A Proposal of Historical Novels

1. BY PERIOD APPROACHED: Ancient Age | Middle Ages | Modern History | 19th Century | 20th Century | Transversal

2. BY AUTHOR

Note: In the novels that were not written in the 20th century, there are the date of its first edition indicated within square brakets ([]), together with the actual edition's date.

Ancient Age (Until the Fall of the Roman Empire)

Bradshaw, Gillian (2003). Beacon at Alexandria. Soho Press. [A woman physician at Alexandria in 371 A.C.].

Broch, Hermann (1995). Death of Virgil. Vintage. [The last 18 hours of the poet Virgil's life].

Caldwell, Taylor (2008). Dear and Glorious Physician. Ignatius Press. [A novel about Saint Luke].

Graves, Robert (2006). I, Claudius. Penguin Classics. [From the autobiography of Claudius, born 10 B.C., murdered and deified A.D. 54].

Harris, Robert (2007). Imperium. Pocket. [The life and times of Cicero].

Lagerkvist, Pär (1989). Barabbas. Vintage. [Israel, 1st century A.D].

Mahfuz, Naguib (2002). Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth. American University in Cairo Press. [Egypt`s first monotheistic ruler, 14th century B.C.].

Mann, Thomas (2005). Joseph and His Brothers: The Stories of Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph the Provider. Everyman's Library.

Manfredi, Valerio M. (2007). The Last Legion. Pan Books. [Roman Empire's Fall].

Newman, John Henry (2007 [1855]). Callista: A Sketch of the Third Century. Cosimo Classics. [A picture of Christian life in the early days of the faith].

Sienkiewicz, Henryk (2006 [1896]). Quo Vadis. Norilana Books. [A narrative of the time of Nero].

Wallace, Lewis (2005 [1880]). Ben-Hur. Thomas Nelson. [The Roman Empire of the 1st century A.C.].

Wilder, Thornton (2003). The Ides of March. Harper Perennial. [Epistolary novel set in Julius Caesar's Rome].

Yourcenar, Marguerite (2005). Memoirs of Hadrian. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [A persuasive 'self-portrait' of the 2nd-century Roman Emperor].

Middle Ages (5th-15th Centuries)

Chesterton, G. K. (2002). St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi. Ignatius Press. [Concise semi-biographies of two forgers of the Middle Ages].

Hugo, Victor (2006 [1831]). Notre-Dame of Paris. Oxford University Press. [Paris, 15th century].

Kadaré, Ismail (2008). The Siege. Bond Street Books. [A 15th-century Ottoman siege of a Christian citadel in Albania].

Pernoud, Régine (1998). Hildegarde de Bingen. Da Capo Press. [A vivid portrait of both this remarkable woman and turbulent 12th century Europe].

Scott, Walter (2005 [1819]). Ivanhoe. Barnes & Noble Classics. [Medieval England].

Stevenson, Robert Luis (2009 [1888]). The Black Arrow. Serenity Publishers, LLC. [England's War of the Roses].

Twain, Mark (2002). Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Dover Publications. [Personal recreation of this extraordinary woman and her time].

Undset, Sigrid (2005). Kristin Lavransdatter. Penguin Classics. [Norway, 14th century].

Modern History (16th-18th Centuries)

Chevalier, Tracy (2005). Girl with a Pearl Earring. Plume. [Art, society and everyday life in Delft, 1664-1676].

Cooper, J. Feenimore (2008 [1826]). The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757. BiblioLife. [An unforgettable picture of American frontier life].

Dickens, Charles (2009 [1841]). Barnaby Rudge. Oxford University Press. [London at the time of the anti-Catholic riots of 1780].

Dumas, Alexandre (2008 [1844]). The Three Musketeers. Penguin.

Ford Madox Ford (1999). The Fifth Queen. Penguin Classics. [Life of Catalina Howard, wife of Henry VIII].

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (2009 [1850]). The Scarlet Letter. Harvard University Press. [New England Puritans of the 17th century].

Manzoni, Alessandro (2008 [1840]). The Betrothed. BiblioBazaar. [The thwarting of the love of two peasants by a tyrant at Italy, 17th century].

Perez-Reverte, Arturo (2005). Captain Alatriste. Plume. [Spanish Empire, 17th Century].

Perutz, Leo (1989). Leonardo's Judas. Little, Brown and Company. [It describes Leonardo da Vinci's search for a model to portray Judas].

Sciascia, Leonardo (1988). The Council of Egypt. Carcanet. [History of a imposture in the 18th century Palermo].

Steinbeck, John (1995). Cup of Gold. Penguin Classics. [Sir Henry Morgan].

