What other historical fiction should I read?
March 30, 2021 7:47 AM Subscribe
There's a fairly short list of historical novels that I've loved -- found deeply immersive and moving. I think some of it's the setting (not war) and like...the focus on daily life, maybe? The interest in religion, and in women's lives outside of their relationships with men? Also probably the writing? I'm pretty much hoping I can just give you all a list of books and you can figure out what else I would like to read! So here it is:
The Passion of Dolssa
The Mercies
Wolf Hall (+ sequels)
Year of Wonders
Burial Rites
Hild
and to a somewhat lesser extent, Doomsday Book (because it's also time travel and I don't super think that's what I'm looking for).
I also really enjoy nonfiction books (in this category, something like Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England feels similar?), so if you've got nonfiction recs that's fine too.
The Passion of Dolssa
The Mercies
Wolf Hall (+ sequels)
Year of Wonders
Burial Rites
Hild
and to a somewhat lesser extent, Doomsday Book (because it's also time travel and I don't super think that's what I'm looking for).
I also really enjoy nonfiction books (in this category, something like Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England feels similar?), so if you've got nonfiction recs that's fine too.
Best answer: You want the Kristin Lavransdatter series. It's a bit older, but it has that same immersive quality as Hild.
(I found it very very very heterosexual and the romance a bit dull, but ymmv and it's 100% A+++ for immersive and moving. Dang, now I want to re-read it.)
posted by kalimac at 8:03 AM on March 30, 2021 [11 favorites]
(I found it very very very heterosexual and the romance a bit dull, but ymmv and it's 100% A+++ for immersive and moving. Dang, now I want to re-read it.)
posted by kalimac at 8:03 AM on March 30, 2021 [11 favorites]
(Ugh, sorry for the rapid double-post, but it looks like there's a new translation out that is both much more readable and actually translates the whole thing! I've only read the Archer/Scott translation, but sight unseen I'd recommend picking up the much more recent Nunally translation.)
posted by kalimac at 8:11 AM on March 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by kalimac at 8:11 AM on March 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them, about life in a medieval convent.
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 8:19 AM on March 30, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 8:19 AM on March 30, 2021 [9 favorites]
I recently really enjoyed a couple of Mary Renault's ancient Greek books (The King Must Die and The Mask of Apollo). They're immersive and beautifully written, with a particular focus on the importance of ritual and religion, even though nothing explicitly supernatural ever happens. My biggest caveat is that female characters are largely either absent or villainous, even though the books were written by a lesbian woman.
posted by theodolite at 8:28 AM on March 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 8:28 AM on March 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
Best answer: Kindred by Octavia Butler is the most moving piece of historical fiction I've ever read.
The interest in religion, and in women's lives outside of their relationships with men
I have a fascination with the Salem witch trials precisely because of these reasons and have read an absurd amount of books about the situation. My favorite one is The Witches by Stacy Schiff. I also loved The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 8:33 AM on March 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
The interest in religion, and in women's lives outside of their relationships with men
I have a fascination with the Salem witch trials precisely because of these reasons and have read an absurd amount of books about the situation. My favorite one is The Witches by Stacy Schiff. I also loved The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 8:33 AM on March 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
A bit orthogonal from the interest in women's experiences, but Gene Wolfe's Latro series, starting with Soldier of the Mist, has a fascinating approach toward exploring what believing a Greek religion might have been like.
posted by sagc at 8:45 AM on March 30, 2021
posted by sagc at 8:45 AM on March 30, 2021
I'll add to the suggestion to Kristin Lavransdatter above - Another one of Sigrid Unset's books/series has recently been translated: Vows, the first book of the Olav Audunssøn saga.
