6. A novel based on a real person

[Sara]

This is, I think, a good variation on the memoir/biography suggestions we've had the last few years.

[Anabell]

Stalking Jack the Ripper

[Nicole]

I just finished reading Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn. I thought it would based on a fictional queen, but it actually based on the current Queen of England, and speaks about many of her family members as well, even though it is purely a fictional story.

[Tytti]

I've read a few of these in the recent years but I really don't like them... Real people are fine as supporting characters but I don't like them as protagonists. :-/

[Malaraa]

The Twentieth Wife would work for this. For based on a small group of real people, rather than a single famous person, then The Magdalen Girls or The Sworn Virgin would also work.

[Sara]

Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir both have great fictional stories about real people (mostly royals) from the past. Alison Weir also has some non-fiction so check carefully before choosing your book :)

[Anna]

I've been meaning to re-read Wolf Hall... Or maybe this is the chance to finally tackle Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath

Burial Rites would also qualify. I read it this year, and it's excellent.

[Tara]

I like fiction featuring real people.
Mrs Queen Takes the Train
Alice I Have Been
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Fighter

I know there are others I've loved I'll list as they come to me

[Amanda]

I got Mr. Dickens and His Carol: A Novel of Christmas Past in a giveaway a couple months back and I've been saving it to read around Christmas. Maybe I'll wait a little longer and read it in January. Or just read Alison Weir or Philippa Gregory.

[Katie]

Lincoln in the Bardo was fantastic. But I'm not sure if Abe or Willie would really be called the protagonists.

[Reyna]

I'm going with The Other Boleyn Girl since it's been on my TBR forever.

[Kristy]

The Paris Wife (about Hemingway's first wife, I think...)

[Cheri]

These are on my TBR, so I haven't read them but am considering them for this prompt:

The Painted Kiss based on the artist Gustav Klimt
Lincoln in the Bardo
Lydia Cassat Reading the Morning Paper based on the artist Mary Cassat
The Secret Chord about the biblical King David

[Kenya]

Roosevelt's Beast is about the only one on my to-read list that qualifies here...

[Christine]

Just pulling from my TBR list, I believe these would qualify:
The Lion in Winter
Audacity
Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome

[Kelly]

I think that My Lady Jane and The Glass Town Game would both count for this.

[Ed]

The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford with Agatha Christie as a character.

[Theresa]

Kristy wrote: "The Paris Wife (about Hemingway's first wife, I think...)"

Highly recommend The Paris Wife which is indeed about and from POV of Heminway's first wife. I read it for 2017 challenge and really liked it.

[Robin]

The Executioner's Song
The Black Dahlia

[Rachel]

Have read and can recommend:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Hope: A Memoir of Survival
Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son: The Story of the Yorkshire Ripper
The Spy
What Is the What
The Happiest Refugee: A Memoir
The Diary of a Young Girl

Any titles by:

Lisa Genova
Helen Garner
Henry Marsh

On my TBR list:
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me about Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything
Coming Clean
Billy
Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words
Catching a Serial Killer: My hunt for murderer Christopher Halliwell
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness

[Conny]

A wonderful read is The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld, which has Sigmund Freud hunting a killer during his only visit to the US.

If you are German, try Die Bruderschaft der Runen by Michael Peinkofer: the sleuth in this historical adventure story is none other than Sir Walter Scott.

[Tricia]

The Zookeeper's Wife

[Marilyn]

Désirée is a novel about Napoleon and his entire family. ALL the characters in the novel were real, HOWEVER, the relationship between Napoleon and Desiree is fictional. She was his older brother, Joseph's, wife's sister. They obviously knew each other. HER real story is also presented and that is very interesting as well. Be sure to check out who her son marries! For those who live now in Sweden - do YOU know her connection to your homeland?

Also - Girl with a Pearl Earring - novel about the artist Vermeer and the female who sat for this painting

[Nicole]

I found this listopia about fiction based on real people:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

I also found this one about historical fiction featuring real people:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

I just checked a couple of them, and they seem to be correct in having real people featured as characters in the books, but as I always say with listopia lists, check for yourself before you just assume they include a real person. Those lists aren't always the most reliable.

[Victoria]

Rosalind Laker has written several based on painters and artists. The Golden Tulip is based on a girl who studies art with Vermeer.

[Christine]

If you want to be a stickler, a novel can't be nonfiction. But I think historical fiction would be a good go-to - it may be about real people but fills in a lot of blanks with made-up story.

[Melissa]

I read swans of 5th avenue for some prompts this year, I wasn't expecting much but LOVED it and it's Truman Capote and his "swans."

