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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1

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4.31 avg rating — 2,030,608 ratings
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4.47 avg rating — 3,061,638 ratings
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4.27 avg rating — 1,171,684 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 788,994 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 217,386 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,721,327 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,129,386 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 401,878 ratings
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3.89 avg rating — 2,237,678 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 159,760 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 237,706 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 737,945 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 229,679 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,374,582 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 1,716,123 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,935,876 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,898,637 ratings
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4.30 avg rating — 334,015 ratings
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25

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4.33 avg rating — 280,809 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 822,711 ratings
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27

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4.11 avg rating — 285,828 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 334,824 ratings
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29

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3.78 avg rating — 245,813 ratings
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30

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4.09 avg rating — 516,978 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 803,686 ratings
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32

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4.33 avg rating — 352,176 ratings
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33

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3.87 avg rating — 259,633 ratings
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34

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4.36 avg rating — 283,158 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 1,011,960 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 390,560 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 373,987 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 154,476 ratings
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39

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4.44 avg rating — 194,089 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 214,199 ratings
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41

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4.35 avg rating — 264,191 ratings
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42

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4.12 avg rating — 531,602 ratings
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42

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4.02 avg rating — 180,391 ratings
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44

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4.36 avg rating — 272,446 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 279,370 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 1,507,602 ratings
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4.44 avg rating — 167,914 ratings
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48

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3.92 avg rating — 1,370,592 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 318,185 ratings
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50

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4.34 avg rating — 188,480 ratings
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51

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3.88 avg rating — 1,024,941 ratings
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52

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3.93 avg rating — 167,992 ratings
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53

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3.99 avg rating — 896,842 ratings
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53

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4.10 avg rating — 351,202 ratings
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55

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3.75 avg rating — 420,493 ratings
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56

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4.31 avg rating — 688,708 ratings
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57

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4.01 avg rating — 178,031 ratings
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58

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3.80 avg rating — 226,059 ratings
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58

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3.97 avg rating — 714,904 ratings
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60

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4.31 avg rating — 284,582 ratings
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61

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4.25 avg rating — 367,958 ratings
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62

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4.04 avg rating — 668,904 ratings
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62

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4.07 avg rating — 143,141 ratings
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64

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4.17 avg rating — 1,319,908 ratings
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65

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4.16 avg rating — 242,194 ratings
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66

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4.30 avg rating — 281,993 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 180,783 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 486,671 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 158,663 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 620,401 ratings
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4.34 avg rating — 434,039 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 571,870 ratings
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74

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4.08 avg rating — 275,808 ratings
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3.79 avg rating — 235,330 ratings
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76

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3.82 avg rating — 180,680 ratings
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77

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4.30 avg rating — 884,320 ratings
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78

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3.96 avg rating — 184,191 ratings
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78

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4.42 avg rating — 591,078 ratings
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80

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3.86 avg rating — 195,990 ratings
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81

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4.34 avg rating — 660,830 ratings
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82

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4.47 avg rating — 417,420 ratings
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83

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4.55 avg rating — 482,562 ratings
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84

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4.33 avg rating — 1,137,167 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 499,314 ratings
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86

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4.59 avg rating — 263,490 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 886,124 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 129,861 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 165,781 ratings
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4.01 avg rating — 272,313 ratings
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91

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4.06 avg rating — 453,261 ratings
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92

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4.06 avg rating — 183,061 ratings
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93

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4.29 avg rating — 523,964 ratings
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94

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3.83 avg rating — 1,346,379 ratings
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95

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4.05 avg rating — 491,713 ratings
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96

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3.94 avg rating — 554,941 ratings
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97

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3.92 avg rating — 1,033,741 ratings
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98

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4.09 avg rating — 390,699 ratings
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99

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4.19 avg rating — 215,106 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 684,857 ratings
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176 books · 31 voters · list created December 21st, 2020 by Mitchell Friedman (votes) .
6 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Mitchell 11159 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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