The Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List: Chapter 1, Historical Fiction

[Allison]

The Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List book has 19 total chapters, the first of which happens to be the HF section.

The list is:

Classics: Too Good To Miss
The Agony and the Ecstasy A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Hawaii A Novel by James A. Michener
I, Claudius From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered & Deified A.D. 54 by Robert Graves
Katherine by Anya Seton
The King Must Die A Novel by Mary Renault
The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy
Shogun by James Clavell

Ancient World
Assyrian by Nicholas Guild
The Beacon at Alexandria by Gillian Bradshaw
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Gates of Fire An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield
The Gilded Chamber A Novel of Queen Esther by Rebecca Kohn
The Hippopotamus Marsh Lord of the Two Lands Volume I by Pauline Gedge
King and Goddess by Judith Tarr
Pompeii by Robert Harris
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Sarum The Novel of England by Edward Rutherfurd

[Allison]

Medieval Europe
The Innocent A Novel by Posie Graeme-Evans
Jerusalem by Cecelia Holland
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
A Vision of Light A Margaret of Ashbury Novel by Judith Merkle Riley
The Winter Mantle by Elizabeth Chadwick
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

[Allison]

Europe
The Alchemist's Daughter A Novel by Katharine McMahon
The Autobiography of Henry VIII With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers by Margaret George
The Birth of Venus A Novel by Sarah Dunant
Circle of Pearls by Rosalind Laker
The Crimson Petal and the White by
Michel Faber
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Game of Kings First in the Legendary Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Lady's Maid A Novel by Margaret Forster
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Penmarric by Susan Howatch
Sails on the Horizon A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars by Jay Worrall
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell
Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell
Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen

[Allison]

United States
Ahab's Wife Or, The Star-gazer A Novel by Sena Jeter Naslund
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Brookland A Novel by Emily Barton
City of Light by Lauren Belfer
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Creek Marys Blood by Dee Brown
Daughter of Fortune A Novel by Isabel Allende
Enemy Women A Novel by Paulette Jiles
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Lincoln A Novel by Gore Vidal
North and South by John Jakes
People of the Wolf by W. Michael Gear
Ragtime A Novel by E.L. Doctorow
Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo
These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner
Voodoo Dreams A Novel of Marie Laveau by Jewell Parker Rhodes

[Allison]

Asia
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan A Novel by Lisa See
Spring Moon A Novel of China by Bette Bao Lord

Middle East/Africa
Exodus by Leon Uris
A Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith

[Mailaenderli]

Wow! These are great lists. Cheers.

[Donna]

Love these lists! I’ve read many of them and was reminded of a few I have been meaning to get to.

[Andrew]

All three books on Cromwell written by Hilary Mantel absolutely have to be on this list.