gregory. She doesn't take as much liberty in terms of filling in the blanks between the historical facts, which makes for a bit more of a dry read, but I still enjoyed the book. It's just not the page turner that, say Philippa Gregory is.

I have been collecting Jean Plaidy, but I haven't read anything of hers yet. Anyone else?

I'll have to go back through my LibraryThing for male narrators of historical fiction like Jen did. It's an interesting experiment. I may start tagging my books as male narrator or female narrator. It would be interesting to see which I seem to favor in general. Off the top of my head I'd say that gender doesn't matter. But, if you I think of what I've really loved in the past year, it's been novels with female narrators. When the narrator is male, like in The Gargoyle, a huge focus is on a female.

I've so far found Jean Plaidy to be a little too dry. I liked her novel about Elizabeth I, but The Thistle and the Rose was really slow going for me. I have two more of hers sitting around waiting for me to wonder if I was being too impatient with that one.

Actually, I just looked at all the novels I've really loved lately and they seem to be either omniscient 3rd person or male narrators. In general, I do prefer 3rd person, although I couldn't tell you why.

I've read a fair amount of Plaidy (everything in my LT catalog by her, except Revolt of the Eaglets, link is here). She is definitely more dry than Gregory, but in some ways I like that, because she doesn't sensationalize things as much as Gregory does. I just started "The Last Queen" and so far I'm really not comparing it favorably with "The Captive Queen of Scots" or "Royal Road to Forthingay" (although I really just started it). Oh, Meghan, "The Thistle and the Rose" is not one of her best, in my opinion. Neither is "Victoria Victorious," but that could just be because I'm not that interested in Victoria.

I have two more by Plaidy, a scarily thick volume on Katherine of Aragon and the one Meghan mentioned above about Elizabeth I. I agree that she isn't as given to sensationalizing the facts as Philippa and I also think that the dialogue between characters seems a little more authentic. Still, if I wanted to pick up a quick, engaging read, I'd choose Gregory over Plaidy :)

About male narrators ... has anyone read Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follett? Both books were written in the third person, but both had prominent male characters (Jack in Pillars and Murfin in World.) They ended up being two of my favorite characters in the books, in addition to Aleana and Caris. (I have no idea if I'm spelling these right, since I listened to the audio version and am too lazy to go to Amazon and check spelling.)

Shana, I've read that scarily thick volume on Katherine of Aragon, and I thought it was pretty darn dry. It may have been because I read it too soon after The Other Boleyn Girl, but it just seemed like six hundred pages of the same thing over and over. I'll admit that it did kind of put my off of Plaidy... it probably wasn't the best place to start, in retrospect.

Cold Mountain, The Meaning of Night, The Prestige, and His Majesty's Dragon (although that's historical fiction blended with fantasy) are all male-narrated historical fiction that I've really enjoyed.

I think maybe there's a lack of male narrators in historical fiction because so much actual history is focused around men - using female narrators not only appeals more towards the women reading it, but it might allow the writers a little more freedom in telling the stories behind the history without butting up too hard against historical fact.

Shana, I have read Pillars of the Earth and loved it. That's one of my favorite books. I still have World Without End on the shelf and I need to read it. It's a chunkster though and with all the other reading, it keeps falling back.

Immortal is, with the exception of Henry VIII, the only book I've read with a male as a narrator. I just managed to start it today as I've had a bad headache but I'm already 100 pgs in. It's quite the page turner.

Has anyone read Forever Amber or Crimson Petal and the White? Both were female narrators and good novels. Other than that I really enjoy Philippa Gregory and Margaret George.

I read Pillars of the Earth in high school and I loved it back then. I've got the sequel now and I've been meaning to reread the first one, but it's so thick and I've got so many books to read. I'll get to it eventually.

Dars, I've read both Forever Amber and the Crimson Petal and the White. I liked the first, loved the second.

I'm not really a Philippa Gregory fan. She tends to twist history in ways I don't like (The Virgin's Lover, The Constant Princess), and I've always been a little, perhaps irrationally, fond of Anne Boleyn. She writes in an engaging way, but I just don't like what she does with the historical figures. I know, I know, it's fiction, but I know too much!

I love Margaret George, though. Her next book is, according to wikipedia, on Elizabeth I. I can't wait!

I'm going to have to try more Jean Plaidy. I have two of hers on my TBR pile and they're both short, so I'll give one of them a shot soon.

As I've been reading Immortal, I finally made the connection to all of the male-narrated historical fiction I've read before... Anne Rice!

I've got most of it tagged as fantasy/horror, rather than historical fiction, but it's really both, since her vampires are being created (for the most part) hundreds of years ago, mostly in Europe - and most of them are male. I don't remember if any of them are set in Florence per se, but there's certainly plenty in Italy, and there's something about the writing style of Immortal that reminds me of Anne Rice's descriptions.

I haven't heard for Forever Amber, but I have a copy of the Crimson Petal and the White. I have been wanting to read that for a while now.

I haven't read Anne Rice with the exception of her naughty Beauty series. I still blush whenever I think of those books. Please don't tell my mother that I even know they exist! :)

I am looking forward to Margaret George's new book. I absolutely loved and adored The Autobiography of Henry VIII. Maybe she will be the author who first makes me enjoy reading about Elizabeth I as the main character. I've always enjoyed her in a supporting role, but not when she's entirely in the spotlight.

I've never heard of Rice's Beauty series. Now you've made me curious Jennifer!

Hee, hee. I'm the one whose mom returned The Glass Castle partially read because she couldn't handle the language :)

In that case, I'd sacrifice telling my mother I read those books before I'd ever let you! :) She wrote them under the pen name A. N. Roquelaure. Here's the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Claiming_of_Sleeping_Beauty