There are also a lot of mystery novels with various famous authors. Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker and Jane Austen.

[poshpenny]

Just before the list came out I started reading Girl Waits with Gun

[Reenah]

I guess The Devil Wears Prada is based on Anna Wintour, so this might work. Also if you're doing several prompts in one, this might work for the 'movie you have seen before' one, too.

And America's First Daughter is based on Thomas Jefferson's daughter Patsy.

[Letizia]

I think I'm going to reread Girl with a Pearl Earring or something like that, maybe by Tracey Chevalier too. Remarkable Creatures was also good. It's about Mary Anning, who was an fossil collector, dealer, and paleontologist.

[Nadine in NY]

I love this category. I don't usually read books like this, but there are so many books that I am interested in that fit here!

Remarkable Creatures (Mary Anning, as mentioned above! I've been interested in her ever since I read the picture book Stone Girl, Bone Girl: The Story of Mary Anning to my kids)
Circling the Sun (about aviator Beryl Markham)
The Paris Wife (Hadley Richardson Hemingay)
The Dream Lover: A Novel of George Sand
and a whole host of Philippa Gregory books (she's very hit or miss with me - I've LOVED some, but dnf'ed others, so I'm hesitant to try another ... but The Lady of the Rivers is just so PRETTY!)

[Wendy]

I'm thinking of going with one of these:

Margaret the First
La Reine Margot
The Lodger - one of the earliest novels based on Jack the Ripper

[Megan]

I assume Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession would work?

[Nadine in NY]

Megan wrote: "I assume Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession would work?"

I assume that as well!

[Anna]

Actually, I've been meaning to read The Agony and the Ecstasy forever, and this looks like a good reason to do it!

(It's a biographical novel about Michelangelo. Bonus: I'm going to Florence in March.)

[Robyn]

I'm going to read The Gilded Years, which is a fictionalized account of Anita Hemmings, the first black woman who attended Vassar (by "passing" as white).

[Taylor]

Can someone help me out here? I'm getting tripped up on the term 'novel'. At first I was thinking The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks but I'm not sure if those qualify as novels. Does novel imply that it is fiction - just featuring real people for this prompt? Help!! (please)

[Tytti]

Taylor wrote: "Does novel imply that it is fiction - just featuring real people for this prompt? "

Yes, novels are fiction and the books you mentioned seem to be nonfiction.

[Nadine in NY]

I agree, "novel" implies fiction.

[Taylor]

Tytti wrote: "Taylor wrote: "Does novel imply that it is fiction - just featuring real people for this prompt? "

Yes, novels are fiction and the books you mentioned seem to be nonfiction."

Thank you! I will dig a little deeper then :)

[Tara]

Novel doesn't have to be fiction, I think it's more the literary style. It's a narrative, a story, but that story can be true. In True Blood is definitely a novel but it is based on true events.

[Tara]

I mis-typed and obviously meant In Cold Blood lol

[poshpenny]

Oxford English Dictionary:
"novel - NOUN
A fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism."

A novel is fiction. A story "based on" true events is still considered fiction.

Erik Larson, for example, writes books that read like novels but are entirely true. That is narrative non-fiction and is not a novel.

[Tara]

"The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and using the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwise loosely defined and flexible genre. The genre is sometimes referred to using the slang term "faction", a portmanteau of the words fact and fiction."

[Nadine in NY]

I can't decide if I'm excited or terrified by the thought of "True Blood" being based on true events ;-)

[poshpenny]

If there is anything in there that is fiction, it is no longer non-fiction. It is now fiction "based on" true events.

[Tara]

Ok I'm not going to argue semantics lol

[Tara]

But yes, by merit of the fact of narrative a novel can never be purely "non fiction" because novels have perspectives and conversations and insight into events that one author generally can't know or remember 100%

[Tytti]

poshpenny wrote: "If there is anything in there that is fiction, it is no longer non-fiction. It is now fiction "based on" true events."

I have read some reviews where the reviewer has called a novel "nonfiction" because it was based on true events (and in these cases there have been no doubt that it is fictional otherwise). And IIRC, one claimed to be an English teacher... Scary. OTOH, others seem to think that if the novel is historical fiction, even the basic historical facts (not just minor details) can be changed because it is fiction...

[Eujean2]

What a great chance to finally ready Maplecroft, a recommendation from a panel at Emerald City Comic Con 2017.

As Patrick Rothfus puts it in his 5 star review: "The primary character is Lizzy Borden. Genre-wise it's somewhere between urban fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, and Lovecraftian horror."