4.01 avg rating — 102,830 ratings

"Story of a man torn between two women all the while caught in the tumultuous course of twentieth century Russian history. The story begins in the first years of the 20th century, and covers the 1905 revolution, the 1917 Revolution, the Russian Civil War of 1918-1921/22, and the purges or reign of terror of the 1930s."

4.09 avg rating — 96,635 ratings

"Spans most of Michelangelo’s life from a twelve year old youth to his death eighty years later. Also depicted is the rise and fall of the Italian Renaissance and the Catholic religion."

4.03 avg rating — 15,126 ratings

"Spanning 1800 years of Russia's history, people, politics, and culture. Story timeline starts around 450 A.D. and carrys through to the present-day. (Rutherfurd's Big Epic novels are all often referred to "time sweep"-covering an extremely broad sweep of time.)"

3.99 avg rating — 99 ratings

"Chronicles 350 years of a family (dynasty) from their journey on the Mayflower, to Plymouth Rock, through the American War of Independence, Civil War, Stock Market crash, World Wars, to the 1960s."

4.10 avg rating — 222 ratings

"Epic story set late 1930s and early 1940s in Northern Australia. Depicts the "tragic effects of white settlement in Australia". Emphasis on the majesty of the land, the motif of the journey, the destruction of Aboriginal society."

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,139 ratings

"A character-driven chronicle of the history of Alaska, beginning in 1742, with the arrival from Siberia of Russian fur traders and spanning to post-statehood. Romance cross-over."

4.13 avg rating — 743 ratings

"Covering the first two years of Lincoln’s presidency, from the Inauguration in 1861 to the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863."

3.50 avg rating — 616 ratings

"About the lives of everyday people during the English Civil War (Royalists vs Commonwealthers). Time period is early to mid 1600's set in England, Scotland, and Ireland."

4.28 avg rating — 5,120 ratings

"A chronicle of the life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi-the man who unified Japan. Set in 16th century feudal Japan when the Shogunate had crumbled and rival warlords battled for supremacy."

4.16 avg rating — 687 ratings

"Saga of Prine Madoc of Wales and the Welsh colonization in prehistoric 12th century America. Story spanning 700 years."

3.79 avg rating — 326 ratings

"Traces the history of Vancouver from the Ice Age to the 21st century as told by different characters at different time periods."

3.97 avg rating — 101 ratings

"Saga of the mighty Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. Story begins 9000 years ago and ends with a present-day archaeological dig and dam building. Features a Native American family involved with the River (Chinook Indian Shaman and her descendants)."

4.25 avg rating — 364,451 ratings

"Multi-generational saga of a family living on a sheep station in the Australian Outback from 1915 to 1969."

4.10 avg rating — 8,376 ratings

"Account of the notorious Confederate prison camp in Southwest Georgia which operated during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Grim."

4.31 avg rating — 1,255,701 ratings

"Sweeping, romantic story about the American Civil War from the point of view of the Confederacy in Reconstruction Georgia."

4.21 avg rating — 842,529 ratings

"Story of the lives and interactions of several poor French characters over a seventeen-year period in the early 19th century, starting in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 Rebellion."

4.26 avg rating — 28,853 ratings

"Henry VIII's story as he himself might have told it, in memoirs interspersed with irreverent comments from his jester and confident, Will Somers."

4.33 avg rating — 4,023 ratings

"Account of Marco Polo's adventures as a merchant, a warrior, a lover, a spy, even a tax collector."

3.94 avg rating — 8,769 ratings

"Novel covering 1000 years of the rise of ancient Rome from its first settlement to the assassination of Julius Caesar, as seen through the eyes of succeeding generations of one of its founding families."

4.06 avg rating — 12,136 ratings

"Story-within-a-story of 2,000 years of tumultuous Irish history."

4.37 avg rating — 130 ratings

"The life of the African explorer, H.M.Stanley. Features his last dangerous mission into the African interior to rescue the Emin Pasha, the only man holding back the enemy in the outreaches of the British Empire."

4.34 avg rating — 101,316 ratings

"An account of the Holocaust and the subsequent events leading to the establishment of Jewish State of Israel in 1948."

4.26 avg rating — 16,387 ratings

"About the life of Sacajawea; the first woman to go with a military contingent (Lewis and Clark Expedition) with a baby in a cradleboard, halfway across the North American continent."

