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 — 1,964,465 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 1,150,484 ratings
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4.47 avg rating — 3,011,135 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 3,479,313 ratings
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4.65 avg rating — 2,072,675 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 779,518 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 6,854,460 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 211,747 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 1,727,400 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,106,343 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 1,255,225 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,034,100 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,413 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 232,608 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,602,347 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 226,444 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 394,494 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 1,697,642 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,867,063 ratings
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20

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4.35 avg rating — 827,709 ratings
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21

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3.90 avg rating — 2,823,101 ratings
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4.30 avg rating — 317,773 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 275,104 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 808,402 ratings
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25

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4.10 avg rating — 282,217 ratings
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26

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4.39 avg rating — 330,169 ratings
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27

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3.79 avg rating — 240,991 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 716,748 ratings
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29

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4.09 avg rating — 512,608 ratings
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30

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4.11 avg rating — 791,946 ratings
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31

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4.32 avg rating — 346,365 ratings
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32

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4.16 avg rating — 2,314,460 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 254,585 ratings
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34

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4.37 avg rating — 275,639 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 991,355 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 384,357 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 358,062 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 152,555 ratings
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39

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4.44 avg rating — 191,284 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 212,702 ratings
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41

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4.35 avg rating — 254,187 ratings
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42

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4.11 avg rating — 518,328 ratings
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4.02 avg rating — 172,655 ratings
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44

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4.36 avg rating — 268,600 ratings
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45

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4.10 avg rating — 1,478,976 ratings
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46

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4.44 avg rating — 165,364 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 1,354,726 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 314,757 ratings
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4.34 avg rating — 182,648 ratings
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50

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3.88 avg rating — 1,010,366 ratings
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51

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3.93 avg rating — 166,981 ratings
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52

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3.99 avg rating — 885,045 ratings
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52

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4.10 avg rating — 346,206 ratings
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54

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3.74 avg rating — 411,443 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 663,093 ratings
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56

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4.01 avg rating — 174,956 ratings
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57

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3.80 avg rating — 225,524 ratings
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57

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3.97 avg rating — 708,899 ratings
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59

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4.31 avg rating — 269,811 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 364,306 ratings
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61

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4.04 avg rating — 662,645 ratings
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61

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4.07 avg rating — 141,462 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 1,291,609 ratings
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64

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4.16 avg rating — 238,052 ratings
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65

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4.30 avg rating — 273,260 ratings
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66

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4.38 avg rating — 176,930 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 478,155 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,126 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 160,114 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 609,620 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 425,635 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 550,287 ratings
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73

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4.08 avg rating — 271,315 ratings
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74

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3.79 avg rating — 230,854 ratings
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75

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3.82 avg rating — 178,512 ratings
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76

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4.31 avg rating — 875,294 ratings
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77

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3.96 avg rating — 182,420 ratings
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77

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4.42 avg rating — 584,382 ratings
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79

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3.86 avg rating — 194,072 ratings
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80

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4.34 avg rating — 619,336 ratings
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81

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4.47 avg rating — 401,049 ratings
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82

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3.80 avg rating — 276,295 ratings
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83

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4.55 avg rating — 476,164 ratings
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84

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4.33 avg rating — 1,109,006 ratings
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85

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4.18 avg rating — 494,394 ratings
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86

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4.57 avg rating — 238,051 ratings
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87

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3.80 avg rating — 871,756 ratings
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88

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 128,028 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 164,677 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 443,585 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 181,227 ratings
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92

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4.29 avg rating — 504,821 ratings
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93

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3.83 avg rating — 1,335,204 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 464,301 ratings
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95

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3.94 avg rating — 545,497 ratings
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96

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3.92 avg rating — 1,015,755 ratings
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97

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4.09 avg rating — 387,134 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 212,403 ratings
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99

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4.35 avg rating — 647,032 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 122,973 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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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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