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This week on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re talking about books that fall under the umbrella of historical fiction.

Using several different sources, we loosely define historical fiction as stories that are set in the past in a real place during a culturally recognizable time. It conforms to the norms of the day and the setting is integral to the story.

Towards the beginning of our conversation we unpack some of the wide-ranging historical fiction subgenres along with examples, included are:

• Biographical Historical Fiction - Ex. Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

• Historical Series and Epics - Ex. Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

• Historical Mysteries and Thrillers - Ex. A Study In Scarlet Women (The Lady Sherlock Series) by Sherry Thomas

• Historical Romance - Ex. Bridgerton: The Duke and I (Bridgertons Book 1) by Julia Quinn -

• Historical Adventures - Ex. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

• Historical Fantasy - Ex. Kindred by Octavia Butler

We also dive into several other aspects of these types of stories, such as:

• Avoiding anachronisms or the reader feeling that something is off or out of place by accurately representing the manners, traditions, culture, rules, attitudes, speech, fashion, and other details (such as technology and food) of the timeframe and setting.

• Using the knowledge and norms of the present to contrast with the past or to create dramatic irony and tension

• The difference between “Based on” and “Inspired by”, the necessity of taking creative license, and a case study of an attempt to discredit the film “The Woman King” based on an arbitrary and ill defined bar of historical accuracy

• That these stories may open our eyes to history, but the purpose is not to teach us history. We feel their actual purpose is to teach us some truth about the human experience.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

In this episode, we touch on the following previous podcast episodes:

• Episode 105: Interview with Joy McCullough (Blood Water Paint)

• Episode 17: Being kind to your readers and writing subtle character growth (Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock Series)

• Episode 58: Let's talk about Mexican Gothic  

• Episode 179: The Bridgerton series

Here are a few articles and videos we referenced for this conversation:

• MasterClass Article “What is Historical Fiction? Definition of the Historical Fiction Genre and Tips for Writing Your Historical Novel”

• CeladonBooks.com Article “What Is Historical Fiction?”

• IAPWE.org Article “The Subgenres of Historical Fiction”

• HistoryThroughFiction.com Article “The History of Historical Fiction, in brief”

• TCKPublishing.com Article “8 Most Popular Historical Fiction Tropes”

• InkandCinema.com Article “Q/A: Writing True Stories - "Based On" vs "Inspired By"“

• Variety.com Article “‘Woman King’ Stars Viola Davis and Julius Tennon Talk Box Office Victory and Defend Film Against Historical Critics: ‘We Have to Take License’”

Books and Films Mentioned:

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

• The Iliad by Homer

• The Odyssey by Homer

• Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

• A Study In Scarlet Women (The Lady Sherlock Series Book 1) by Sherry Thomas

• Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper, 1) by Kerri Maniscalco

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• The Pillars of the Earth: A Novel (Kingsbridge Book 1) by Ken Follett

• The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

• Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

• Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) by Diana Gabaldon

• Bridgerton: The Duke and I (Bridgertons Book 1) by Julia Quinn

• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy 

• Kindred by Octavia Butler

• Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• Doctor Who: The Christopher Eccleston & David Tennant Collection [TV Series 1-4]

• The Woman King - Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood

• Gladiator - Directed by Ridley Scott

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)