Tremain, Rose (2001). Music & Silence. Washington Square Press. [At the court of the Danish King Christian IV, 1577-1648, the magic of music].

Wilder, Thornton (2004). The Bridge of Sain Luis Rey. HarperCollins. [In 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke killing five travelers...].

19th century (From 1789)

Calvino, Italo (1977). The Baron in the Trees. Harvest Books. [The strange existence of Cosimo, a young eighteenth-century Italian nobleman].

Cather, Willa (2008). O Pioneers!. Oxford University Press. [The story of an immigrant family's struggle to save their Nebraska farm].

Crane, Stephen (2004 [1895]). The Red Badge of Courage. Prestwick House Inc. [American Civil War].

Doctorow, E. L. (2006). The March. Random House. [American Civil War].

Farrell, J. G. (2004). The Siege of Krishnapur. NYRB Classics. [The Sepoy rebellion in India in 1857].

García Márquez, Gabriel (2004). The General in His Labyrinth. Everyman's Library. [The last days of Simon Bolivar].

Giono, Jean (1982). The Horseman on the Roof. North Point Press. [Europe, 19th century].

Guedj, Denis (2001). The Measure of the World: A Novel. University of Chicago Press. [Science and Politics during the French Revolution].

Lampedusa, G. Tomasi di (2007). The Leopard. Pantheon. [Italian Risorgimento].

Maalouf, Amin (1995). The Rock of Tanios. Abacus. [Lebanon and the Ottoman Empire, 19th Century].

O'Brian, Patrick (2007). Master and Commander. HarperPerennial. [The control of the sea during the Napoleonic wars].

Pérez Galdós, Benito (2008 [1873]). Trafalgar: A Tale. Kessinger Publishing. [Naval battle in 1805].

Rambaud, Patrick (2001). The Battle. Grove Press. [The battle of Essling, 1809, one of Napoleon's first major defeats].

Shaara, Michael (2007). The Killer Angels. Ballantine Books. [American Civil War].

Tolstoy, Leo (2008 [1869]). War and Peace. Vintage. [Napoleon’s invasion of Russia].

Uslar Pietri, Arturo (1963). The red lances. Knopf. [The Venezuelan War of Independence].

Vargas Llosa, Mario (2008). The War of the End of the World. Picador. [The story of Canudos, battle between the society and Brazilian troops].

Vidal, Gore (2000). Lincoln. Vintage. [A literary portrait of America's great president].

Von Le Fort, Gertrud (2001). The Song at the Scaffold. Sophia Institute Press. [French Revolution].

Werfel, Franz (2006). The Song of Bernardette. Ignatius Press. [The visions of Bernardette at Lourdes, France 1858].

20th Century

Amis, Martin (2003). Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million. Vintage. [Stalin and his legacy].

Bábel, Isaac (2003). Red Cavalry. W.W. Norton & Co. Ltd. [Rusia, 1920].

Cercas, Javier (2004). Soldiers of Salamis. Bloomsbury. [Spanish Civil War].

Chang, Jung (2003). Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Touchstone. [Story of three generations of women in China during the 20th century].

Coetzee, J. M. (1998). Age of Iron. Penguin. [South Africa, apartheid].

Corti, Eugenio (2002). The Red Horse. Ignatius Press. [Italy, 20th Century].

DeLillo, Don (2007). Underworld. Scribner. [Twentieth century American history and culture].

Dinesen, Isak (1992). Out of Africa. Modern Library. [The experience of British East Africa before World War II].

Doderer, Heimito von (1993). Demons. Sun & Moon Press. [Viena before and after the World War II].

Dos Passos, John (1996). U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money. Library of America. [An unforgettable collective portrait of modern America].

Forster, E. M. (2005). A Passage to India. Penguin Classics. [A masterly portrait of the Indian society in the grip of imperialism].

Ginzburg, Natalia (1989). Family Sayings. Arcade Publishing. [Turin, 1930].

Gironella, José Maria (2005). The Cypresses Believe in God. Ignatius Press. [Spanish Civil War].

Grass, Günter (2004). Crabwalk. Mariner Books. [Sunk of the German refugee ship Wilhelm Gustoff in 1945].

Grossman, Vasili (2006). Life and Fate. NYRB Classics. [Russia, World War II].

Hemingway, Ernest (1996). For Whom the Bell Tolls. Scribner. [Spanish Civil War].

Hosseini, Khaled (2008). A Thousand Splendid Suns. Riverhead Trade. [Afghanistan, second half of the 20th Century].

Lobo Antunes, Antonio (2004). The Inquisitor's Manual. Grove Press. [The harrowing story of Salazar's regime from 1932 to 1968].