For a similar book suggestion post in the past, I've suggested C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, a substantial retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. It is wonderful.
posted by jquinby at 9:05 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
For a similar book suggestion post in the past, I've suggested C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, a substantial retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. It is wonderful.
posted by jquinby at 9:05 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I think you will enjoy Hamnet.
posted by missrachael at 9:08 AM on March 30, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by missrachael at 9:08 AM on March 30, 2021 [6 favorites]
Two more Hilary Mantel books: A Place of Greater Safety (about the French Revolution) and The Giant O’Brien.
posted by FencingGal at 9:36 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by FencingGal at 9:36 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
I really liked the Golden Wolf Saga books, about the rise of Harald Fairhair. It's not quite solely woman focused, but Svanhild is very much the main character of the second book, and the co-lead of the third, and I think the descriptions ("Woman torn between her brother and her lover!") make it sound a little more...man focused than it really is? And it's sort of war-focused, but it's really more about the politics of uniting Norway (and subsequent founding of Iceland), rather than the actual battles.
It's incredibly immersive and real, down to characters dying that probably wouldn't die in a work of pure fiction because, hey, X person died in real life at that time, so, there you go.
(Content warning for various bodily horrors, including childbirth.)
posted by damayanti at 9:43 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's incredibly immersive and real, down to characters dying that probably wouldn't die in a work of pure fiction because, hey, X person died in real life at that time, so, there you go.
(Content warning for various bodily horrors, including childbirth.)
posted by damayanti at 9:43 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Friend, we are reading twins! I commend you on your excellent taste and superior intelligence! :P Here are a few that I enjoyed, and assume you might, too:
Seconding Hamnet. Very much ticks all your boxes.
If you haven't read it yet and liked Song of Achilles, Miller's Circe is (I think) even better (though perhaps it veers too far into fantasy to be what you're looking for here)
Less woman-centric, and not as distant a historical era (though it FEELS to me like historical ficiton), but DEEPLY interested in religion/ethics/family life etc and gorgeously written: Marilynne Robinson's Gilead and its sister books (Home, Lila, and Jack) might scratch a similar itch.
Not as literary as the above, but definitely fascinating and richly researched (esp. vis a vis daily life), you might give the (somewhat obscure) Nora Lofts "House Trilogy" a try. It begins with The Town House (set in medieval England) and follows the fate of the house and its residents through the voices of a remarkably diverse series of narrators. The House at Old Vine and The House at Sunset continue the story through the Reformation and on into the mid-twentieth century. Personally, I think the books decline in quality as they progress, but the first one is excellent, the second one good, and the third one definitely readable.
For (very light) non-fiction, and very much in a similar vein to Mortimer's fun "Time Traveller's Guide" series but a little more based in visceral, material, lived experience (since the author famously spent serious time actually living in a re-creation of various time periods) are Ruth Goodman's "How to Be" books. She does one for the Tudor period, the Elizabethan era, and the Victorian era. (Also be sure to check out the various BBC TV series based on her experiences "living" these lives, which are deliciously fascinating and fun! These include "Tales from the Green Valley," "Tudor Monastery Farm," etc.)
And finally, you MUST read (and re-read....and then read again!) Fredric Buechner's magnificent Godric. Seriously. This is possibly my favourite book ever, and certainly my favourite piece of historical fiction. A first person narration in the voice of a 12th c English hermetic monk, it is utterly immersive in what I think is possibly the best approximation of a "medieval" mindset/way of understanding the world I have ever encountered: rich, allusive, allegorical, complex, paradoxical, alliterative, lyrical, and absolutely, stunningly GORGEOUS writing. Buechner understands medieval experience and religion in a deep, attentive, intimate way that accounts for and celebrates all the strangeness, complexity, brutality, and beauty that is so often (especially in historical fiction) reduced to mere oddity in other accounts of pre-modern life/thought.
Enjoy!
posted by Dorinda at 10:09 AM on March 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
Seconding Hamnet. Very much ticks all your boxes.
If you haven't read it yet and liked Song of Achilles, Miller's Circe is (I think) even better (though perhaps it veers too far into fantasy to be what you're looking for here)
Less woman-centric, and not as distant a historical era (though it FEELS to me like historical ficiton), but DEEPLY interested in religion/ethics/family life etc and gorgeously written: Marilynne Robinson's Gilead and its sister books (Home, Lila, and Jack) might scratch a similar itch.
