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 — 1,958,960 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 1,148,790 ratings
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4.47 avg rating — 3,004,986 ratings
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4.65 avg rating — 2,060,367 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 778,898 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 6,837,942 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 211,454 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 1,724,922 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,104,295 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 1,254,452 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,028,541 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,251 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 232,340 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,588,844 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 226,216 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 394,115 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 1,696,046 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,861,460 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 826,374 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,816,846 ratings
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4.30 avg rating — 317,101 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 274,749 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 807,316 ratings
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25

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4.10 avg rating — 281,993 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 329,863 ratings
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3.79 avg rating — 240,841 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 715,721 ratings
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29

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4.09 avg rating — 512,316 ratings
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30

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4.11 avg rating — 791,277 ratings
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31

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4.32 avg rating — 346,023 ratings
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32

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4.16 avg rating — 2,310,409 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 254,389 ratings
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34

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4.37 avg rating — 275,174 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 990,030 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 383,971 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 357,424 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 152,459 ratings
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39

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4.44 avg rating — 191,105 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 212,615 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 253,586 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 517,680 ratings
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4.02 avg rating — 172,155 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 268,352 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 1,477,272 ratings
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4.44 avg rating — 165,187 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 1,353,247 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 314,579 ratings
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4.34 avg rating — 182,370 ratings
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50

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3.88 avg rating — 1,009,412 ratings
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51

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3.93 avg rating — 166,913 ratings
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52

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3.99 avg rating — 884,387 ratings
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52

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4.10 avg rating — 345,959 ratings
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54

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3.74 avg rating — 411,013 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 661,523 ratings
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56

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4.01 avg rating — 174,835 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 — 708,570 ratings
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59

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4.31 avg rating — 269,294 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 364,117 ratings
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61

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4.04 avg rating — 662,361 ratings
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61

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4.07 avg rating — 141,388 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 1,289,316 ratings
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64

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4.16 avg rating — 237,881 ratings
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65

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4.30 avg rating — 272,823 ratings
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66

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4.38 avg rating — 176,707 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 477,815 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,002 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 160,031 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 609,057 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 425,254 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 549,277 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 271,011 ratings
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74

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3.79 avg rating — 230,633 ratings
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3.82 avg rating — 178,387 ratings
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76

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4.31 avg rating — 874,770 ratings
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77

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3.96 avg rating — 182,303 ratings
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77

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4.42 avg rating — 584,090 ratings
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79

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3.86 avg rating — 193,987 ratings
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80

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4.34 avg rating — 617,319 ratings
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81

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4.47 avg rating — 400,306 ratings
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82

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3.80 avg rating — 276,166 ratings
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83

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4.55 avg rating — 475,853 ratings
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84

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4.33 avg rating — 1,106,918 ratings
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85

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4.18 avg rating — 494,164 ratings
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86

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4.57 avg rating — 237,197 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 870,747 ratings
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 127,848 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 164,621 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 443,040 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 181,162 ratings
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92

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4.29 avg rating — 503,855 ratings
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93

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3.83 avg rating — 1,334,566 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 462,983 ratings
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95

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3.94 avg rating — 544,942 ratings
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96

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3.92 avg rating — 1,014,385 ratings
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4.09 avg rating — 386,961 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 212,245 ratings
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99

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4.35 avg rating — 645,330 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 122,868 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 11527 books
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Charlotte Igelkott 3128 books
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Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

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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