Mourad, Kenize (1993). Regards from the Dead Princess. Random House. [Turkey after the World War I].

Nemirovsky, Irene (2007). Suite Française. Vintage. [The German occupation of France].

O'Flaherty, Liam (2008). The Informer. Wolfhound Pr. [The aftermath of the Irish Civil War].

Ooka, Shohei (2001). Fires on the Plain. Tuttle Publishing. [World War II in Japan].

Pasternak, Boris (1997). Doctor Zhivago. Pantheon. [Russian Revolution].

Rosenstone, Robert (2007). King of Odessa: A Novel of Isaac Babel. Northwestern University Press. [Babel's last visit to Odessa in 1936].

Roth, Joseph (2002). The Radetzky March. Overlook TP. [End of the Austro-Hungarian Empire].

Rushdie, Salman (1998). The Moor's Last Sigh. Vintage. [As an allegory for Rushdie's home country of India in the 20th century].

Sales, Joan (2002). Uncertain Glory. American Institute for Catalan Studies. [Spanish Civil War].

Sebald, W. G. (2002). Austerlitz. Modern Library. [A man in the 20th century searching for his origins in wartime Europe].

Sijie, Dai (2001). Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Knopf. [The Maoist cultural revolution and the power of literature].

Solmssen, Arthur (1982). A Princess in Berlin. Penguin Books. [Berlin, 1922].

Szczypiorski, Andrze (1997). The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman. Grove Press. [Warsaw under Nazi occupation, 1943].

Tabucchi, Antonio (1997). Declares Pereira. New Directions Publishing Corporation. [Lisbon, 1938].

Werfel, Franz (1983). Forty Days of Musa Dagh. Amereon Limited. [The tragedy that befell the Armenian people in the dark year of 1915].

Transversal

Andric, Ivo (2007). The Bridge on the Drina. Dereta. [Bosnia, XVII-XX].

Haasse, Hella (1997). Heren van de Thee. Walvaboek. ["The Gentlemen of the Tea", dutchmen settlers in Java, 17th to 19th Centuries].

Lapierre, Dominique (2009). A Rainbow in the Night: The Tumultuous Birth of South Africa. Da Capo Press. [South Africa’s history, from 17th century].

Magris, Claudio (2001). Microcosms. Harvill Press. [Travel literature along the tiny borderlands in Istria and Italy].

Naipaul, V. S. (2003). The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History. Vintage. [History of the island of Trinidad, the author's birthplace].

Nievo, Ippolito (1988). Confessioni d'un Italiano. Garzanti. [Italy, 18th and 19th centuries].

By Author

Amis, Martin (2003). Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million. Vintage. [Stalin and his legacy].

Andric, Ivo (2007). The Bridge on the Drina. Dereta. [Bosnia, XVII-XX].

Bábel, Isaac (2003). Red Cavalry. W.W. Norton & Co. Ltd. [Rusia, 1920].

Bradshaw, Gillian (2003). Beacon at Alexandria. Soho Press. [A woman physician at Alexandria in 371 BC.].

Broch, Hermann (1995). Death of Virgil. Vintage. [The last 18 hours of the poet Virgil's life].

Caldwell, Taylor (2008). Dear and Glorious Physician. Ignatius Press. [A novel about Saint Luke].

Calvino, Italo (1977). The Baron in the Trees. Harvest Books. [The strange existence of Cosimo, a young eighteenth-century Italian nobleman].

Cather, Willa (2008). O Pioneers!. Oxford University Press. [The story of an immigrant family's struggle to save their Nebraska farm].

Cercas, Javier (2004). Soldiers of Salamis. Bloomsbury. [Spanish Civil War].

Chang, Jung (2003). Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Touchstone. [Story of three generations of women in China during the 20th century].

Chesterton, G. K. (2002). St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi. Ignatius Press. [Concise semi-biographies of two forgers of the Middle Ages].

Chevalier, Tracy (2005). Girl with a Pearl Earring. Plume. [Art, society and everyday life in Delft, 1664-1676].

Coetzee, J. M. (1998). Age of Iron. Penguin. [South Africa, apartheid].

Cooper, J. Feenimore (2008 [1826]). The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757. BiblioLife. [An unforgettable picture of American frontier life].

Corti, Eugenio (2002). The Red Horse. Ignatius Press. [Italy, 20th Century].

Crane, Stephen (2004 [1895]). The Red Badge of Courage. Prestwick House Inc. [American Civil War].

DeLillo, Don (2007). Underworld. Scribner. [Twentieth century American history and culture].

Dickens, Charles (2009 [1841]). Barnaby Rudge. Oxford University Press. [London at the time of the anti-Catholic riots of 1780].

