100 Must-Read Historical Novels by Nick Rennison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There is nothing so enticing to the habitual reader as a list. The 100 best or 100 most or 100 must, it doesn’t matter. We love books, we love lists, and we love the number 100. We also love to dicker with one another about which books are included in the list, and that is part of the fun.
Bloomsbury has of late been publishing little (approx 4 x 5 inch) guides to sci fi, fantasy, life-changing, graphic, prize-winning, and other sorts of novels. The first of these to come to my attention is 100 Must-Read Historical Novels.
The editor, Nick Rennison, has chosen 100 novels to be featured, like Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, Pat Barker’s Regeneration, The Three Musketeers, The Name of the Rose, Cold Mountain, and Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur. These are excellent choices, some familiar, some not. So far, so good.
But under each featured title Rennison has listed an additional book or two by the same author and a few that have similarities to the novel just discussed. For example, after discussing Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man he mentions Dee Brown’s Creek Mary’s Blood. After Geraldine Brooks’ March he mentions Edward P Jones’ The Known World. After Charles Kingsley’s Westward Ho! he adds H Rider Haggard’s Montezuma’s Daughter. He also tosses in lists of books on themes, like Egypt, The American Civil War, and The Renaissance.
So what we have is not a list of 100 books but more like a list of 500 or 600 books. And there are surprises. Ford Maddox Ford’s The Fifth Queen was unknown to me before I found it in this guide. Same with Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth, and Thomas Eidson’s St Agnes’ Stand.
All in all, this is a little (4x5) treasure trove.
2011 No 88
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