Paul Jariabek's Blog: Personal Site of Paul Jariabek, page 2

The Opening Scenes of the Historical Fiction Novel Sic Parvis Magna

The Cold Winds, Chapter 1 of historical fiction novel Sic Parvis Magna and the opening to the Adventures of Francis Drake series, introduces a young Francis on the eve of the Western Prayer Book Rebellion. What begins as an ordinary day unravels into betrayal and terror-filled flight���his childhood torn apart by forces he doesn’t yet understand. The torch-lit escape leaves more than a trail of ashes; it slashes a wound so deep it will shape the man he becomes, driving him across oceans, into in...

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Best Historical Fiction Books: Anna Karenina

Tolstoy’s tragic masterpiece tells the story of Anna Karenina’s doomed love affair against the backdrop of Russian high society, while exploring themes of love, family, faith, and social change in 19th-century Russia through parallel storylines of passion and redemption.

War and Peace

Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece follows the interconnected lives of Russian aristocrats during the Napoleonic Wars, weaving together themes of love, war, fate, and the search for meaning in a sweeping narrative that captures the essence of human experience.

Tolstoy's War: The Chill of Napoleon's False Shadow

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time. His epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina are masterpieces of realist fiction that explore the depths of human nature, society, and moral philosophy.

Anna Karenina

Tolstoy’s tragic masterpiece tells the story of Anna Karenina’s doomed love affair against the backdrop of Russian high society, while exploring themes of love, family, faith, and social change in 19th-century Russia through parallel storylines of passion and redemption.

Memento Mori: Death, Fear, and Power in Tudor England and Francis Drake’s Voyages

In the Age of Discovery, galleons carved paths across charted and uncharted waters. With the great promise of “discovery” and riches (and the reality of great suffering by first nations and transported slaves) one truth remained certain: death was never far. In such a world, a phrase echoed through churches, poems, paintings, jewelry and at all levels of society: Memento mori—Remember you will die.

For some, the ancient admonition became a way to control others.

Memento Mori in Tudor Engla...

Book Review: Historical Fiction Novel The Order by Peter Portelli

Summary of The Historical Fiction Novel The Order

Believing an attack against Malta to be a matter of “when,” Jean Parisot de Valette, the newly elected Grand Master of the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, sets about the fortifications of the island and its town-forts. The Knights’ loss at Rhodes is still a fresh memory in the minds of many, including Valette.

As much as he detests the island given to his brothers by the king of Sicily, he knows it is of critica...

The Last Song – Historical Flash Fiction

The lute’s polished wood was as smooth against Mark Smeaton’s hand as the leg he dared not covet. Cold sweat covering his palm, he plucked the first, soft chord. 

The melody had come to him like a whisper, as dangerous as shuddering breath against his skin.

Queen Anne sat poised yet rigid, as if perched on a bed of stones. Her kirtle suffocated her, her hands stiff in her lap—she dared not to look at him, lest…

Mark had written songs for noble ladies before—ditties of courtly love, harm...

1555 Philip and Mary Shillings

Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain

Royal succession was one of key concerns in early modern history because weak monarchies lead to civil war. In England’s case, Henry VII started the Tudor dynasty after the bloody War of the Roses, Henry VIII expanded the monarchy (at great cost). While his son Edward VI inherited the throne, the boy king’s monarchy did not last and transitioned to Henry’s daughter – Mary I, England’s first queen to rule in her own right.

Mary suffered through years of rel...