Dinesen, Isak (1992). Out of Africa. Modern Library. [The experience of British East Africa before World War II].

Doctorow, E. L. (2006). The March. Random House. [American Civil War].

Doderer, Heimito von (1993). Demons. Sun & Moon Press. [Viena before and after the World War II].

Dos Passos, John (1996). U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money. Library of America. [An unforgettable collective portrait of modern America].

Dumas, Alexandre (2008 [1844]). The Three Musketeers. Penguin.

Farrell, J. G. (2004). The Siege of Krishnapur. NYRB Classics. [The Sepoy rebellion in India in 1857].

Ford Madox Ford (1999). The Fifth Queen. Penguin Classics. [Life of Catalina Howard, wife of Henry VIII].

Forster, E. M. (2005). A Passage to India. Penguin Classics. [A masterly portrait of the Indian society in the grip of imperialism].

García Márquez, Gabriel (2004). The General in His Labyrinth. Everyman's Library. [The last days of Simon Bolivar].

Ginzburg, Natalia (1989). Family Sayings. Arcade Publishing. [Turin, 1930].

Giono, Jean (1982). The Horseman on the Roof. North Point Press. [Europe, 19th century].

Gironella, José Maria (2005). The Cypresses Believe in God. Ignatius Press. [Spanish Civil War].

Grass, Günter (2004). Crabwalk. Mariner Books. [Sunk of the German refugee ship Wilhelm Gustoff in 1945].

Graves, Robert (2006). I, Claudius. Penguin Classics. [From the autobiography of Claudius, born 10 B.C., murdered and deified A.D. 54].

Grossman, Vasili (2006). Life and Fate. NYRB Classics. [World War II in Russia].

Guedj, Denis (2001). The Measure of the World: A Novel. University of Chicago Press. [Science and Politics during the French Revolution].

Guillou, Jan (2009). The Road to Jerusalem: Book One of the Crusades Trilogy. Harper. [A family involved with court intrigues, treachery and war].

Harris, Robert (2007). Imperium. Pocket. [The life and times of Cicero].

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (2009 [1850]). The Scarlet Letter. Harvard University Press. [New England Puritans of the 17th century].

Hemingway, Ernest (1996). For Whom the Bell Tolls. Scribner. [Spanish Civil War].

Hosseini, Khaled (2008). A Thousand Splendid Suns. Riverhead Trade. [Afghanistan, second half of the 20th Century].

Hugo, Victor (2006 [1831]). Notre-Dame of Paris. Oxford University Press. [Paris, 15th century].

Kadaré, Ismail (2008). The Siege. Bond Street Books. [A 15th-century Ottoman siege of a Christian citadel in Albania].

Lagerkvist, Pär (1989). Barabbas. Vintage. [Israel, 1st century A.D].

Lampedusa, G. Tomasi di (2007). The Leopard. Pantheon. [Italian Risorgimento].

Lapierre, Dominique (2009). A Rainbow in the Night: The Tumultuous Birth of South Africa. Da Capo Press. [South Africa’s history, from 17th century].

Lobo Antunes, Antonio (2004). The Inquisitor's Manual. Grove Press. [The harrowing story of Salazar's regime from 1932 to 1968].

Maalouf, Amin (1995). The Rock of Tanios. Abacus. [Lebanon and the Ottoman Empire, 19th Century].

Madieri, Marisa (1998). Verde acqua; E La radura. Einaudi. [The exile of the Italians of Fiume to Trieste].

Magris, Claudio (2001). Microcosms. Harvill Press. [Travel literature along the tiny borderlands in Istria and Italy].

Mahfuz, Naguib (2002). Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth. American University in Cairo Press. [Egypt's first monotheistic ruler, 14th century B.C.].

Mann, Thomas (2005). Joseph and His Brothers: The Stories of Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph the Provider. Everyman's Library.

Manfredi, Valerio M. (2007). The Last Legion. Pan Books. [Roman Empire's Fall].

Manzoni, Alessandro (2008 [1840]). The Betrothed. BiblioBazaar. [The thwarting of the love of two peasants by a tyrant at Italy, 17th century].

Mourad, Kenize (1993). Regards from the Dead Princess. Random House. [Turkey after the World War I].

Naipaul, V. S. (2003). The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History. Vintage. [History of the island of Trinidad, the author's birthplace].

Nemirovsky, Irene (2007). Suite Française. Vintage. [The German occupation of France].

Newman, John Henry (2007 [1855]). Callista: A Sketch of the Third Century. Cosimo Classics. [A picture of Christian life in the early days of the faith].

