Historical novels... / myLot

March 25, 2010 6:05am CST

Why is it that so many historical novels are either military or romance? Some of the military ones are well written but surely there's more to life than fighting or frolicking? I hate the romance dressed up as history ones. They are really annoying because they are often badly presented - you could put the characters and plots in modern day and just change their costumes. Have you found this with historical novels? Which historical novels are good to read?

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3 responses

laglen

@laglen (19759)

• United States

25 Mar 10

I have been reading historical mysteries and have been enjoying them quite a bit. Kate Sedley writes about Roger the Chapman. I would recommend these.

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@laglen (19759)

• United States

14 Apr 10

Thank you for the best response, I am now reading Sally Spencer - these are pretty good too!

celticeagle

@celticeagle (189957)

• Boise, Idaho

26 Mar 10

Because if they weren't they would be terribly dry and boring. I read alot of historical romance novels and I find them very obsorbing and interesting to read. We obviously feel just the opposite about that. I find it interesting to take some little corner of history and bring it to life with some romance thrown in to make it even more interesting.

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@allyoftherain (7208)

• United States

25 Mar 10

I'm not much into historical novels, but the ones I have read have been either military or romance. The romances that I've read wouldn't have easily translated into modern day at all, the authors had done their research and the people in them were reacting realistically to the time period. I think if you looked a little harder you'd be able to find some historical novels that aren't about fighting or romance. I'm not a reader of historical fiction, but I have heard about some that weren't either military or romance.

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