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 — 1,963,578 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 1,150,235 ratings
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4.47 avg rating — 3,010,183 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 3,478,306 ratings
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4.65 avg rating — 2,070,730 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 779,414 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 6,851,836 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 211,707 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 1,727,028 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,106,003 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 1,255,093 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,033,264 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,387 ratings
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14

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3.91 avg rating — 232,559 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,600,196 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 226,414 ratings
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17

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4.14 avg rating — 394,454 ratings
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18

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4.11 avg rating — 1,697,346 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,866,157 ratings
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20

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4.35 avg rating — 827,529 ratings
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21

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3.90 avg rating — 2,822,068 ratings
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22

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4.30 avg rating — 317,671 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 275,052 ratings
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24

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4.19 avg rating — 808,235 ratings
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25

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4.10 avg rating — 282,182 ratings
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26

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4.39 avg rating — 330,136 ratings
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27

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3.79 avg rating — 240,960 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 716,593 ratings
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29

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4.09 avg rating — 512,557 ratings
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30

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4.11 avg rating — 791,834 ratings
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31

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4.32 avg rating — 346,302 ratings
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32

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4.16 avg rating — 2,313,790 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 254,561 ratings
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34

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4.37 avg rating — 275,559 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 991,172 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 384,309 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 357,983 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 152,545 ratings
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39

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4.44 avg rating — 191,261 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 212,683 ratings
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41

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4.35 avg rating — 254,099 ratings
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42

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4.11 avg rating — 518,230 ratings
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42

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4.02 avg rating — 172,590 ratings
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44

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4.36 avg rating — 268,569 ratings
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45

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4.10 avg rating — 1,478,693 ratings
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46

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4.44 avg rating — 165,350 ratings
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47

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3.92 avg rating — 1,354,460 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 314,740 ratings
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49

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4.34 avg rating — 182,605 ratings
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50

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3.88 avg rating — 1,010,212 ratings
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51

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3.93 avg rating — 166,977 ratings
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52

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3.99 avg rating — 884,938 ratings
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52

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4.10 avg rating — 346,170 ratings
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54

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3.74 avg rating — 411,367 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 662,854 ratings
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56

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4.01 avg rating — 174,941 ratings
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57

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3.80 avg rating — 225,527 ratings
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57

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3.97 avg rating — 708,844 ratings
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59

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4.31 avg rating — 269,726 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 364,284 ratings
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61

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4.04 avg rating — 662,585 ratings
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61

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4.07 avg rating — 141,451 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 1,291,243 ratings
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64

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4.16 avg rating — 238,026 ratings
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65

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4.30 avg rating — 273,189 ratings
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66

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4.38 avg rating — 176,892 ratings
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67

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4.04 avg rating — 478,100 ratings
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68

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4.04 avg rating — 156,102 ratings
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69

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4.03 avg rating — 160,096 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 609,520 ratings
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69

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4.33 avg rating — 425,571 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 550,131 ratings
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73

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4.08 avg rating — 271,265 ratings
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74

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3.79 avg rating — 230,821 ratings
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75

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3.82 avg rating — 178,488 ratings
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76

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4.31 avg rating — 875,204 ratings
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77

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3.96 avg rating — 182,405 ratings
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77

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4.42 avg rating — 584,324 ratings
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79

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3.86 avg rating — 194,060 ratings
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80

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4.34 avg rating — 619,013 ratings
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81

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4.47 avg rating — 400,939 ratings
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82

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3.80 avg rating — 276,278 ratings
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83

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4.55 avg rating — 476,101 ratings
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84

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4.33 avg rating — 1,108,683 ratings
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85

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4.18 avg rating — 494,356 ratings
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86

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4.57 avg rating — 237,914 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 871,594 ratings
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88

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 127,999 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 164,668 ratings
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90

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4.06 avg rating — 443,502 ratings
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91

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4.06 avg rating — 181,222 ratings
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92

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4.29 avg rating — 504,668 ratings
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93

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3.83 avg rating — 1,335,128 ratings
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94

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4.05 avg rating — 464,113 ratings
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95

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3.94 avg rating — 545,395 ratings
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96

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3.92 avg rating — 1,015,538 ratings
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97

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4.09 avg rating — 387,113 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 212,383 ratings
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99

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4.35 avg rating — 646,789 ratings
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100

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3.93 avg rating — 122,959 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 11535 books
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Fiona 1667 books
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Rich 85376 books
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Charlotte Igelkott 3128 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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