4.20 avg rating — 45,083 ratings

"A novel of 19th century British-Indian history which features the story of an English officer and a mixed-race Indian princess during the Great Game. Romance cross-over."

3.95 avg rating — 678 ratings

"The story of an American family, an American town, and the United States Navy from the Revolution to Vietnam wars."

4.26 avg rating — 44,979 ratings

"Traces the history of northeast Colorado plains from prehistoric times to the 1970s. "

3.84 avg rating — 240 ratings

"Family saga which depicts five turbulent centuries in the history of Brazil; from the early 1490s, just before the arrival of the first Portuguese, to 1960, year of Brasilia's inauguration as the new capital."

3.99 avg rating — 1,104 ratings

"A sprawling novel of a 19th century Hoosier's (Indiana) life" recalled in a series of flashbacks. Spanning U.S. history from the pre-Civil War westward expansion, to the debate over slavery, to the Civil War, to the Industrial Revolution, and the Labor Movement which followed."

4.17 avg rating — 365,127 ratings

"Details the events leading up to the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families."

3.29 avg rating — 265 ratings

"Chronicle of the Crusades. Story begins in 1096, when Pope Urban launches the first crusades to free Jerusalem from the "Infidels", and ends with the taking of Acre in 1290. "A magisterial tale of a great and terrible campaign, recounting one soldier's experiences of the defining war of Christendom.""

4.31 avg rating — 253 ratings

"During the Civil War "five siblings of an established Confederate Virginia family learn that their father is the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln. The family's story, and the story of their descendants, is presented in this tale that includes both soldiers and civilians.""

4.18 avg rating — 961 ratings

"Historical fiction tale spanning late 1800s to mid 1940s recounting the life of an extended Thai family through four reigns of Thai monarchy."

3.89 avg rating — 783 ratings

"A novelistic reimagining of America. The book opens in 1897, the year of the Klondike gold rush, and closes in 1903, the year after the Philippine-American War ended, and in between it takes the measure of America on the brink of the 20th century. "

4.08 avg rating — 46,286 ratings

"The story of England through the eyes of several families in the English city of Salisbury, stretching from prehistoric times to the creation and development of the country of England."

4.09 avg rating — 34,227 ratings

"London's evolution from a trading post to the seat of an Empire and the families who lived that history."

4.22 avg rating — 21,928 ratings

"Set in S. Africa and features 5 different people populations (Bantu, Coloured, English, Afrikaner, Indian, Chinese). The novel traces the history, interaction, and conflicts between these populations, from prehistoric times up to the 1970s."

4.22 avg rating — 81,526 ratings

"the book narrates the story of the original Hawaiians who sailed to the islands from Bora Bora, the early American missionaries and merchants, and the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who traveled to work and seek their fortunes in Hawaii.[1] The story begins with the creation of the islands themselves at the dawn of time and ends in the mid-1950s." (Wikipedia)"

4.30 avg rating — 25,354 ratings

"The book describes a number of historical events; from the Great Famine up until the the Easter Rising in 1916. It features the intertwined lives of 3 different families. "

4.09 avg rating — 14,966 ratings

"A fictional account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots traces her lineage and describes her historic fight with Elizabeth over the throne of England."

4.19 avg rating — 15,658 ratings

"Story of te life of Jesus Christ, his journey through life as he faces the temptations that all humans face during their lives, and his final temptation upon the cross. (Apologies to those who disagree with this categorized as HF for inclusion on this list!)"

4.35 avg rating — 828,693 ratings

"Multi-generational family saga of the building of a cathedral in 12th century England and the lives of the people entwined with it and each other."

4.10 avg rating — 2,694 ratings

"" With a cast of thousands including Joan of Arc and the Dukes of Burgundy, this 1949 historical novel renders the political intrigue, people and texture of 15th-century Europe. Haasse captures medieval court life during the Hundred Years War.""

4.07 avg rating — 1,699 ratings

"""Love is Eternal" was the inscription Abraham Lincoln had engraved on the wedding ring he gave Mary Todd. This book tells Mary's own story, especially her romance with Abraham and her years of marriage which were happier than historians generally believe.""

4.28 avg rating — 443 ratings

""The lives of two families in China--one Chinese, one English--are interwoven in a saga that sweeps from the legendary Long March of 1930 to the revolution of 1976 and captures the struggles, lost faith, and a final reunion of those caught up in a changing nation.""

