This list is for the most well known Historical Fiction books on Goodreads.

For purposes of this list, only include books with over 100,000 ratings and shelved at least 1000 times as historical fiction.

Anything with less than 100,000 ratings or shelved less than 1000 times as historical fiction will be removed and without comment.

A book that was set in the time it was written like say Pride and Prejudice is not historical fiction. Please avoid putting these on the list and call them out in comments to discourage people. But librarians shouldn't remove such books from these lists as long as its been tagged incorrectly at least 1000 times.

See also:
Best Historical Fiction
Best Historical Fiction of the 21st Century
Best Historical Mystery
Recommended Historical Fiction
Teen Historical Fiction

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4.31 avg rating — 1,959,468 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 1,148,960 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 778,962 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 211,491 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,104,529 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 1,254,538 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,029,233 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,265 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 232,370 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,589,945 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 226,243 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 394,176 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 1,696,194 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,862,044 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 826,528 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,817,476 ratings
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4.30 avg rating — 317,183 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 274,779 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 807,434 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 282,030 ratings
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3.79 avg rating — 240,860 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 715,876 ratings
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29

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4.09 avg rating — 512,341 ratings
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30

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4.11 avg rating — 791,375 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 346,055 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,310,873 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 254,412 ratings
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34

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4.37 avg rating — 275,224 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 990,172 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 384,017 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 357,516 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 152,473 ratings
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39

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4.44 avg rating — 191,121 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 212,628 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 253,640 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 517,754 ratings
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4.02 avg rating — 172,213 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 268,376 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 1,477,460 ratings
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4.44 avg rating — 165,209 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 1,353,389 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 314,604 ratings
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4.34 avg rating — 182,413 ratings
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3.88 avg rating — 1,009,511 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 166,920 ratings
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52

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3.99 avg rating — 884,469 ratings
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52

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4.10 avg rating — 345,990 ratings
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54

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3.74 avg rating — 411,069 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 661,687 ratings
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56

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4.01 avg rating — 174,849 ratings
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57

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3.80 avg rating — 225,513 ratings
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57

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3.97 avg rating — 708,605 ratings
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59

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4.31 avg rating — 269,365 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 364,146 ratings
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61

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4.04 avg rating — 662,385 ratings
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61

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4.07 avg rating — 141,396 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 1,289,537 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 237,908 ratings
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65

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4.30 avg rating — 272,860 ratings
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4.38 avg rating — 176,727 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 477,852 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,012 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 160,046 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 609,127 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 425,287 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 549,418 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 271,060 ratings
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3.79 avg rating — 230,663 ratings
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3.82 avg rating — 178,400 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 874,832 ratings
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3.96 avg rating — 182,327 ratings
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77

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4.42 avg rating — 584,138 ratings
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3.86 avg rating — 193,996 ratings
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80

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4.34 avg rating — 617,594 ratings
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81

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4.47 avg rating — 400,414 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 276,180 ratings
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4.55 avg rating — 475,889 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 1,107,147 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 494,190 ratings
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4.57 avg rating — 237,297 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 870,873 ratings
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 127,856 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 164,626 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 443,091 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 181,166 ratings
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4.29 avg rating — 503,945 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 1,334,652 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 463,165 ratings
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3.94 avg rating — 545,019 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 1,014,527 ratings
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4.09 avg rating — 386,985 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 212,267 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 645,537 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 122,879 ratings
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176 books · 29 voters · list created December 21st, 2020 by Mitchell Friedman (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Mitchell 11529 books
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Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

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message 1: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Dec 22, 2020 01:01AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set).


message 2: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set)."

The fun thing about an arbitrary rule - like must be tagged a particular way - is it doesn't have to be right.

I thought about this exact instance when creating this list and I'll put something in the list description.


Charlotte Igelkott Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set)."

The f..."


Other weird effects of the number of shelvings rule:
The Name of the Rose qualifies for the classics list, but not for the historical fiction list. (Still not sure I can trust my eyes on that one but I've checked and double checked and...nope)
The House of the Spirits qualifies for the historical fiction list, but not for the classics list.
Surely I can't be the only one who thinks the reverse would make more sense? (Not trying to suggest any changes, just genuinely astonished)


message 4: by Emrys (last edited Jan 18, 2021 10:24AM) (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it ..."

I suspect with the The Name of the Rose probably did previously qualify for this list but somehow the genre shelf totals have been been reinterpreted/misinterpreted by Goodreads - e.g. the 4000 or so shelvings it has for “Fiction” is similar to the number of shelvings Fall of Giants has for “historical fiction” (the two books both have about 300,000 ratings).


Charlotte Igelkott Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it ..."

Oh. Sounds a bit odd to me, but then I'm not very tech savvy. Is this the sort of thing that would be likely to flip back and forth at random or will it be stable until someone notices and changes it back? (Assuming the current numbers are wrong, of course) How can one tell if tNotR is the only book this has happened to or if it's a widespread phenomenon? Would it be likely to have affected other shelves as well? And from a librarian point of view, should I stop deleting books for insufficient shelvings for now?
(Sorry if I'm being too inquisitive - would be better to contact support, perhaps?)


message 6: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for in..."

I have a spreadsheet of books that records 4000+ shelvings for the genre “Historical Fiction” - I used this tool to get the genre data: https://github.com/PaulKlinger/Enhanc... , but I can’t be sure if the discrepancy is because of an error made by the tool, or because of Goodreads changing things.

Yes, I’ll try asking Support about it later. I don’t get the impression that it’s a widespread problem (just this book actually).


Charlotte Igelkott Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... ([book:Pride..."

That sounds reassuring. Thank you for answering :)


message 8: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction....."

I raised this issue with Support and they said they’d get the developers to look into it.

If it’s not sorted in a week or two I guess the book can be removed from the list.


message 9: by Emrys (new)

Emrys The Name of the Rose now has 4300 shelvings as "Historical Fiction" so it seems the issue has been fixed.


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