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 — 1,958,855 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 1,148,759 ratings
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4.47 avg rating — 3,004,887 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 3,472,975 ratings
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4.65 avg rating — 2,060,104 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 778,890 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 6,837,695 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 211,448 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 1,724,895 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,104,268 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 1,254,440 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,028,471 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,251 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 232,338 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,588,636 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 226,211 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 394,113 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 1,696,026 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,861,361 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 826,364 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,816,774 ratings
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4.30 avg rating — 317,089 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 274,742 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 807,294 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 281,990 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 329,854 ratings
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3.79 avg rating — 240,840 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 715,711 ratings
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29

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4.09 avg rating — 512,314 ratings
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30

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4.11 avg rating — 791,267 ratings
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31

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4.32 avg rating — 346,014 ratings
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32

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4.16 avg rating — 2,310,354 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 254,388 ratings
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34

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4.37 avg rating — 275,169 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 990,011 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 383,960 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 357,418 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 — 191,101 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 212,614 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 253,574 ratings
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42

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4.11 avg rating — 517,677 ratings
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4.02 avg rating — 172,141 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 268,345 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 1,477,235 ratings
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4.44 avg rating — 165,178 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 1,353,213 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 314,574 ratings
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4.34 avg rating — 182,368 ratings
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3.88 avg rating — 1,009,389 ratings
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51

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3.93 avg rating — 166,912 ratings
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52

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3.99 avg rating — 884,374 ratings
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52

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4.10 avg rating — 345,957 ratings
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54

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3.74 avg rating — 411,011 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 661,492 ratings
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56

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4.01 avg rating — 174,829 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 — 708,564 ratings
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59

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4.31 avg rating — 269,285 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 364,115 ratings
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61

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4.04 avg rating — 662,358 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 — 1,289,288 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 — 272,811 ratings
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66

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4.38 avg rating — 176,701 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 477,811 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,001 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 160,028 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 609,045 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 425,242 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 549,262 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 271,007 ratings
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3.79 avg rating — 230,633 ratings
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3.82 avg rating — 178,386 ratings
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76

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4.31 avg rating — 874,765 ratings
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77

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3.96 avg rating — 182,299 ratings
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77

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4.42 avg rating — 584,084 ratings
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3.86 avg rating — 193,985 ratings
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80

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4.34 avg rating — 617,285 ratings
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81

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4.47 avg rating — 400,291 ratings
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82

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3.80 avg rating — 276,165 ratings
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4.55 avg rating — 475,847 ratings
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84

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4.33 avg rating — 1,106,901 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 494,161 ratings
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4.57 avg rating — 237,175 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 870,735 ratings
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 127,843 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 164,620 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 443,030 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 181,161 ratings
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4.29 avg rating — 503,836 ratings
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93

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3.83 avg rating — 1,334,547 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 462,958 ratings
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95

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3.94 avg rating — 544,932 ratings
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96

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3.92 avg rating — 1,014,360 ratings
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4.09 avg rating — 386,955 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 212,243 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 645,305 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 122,867 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 11526 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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