Nievo, Ippolito (1988). Confessioni d'un Italiano. Garzanti. [Italy, 18th and 19th centuries].

O'Brian, Patrick (2007). Master and Commander. HarperPerennial. [The control of the sea during the Napoleonic wars].

O'Flaherty, Liam (2008). The Informer. Wolfhound Pr. [The aftermath of the Irish Civil War].

Ooka, Shohei (2001). Fires on the Plain. Tuttle Publishing. [World War II in Japan].

Pasternak, Boris (1997). Doctor Zhivago. Pantheon. [Russian Revolution].

Pérez Galdós, Benito (2008 [1873]). Trafalgar: A Tale. Kessinger Publishing. [Naval battle in 1805].

Perez-Reverte, Arturo (2005). Captain Alatriste. Plume. [Spanish Empire, 17th Century].

Pernoud, Régine (1998). Hildegarde de Bingen. Da Capo Press. [A vivid portrait of both this remarkable woman and turbulent 12th century Europe].

Perutz, Leo (1989). Leonardo's Judas. Little, Brown and Company. [It describes Leonardo da Vinci's search for a model to portray Judas].

Rambaud, Patrick (2001). The Battle. Grove Press. [The battle of Essling, 1809, one of Napoleon's first major defeats].

Roth, Joseph (2002). The Radetzky March. Overlook TP. [End of the Austro-Hungarian Empire].

Rushdie, Salman (1998). The Moor's Last Sigh. Vintage. [As an allegory for Rushdie's home country of India in the 20th century].

Sales, Joan (2002). Uncertain Glory. American Institute for Catalan Studies. [Spanish Civil War].

Sciascia, Leonardo (1988). The Council of Egypt. Carcanet. [History of a imposture set in the 18th century Palermo].

Scott, Walter (2005 [1819]). Ivanhoe. Barnes & Noble Classics. [Medieval England].

Sebald, W. G. (2002). Austerlitz. Modern Library. [A man in the 20th century searching for his origins in wartime Europe].

Shaara, Michael (2007). The Killer Angels. Ballantine Books. [American Civil War].

Sijie, Dai (2001). Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Knopf. [The Maoist cultural revolution and the power of literature].

Sienkiewicz, Henryk (2006 [1896]). Quo Vadis. Norilana Books. [A narrative of the time of Nero].

Solmssen, Arthur (1982). A Princess in Berlin. Penguin Books. [Berlin, 1922].

Steinbeck, John (1995). Cup of Gold. Penguin Classics. [Sir Henry Morgan].

Stevenson, Robert Luis (2009 [1888]). The Black Arrow. Serenity Publishers, LLC. [England's War of the Roses].

Szczypiorski, Andrze (1997). The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman. Grove Press. [Warsaw under Nazi occupation, 1943].

Tabucchi, Antonio (1997). Declares Pereira. New Directions Publishing Corporation. [Lisbon, 1938].

Tolstoy, Leo (2008 [1869]). War and Peace. Vintage. [Napoleon’s invasion of Russia].

Tremain, Rose (2001). Music & Silence. Washington Square Press. [At the court of the Danish King Christian IV, 1577-1648, the magic of music].

Twain, Mark (2002). Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Dover Publications. [Personal recreation of this extraordinary woman and her time].

Undset, Sigrid (2005). Kristin Lavransdatter. Penguin Classics. [Norway, 14th century].

Uslar Pietri, Arturo (1963). The red lances. Knopf. [The Venezuelan War of Independence].

Vargas Llosa, Mario (2008). The War of the End of the World. Picador. [The story of Canudos, battle between the society and Brazilian troops].

Vidal, Gore (2000). Lincoln. Vintage. [A literary portrait of America's great president].

Von Le Fort, Gertrud (2001). The Song at the Scaffold. Sophia Institute Press. [French Revolution].

Wallace, Lewis (2005 [1880]). Ben-Hur. Thomas Nelson. [The Roman Empire of the 1st century A.C.].

Werfel, Franz (2006). The Song of Bernardette. Ignatius Press. [The visions of Bernardette at Lourdes, France 1858].

Werfel, Franz (1983). Forty Days of Musa Dagh. Amereon Limited. [The tragedy that befell the Armenian people in the dark year of 1915].

Wilder, Thornton (2004). The Bridge of Sain Luis Rey. HarperCollins. [In 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke killing five travelers...].

Wilder, Thornton (2003). The Ides of March. Harper Perennial. [Epistolary novel set in Julius Caesar's Rome].

Yourcenar, Marguerite (2005). Memoirs of Hadrian. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [A persuasive 'self-portrait' of the 2nd-century Roman Emperor].