Not as literary as the above, but definitely fascinating and richly researched (esp. vis a vis daily life), you might give the (somewhat obscure) Nora Lofts "House Trilogy" a try. It begins with The Town House (set in medieval England) and follows the fate of the house and its residents through the voices of a remarkably diverse series of narrators. The House at Old Vine and The House at Sunset continue the story through the Reformation and on into the mid-twentieth century. Personally, I think the books decline in quality as they progress, but the first one is excellent, the second one good, and the third one definitely readable.
For (very light) non-fiction, and very much in a similar vein to Mortimer's fun "Time Traveller's Guide" series but a little more based in visceral, material, lived experience (since the author famously spent serious time actually living in a re-creation of various time periods) are Ruth Goodman's "How to Be" books. She does one for the Tudor period, the Elizabethan era, and the Victorian era. (Also be sure to check out the various BBC TV series based on her experiences "living" these lives, which are deliciously fascinating and fun! These include "Tales from the Green Valley," "Tudor Monastery Farm," etc.)
And finally, you MUST read (and re-read....and then read again!) Fredric Buechner's magnificent Godric. Seriously. This is possibly my favourite book ever, and certainly my favourite piece of historical fiction. A first person narration in the voice of a 12th c English hermetic monk, it is utterly immersive in what I think is possibly the best approximation of a "medieval" mindset/way of understanding the world I have ever encountered: rich, allusive, allegorical, complex, paradoxical, alliterative, lyrical, and absolutely, stunningly GORGEOUS writing. Buechner understands medieval experience and religion in a deep, attentive, intimate way that accounts for and celebrates all the strangeness, complexity, brutality, and beauty that is so often (especially in historical fiction) reduced to mere oddity in other accounts of pre-modern life/thought.
Enjoy!
posted by Dorinda at 10:09 AM on March 30, 2021 [8 favorites]
You might like the The Circle of Ceridwen series. A lot of daily life stuff though it can be wrapped around a melodrama of a plot.
(Since you specified not being big on war, I'd say don't start with the prequel Sidroc the Dane, which I liked but is from a Viking male's point of view.)
posted by mark k at 11:09 AM on March 30, 2021
(Since you specified not being big on war, I'd say don't start with the prequel Sidroc the Dane, which I liked but is from a Viking male's point of view.)
posted by mark k at 11:09 AM on March 30, 2021
My tastes are similar to yours -- I opened this question intending to say YEAR OF WONDERS!!!! and then saw it was one of your examples! Seconding/thirding Circe, Hamnet, and Kindred.
Some others that I've read and liked over the last year:
I recently finished The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet and it scratches a lot of the same itch, although it's much more modern (1960s-1990s) than your other examples.
The Women in Black, by Madeleine St John, is a delightful coming of age story set in 1950s Australia, about women working in a department store.
Voyage of the Morning Light is a hard read in places, but has a compelling protagonist in a 12-year-old girl. Also coming of age, sort of, but on an early 1900s ship going 'round the world.
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, is the Iliad told through the voice of Briseis. I read it around the same time as Song of Achilles and thought it was better.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, three days in a maternity ward during the 1918 flu outbreak. Swings between gritty realism and soaring romanticism.
Varina by Charles Frazier, Civil War, Confederacy (the protagonist is the wife of Jefferson Davis...) but compelling nevertheless.
The Alice Network, framestory of post-war Europe with flashbacks to a female spy network in WW1. Might be too war-focused for what you are looking for. There is an Evil Guy.
Happy reading!
posted by basalganglia at 11:23 AM on March 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
Some others that I've read and liked over the last year:
I recently finished The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet and it scratches a lot of the same itch, although it's much more modern (1960s-1990s) than your other examples.
The Women in Black, by Madeleine St John, is a delightful coming of age story set in 1950s Australia, about women working in a department store.
Voyage of the Morning Light is a hard read in places, but has a compelling protagonist in a 12-year-old girl. Also coming of age, sort of, but on an early 1900s ship going 'round the world.