3.99 avg rating — 183 ratings

"Set in eighth century China during the T'ang dynasty. Death, deception, loyalty, dishonour and destruction of a dynasty!"

3.79 avg rating — 109 ratings

"Set in New Jersey's Monmouth County, and portrays the American Revolutionary War of Independance a civil war. (Book by Thomas James Fleming.)"

3.83 avg rating — 59 ratings

"Historical family saga of the Old American South (Natchez, Louisiana) 1729-1885. "

4.14 avg rating — 12,546 ratings

"Story of the "lifelong partnership and adventures of the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon (of Mason-Dixon Line fame) as they travel the world mapping and measuring through an uncharted pre-Revolutionary America of Native Americans, white settlers, taverns, and bawdy establishments of ill-repute." (Amazon)"

4.20 avg rating — 21,496 ratings

""The story starts off with Cleopatra VII's memories of when she is just three years old and continues until her death. It is written in an autobiographical manner." (Wikipedia)"

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 19,617 ratings

""Story of orphaned Amber St. Clare, who makes her way up through the ranks of 17th century English society by sleeping with and/or marrying successively richer and more important men, while keeping her love for the one man she could never have. The novel includes portrayals of Restoration fashion, politics, and public disasters, including the plague and the Great Fire of London." (Wikipedia)"

4.44 avg rating — 2,198 ratings

"Retelling of the stories of Genesis; Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, and Joseph the Provider during the Amarna Period. "

4.22 avg rating — 5,065 ratings

"The story follows the adventures of a fictional "Cyrus Spitama", an Achaemenid Persian diplomat of the 5th century BC who travels the known world comparing the political and religious beliefs of various nation states of the time. Over the course of his life, he meets many influential philosophical figures of his time, including Zoroaster, Socrates, the Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tsu, and Confucius." (Wikipedia)"

4.32 avg rating — 1,021,066 ratings

"A tale of obsession and revenge set "in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean, and in the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838 (from just before the Hundred Days to the reign of Louis-Philippe of France)". (Wikipedia)"

4.45 avg rating — 164,708 ratings

"The story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States. It follows his life and the lives of multi-generations of his descendants in the U.S."

4.09 avg rating — 73,542 ratings

"Fictionalized (and scary!) account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to the Arctic to force the Northwest Passage in 1845–1848. "

4.07 avg rating — 8,487 ratings

3.69 avg rating — 19,006 ratings

"Story of the adventures of several inter-related families, adults and children, from 1895 through World War I. "

4.33 avg rating — 948 ratings

"Story of the lives of two families of Mahto band of the Teton Sioux. It describes their world as it was from the late 1700s to the 1830s, before the white man came onto the red man's territory, before any influencing contact with traders and missionaries."

3.62 avg rating — 440 ratings

"A reinvents the lives of the first white (Dutch) settlers in the Cape of Good Hope, in the 17th century."

3.85 avg rating — 155 ratings

"Story of Genghis Khan and the influential people in his life. Set 12th century."

3.72 avg rating — 47 ratings

4.30 avg rating — 169 ratings

"Multi-generational historical saga primarily set in Japan at the time of WW11"

4.33 avg rating — 15 ratings

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating

"Novel follows the fortunes of the Sinclair family from the Highland clearances to present day.
In doing so, it charts the rise and fall of the British Empire and subsequently that of the Sinclairs; generations of whom helped build the colonial power that, at its height, controlled a quarter of the planet.
"

3.75 avg rating — 567 ratings

4.16 avg rating — 12,477 ratings

3.62 avg rating — 162 ratings

4.03 avg rating — 37,829 ratings

3.86 avg rating — 50 ratings

4.21 avg rating — 35,747 ratings

3.91 avg rating — 232,818 ratings

4.07 avg rating — 6,758 ratings

4.03 avg rating — 37,732 ratings

4.41 avg rating — 211,970 ratings

4.57 avg rating — 238,790 ratings

4.31 avg rating — 58,887 ratings

4.27 avg rating — 42,535 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 16,802 ratings

4.21 avg rating — 62,452 ratings

4.28 avg rating — 31,599 ratings

4.22 avg rating — 1,555 ratings

3.91 avg rating — 743 ratings

4.13 avg rating — 338 ratings

4.24 avg rating — 12,223 ratings

4.33 avg rating — 115 ratings

3.59 avg rating — 17,303 ratings

3.74 avg rating — 39 ratings

3.27 avg rating — 577 ratings

3.64 avg rating — 260 ratings