Historical novels

>>9965166
I forgot "Wyvern" by A.A: Attanasio, one of the best ever.

>>9965166
O'Brian, Patrick - the Aubrey-Maturin series. 20.5 books to get through too, so it will last you a while. Enjoy!

>>9965768

In a similar vein, the Sharpe and Hornblower series are decent.

>>9965166
Felix Dahn, A Struggle for Rome (Ein Kampf um Rom). Dahn is somewhat forgotten, but he should do well on 4chan, given his political viewpoints.
Hella Haasse has written several good historical novels, but I guess they are hard to find. I read In a Dark Wood Wandering and Threshold of Fire.

You should try Mary Renault: The Bull From the Sea, The Persian Boy, The King Must Die...

I recently got a copy of John Williams's 'Augustus' seemed somewhat interesting. Has anyone here read it, does it match Stoner's brilliance?

>>9965858
Thanks for the suggestion. Btw if you are German I highly recommend "Die Brücke von Alcantara". It may well be the best historical novel I know. Unfortunately it is available in German only.

>>9965166
nah

>>9965820
I'll give Sharpe a try. Cornwell has written other intriguing stuff, but I have given one of his books a try and it seemed odd, with strangely lifeless and bland characters.

>>9965919
plzzz!

frenchies to the rescue

Flaubert: salambo
Yourcenar: memoirs of Hadrian

>>9965916
>Die Brücke von Alcantara
It is dirt cheap on ZVAB, might as well give it a try.
Also, Walter Scott cannot go unmentioned in this thread. And Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, even if you are not a fan of Dickens.

I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Lincoln by Gore Vidal

In /lit/'s opinion, what is historical fiction? Is it an embellished retelling of an actual event using avatars of those who were present? Is it an embellished retelling of an actual event using fictional characters? Or is it just writing fiction in a certain historical context?

>>9965188
Btw because I have mentioned Wyvern by Attanasio - it took me a reeeally long time to find that in e-book form. I finally stumbled across a full collection of his work on demonoid that some glorious bastard has apparently been seeding since 2008! I still have it on my computer, might as well do some good:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:0ADEAB629950B9F9147421D767B9A3BF77BE88D2&dn=A.%20A.%20Attanasio

>>9966093

all of those

>>9966093
The last, but the historical context needs to be real. Otherwise it's fantasy.

>>9966300
>Otherwise it's fantasy
Can it truly be fantasy if it has nothing supernatural in it? I'd rather call it pseudo-historical fiction, like Guy Gavriel Kay's books I mentioned in my first post.