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, is the Iliad told through the voice of Briseis. I read it around the same time as Song of Achilles and thought it was better.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, three days in a maternity ward during the 1918 flu outbreak. Swings between gritty realism and soaring romanticism.
Varina by Charles Frazier, Civil War, Confederacy (the protagonist is the wife of Jefferson Davis...) but compelling nevertheless.
The Alice Network, framestory of post-war Europe with flashbacks to a female spy network in WW1. Might be too war-focused for what you are looking for. There is an Evil Guy.
Happy reading!
posted by basalganglia at 11:23 AM on March 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
The Birth House, by Ami McKay
My Antonia, by Willa Cather
The Greenlanders, by Jane Smiley
The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, by Jane Smiley
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
Gone to Soldiers, by Marge Piercy
posted by RedEmma at 11:32 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
The Birth House, by Ami McKay
My Antonia, by Willa Cather
The Greenlanders, by Jane Smiley
The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, by Jane Smiley
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
Gone to Soldiers, by Marge Piercy
posted by RedEmma at 11:32 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Some of Gillian Bradshaw - I’d try London in Chains first.
posted by clew at 11:41 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 11:41 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Anthony Burgess, Kingdom Of The Wicked: Rome and early Christianity
posted by thelonius at 11:41 AM on March 30, 2021
posted by thelonius at 11:41 AM on March 30, 2021
+1000 for both The Corner That Held Them and Hamnet.
The Name of the Rose has approximately nil to say about women but lots to say about religious life and is a very good book that pulls off the trick of being more plot-driven (in a proto-Da-Vinci-Code sense) than something like Wolf Hall, but simultaneously very literary (in a critical theory sense!) and ambitious.
And then a kind of leftfield non-fiction recommendation: Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time to Keep Silence is short volume of essays about life in European monasteries. It's beautifully written and very interesting (and very short!)
posted by caek at 11:45 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Name of the Rose has approximately nil to say about women but lots to say about religious life and is a very good book that pulls off the trick of being more plot-driven (in a proto-Da-Vinci-Code sense) than something like Wolf Hall, but simultaneously very literary (in a critical theory sense!) and ambitious.
And then a kind of leftfield non-fiction recommendation: Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time to Keep Silence is short volume of essays about life in European monasteries. It's beautifully written and very interesting (and very short!)
posted by caek at 11:45 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Ooh, love this question and also love these kinds of books. I second Marilynne Robinson's books and Miller's Circe. Ooh! And lots of Willa Cather.
I'm currently reading The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart which takes place in a Shaker community in the 1830s and it's quite good, and like nothing else I've read before.
Longbourn by Jo Baker is a retelling of Pride & Prejudice from the perspective of the servants in the Bennett household, and is mostly concerned with that perspective (and not the antics of the family upstairs, though that figures in).
I also want to put in a suggestion for Toni Morrison. The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Sula, and A Mercy all focus on their female protagonists and take place at times before the 21st century. I feel I should provide a content warning because all are harrowing, in one way or another, but don't let that stop you.
posted by CiaoMela at 11:54 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'm currently reading The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart which takes place in a Shaker community in the 1830s and it's quite good, and like nothing else I've read before.
Longbourn by Jo Baker is a retelling of Pride & Prejudice from the perspective of the servants in the Bennett household, and is mostly concerned with that perspective (and not the antics of the family upstairs, though that figures in).
I also want to put in a suggestion for Toni Morrison. The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Sula, and A Mercy all focus on their female protagonists and take place at times before the 21st century. I feel I should provide a content warning because all are harrowing, in one way or another, but don't let that stop you.
posted by CiaoMela at 11:54 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
One more I enjoyed: The Western Wind is IMO a cut well above the usual medieval murder mystery holiday paperback (i.e. it's better than Cadfael)
And then on my reading list, so I can't vouch for it, but it looks up your street: To Calais In Ordinary Time.
posted by caek at 11:54 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
And then on my reading list, so I can't vouch for it, but it looks up your street: To Calais In Ordinary Time.
posted by caek at 11:54 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I am so excited to tell you about Sarah Waters! She's a Welsh novelist, and her novels generally focus on women, often lesbians, in Victorian England. She's a great writer, and her stories are excellent.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:13 PM on March 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by bluedaisy at 12:13 PM on March 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
I second The Silence of the Girls, Alias Grace, Circe, and The Pull of the Stars as fitting your interest. Adding:
Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things — "It is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas."
Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy — Another novel about the 1918 Influenza epidemic
posted by gladly at 12:24 PM on March 30, 2021
Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things — "It is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas."
Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy — Another novel about the 1918 Influenza epidemic
posted by gladly at 12:24 PM on March 30, 2021
The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley. Nuns, demons, Aquitaine. 1600s
The World is Not Enough by Zoé Oldebourg. Blokes go crusading, women mind the castle. Champagne 1100s
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:22 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
The World is Not Enough by Zoé Oldebourg. Blokes go crusading, women mind the castle. Champagne 1100s
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:22 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Two medieval, women-centric historical fiction novels filled with everyday life details that you might like:
A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Reily.
Margaret of Ashbury tells her extraordinary life story, including religious epiphanies and midwifery, by working with a rather prissy monk who she’s hired as a scribe.
Katherine, by Anya Seton. This one’s a classic of the genre. I love the details, it explains so much about the way people lived. It’s based on the life of Katherine Swynford, mistress to John of Gaunt. Plenty of religion here as well, and a surprisingly multi-faceted portrayal of it too.
Both have love stories in them, but in my opinion the love story is not really the main draw for either of them. Lovely historic detail and very compelling narratives.
posted by Concordia at 1:33 PM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Reily.
Margaret of Ashbury tells her extraordinary life story, including religious epiphanies and midwifery, by working with a rather prissy monk who she’s hired as a scribe.
Katherine, by Anya Seton. This one’s a classic of the genre. I love the details, it explains so much about the way people lived. It’s based on the life of Katherine Swynford, mistress to John of Gaunt. Plenty of religion here as well, and a surprisingly multi-faceted portrayal of it too.
Both have love stories in them, but in my opinion the love story is not really the main draw for either of them. Lovely historic detail and very compelling narratives.
posted by Concordia at 1:33 PM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Dorothy Dunnett's mid-16th century Lymond Chronicles series is my fave. I'm "reading" through it on audiobook for my fourth overall run-through. Can't wait to delve into the other suggestions in this thread.
posted by Petekachu at 2:31 PM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Petekachu at 2:31 PM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Agreeing with Concordia, I read all of Anya Seaton's books when I was young and loved them. Love stories, yes, but much more to them in terms of detail of the era and believable characters and situations. "Katherine" was one of the best.
posted by mermayd at 3:49 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by mermayd at 3:49 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
This is a little different than your list, and it does contain a civil war (but there is very little fighting in the plot), but it otherwise might meet your needs: Half of a Yellow Sun, takes place in 1960s Nigeria. It moves between characters, some of which are women. Plus it's written by a woman (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) and her female characters are well developed.
posted by coffeecat at 5:08 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by coffeecat at 5:08 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I just finished A Thousand Ships and loved it - it's the story of the Trojan War, told from the perspective of the women involved. If you enjoyed Song of Achilles, I think you'll like this one, too (and seconding that Circe is great, though possibly more fantasy-slanted than you might be looking for with this ask).
posted by DingoMutt at 7:11 PM on March 30, 2021
posted by DingoMutt at 7:11 PM on March 30, 2021
Oh, these are WONDERFUL! Thank you all. I’ll start with the Greek myth oriented ones. Though pride and prejudice from the servants point of view seems great too!
posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons at 7:20 PM on March 30, 2021
posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons at 7:20 PM on March 30, 2021
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey has lots of vivid descriptions of the work homesteading Alaska in the 1920s. I remember it being mildly fantastical, but only in one regard, and ambiguously so.
Lavinia by Le Guin is her take on the silent princess of The Aeneid.
