This post is largely in anticipation of my holiday tomorrow to Greece. I’m going to need a lot of reading material while I’m dossing by the pool! But since finishing my degree, I’ve had a yearning for books on Rome/Italy in the Early Modern period (yet not something that is too academic). Suprisingly, I haven’t found a huge amount, but what I have found is extremely readable and if you want to get into the topic or just need a good book to read, here are some of my recommendations.
My first dip into historical fiction in our topic was a mixture of historical fiction and actual records on Artemisia by Alexandra Lapierre. I found the first half of the book extremely well written and the part concerning the trial used actual excerpts from the documents. Sadly, the second half of the book wasn’t quite as riveting but I put that more down to the little information we have about Artemisia in her later life.
Another author that I have enjoyed particularly is Sarah Dunant, who writes more typical historical fiction (in that the characters are made up, but the settings are well researched). I have read both Sacred Hearts (about convent nuns) and Blood and Beauty (about the Borgia family under Alexander VI) and will move onto another one of her books soon. Her books are very easy to read and I can get through 400 pages in about 3 days!
What are your favourite historical fiction books? Of course, historical fiction poses numerous questions and debates which are as of yet unresolved. I will have to save those debates for another time but I promise to get back to them: does historical fiction have to be accurate? how useful can it be? What about genres other than books?
For now enjoy the sun! Until next time!
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