Our Lady of the Dark Country by Sylvia Linsteadt is VERY fantastical and definitely doesn't fit the OP criteria, but I feel compelled to mention it here for its short stories about women's lives in familiar historical settings, often grounded in daily life before, uh, people start turning into birds and stuff.
posted by McBearclaw at 8:24 PM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Lavinia by Le Guin is her take on the silent princess of The Aeneid.
Our Lady of the Dark Country by Sylvia Linsteadt is VERY fantastical and definitely doesn't fit the OP criteria, but I feel compelled to mention it here for its short stories about women's lives in familiar historical settings, often grounded in daily life before, uh, people start turning into birds and stuff.
posted by McBearclaw at 8:24 PM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Reading your question, I immediately thought of The Nun's Story by Kathryn Hulme. It's set in the 1930s and 40s and narrates in great detail the religious discipline of a nun's life both as a novice in her mother convent and later in the Belgian Congo. I read it many years ago but still remember it as surprisingly dramatic and moving.
posted by vicambulist at 10:33 PM on March 30, 2021
posted by vicambulist at 10:33 PM on March 30, 2021
Your list includes Year of Wonders, so you’re already familiar with Geraldine Brooks, but in case you haven’t read all her books, I’m chiming in to recommend Caleb’s Crossing (here's Jane Smiley's rave review from the NYT). People of the Book is also great (so much history!) but there are parts that take place in wartime.
posted by kbar1 at 1:20 AM on March 31, 2021
posted by kbar1 at 1:20 AM on March 31, 2021
Response by poster: Um, these are SO GREAT. I'd poked around on Goodreads, bookstore websites etc. but no algorithm can compete with Metafilter book recommendations. Thank you so much everyone!!!
posted by goodbyewaffles at 10:13 AM on March 31, 2021
posted by goodbyewaffles at 10:13 AM on March 31, 2021
I'm constantly recommending Marge Piercy here, and it looks like I'm about to again! Her historical novels are very much about daily lives, and "women's lives outside of their relationships with men." Not so much spirituality, though there's some of that. RedEmma recommended her best historical novel, and it is about war, but not really about battles. More about women (and a few men) making their way through life during wartime. She has a few others I like: City of Darkness, City of Light, about Paris around the time of the French Revolution, Sex Wars, about NYC in the late 1800s, especially focusing on the first wave of feminism, and Braided Lives, an autobiographical novel about young women going to college right before the sexual revolution. They are all really good, and helped me understand so much about how women lived their lives in different times and places.
posted by lunasol at 1:45 PM on April 1, 2021
posted by lunasol at 1:45 PM on April 1, 2021
Nthing People of the Book, Hamnet, A Vision of Light, The Corner the Held Them, The Greenlanders and Kindred.
The Dolphin Ring Cycle by Rosemary Sutcliff. A beautifully elegiac series of loosely connected novels that take place from the pinnacle to the dissolution of Roman Britain. The best known is the Eagle of the Ninth, but the Lantern Bearers is a personal favorite. All have interesting and well researched details regarding daily life, though the main POVs are largely men and conflict (both cultural and military) is a backdrop for the time period.
The Welsh Princes by Sharon Kay Penman details the personalities and politics percolating in 13th century Wales, which came incredibly close to independence from England. The first book, Here be Dragons, centers around Joanna, the bastard daughter of King John and wife of the Welsh prince Llewelyn Ap Iowerth. The others have more diverse POVs but still a large cast of women both in the forefront and behind the scenes of history.
Sister Fidelma Mysteries by Peter Tremayne. Stylistically, they're unexciting: the characterization is blunt and the writing simplistic and expository. It's worth slogging through for a rare view at an oft ignored period of the 'Dark Ages' when Ireland was a bastion of progress and learning where women were granted unprecedented legal, religious and professional freedoms. Fidelma is sister to a king, a Sister of the faith and an advocate of the Irish courts, which illuminates these interecting spheres.
Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters. A decorated crusader retires as a Benedictine monk - and solves crimes! They're cozies and a bit dated, which means sometimes realism is sacrificed in favor of goodness prevailing. But if you're in the mood for something less weighty, they're generally a pleasant slice of life read from an otherwise tumultuous period of British history.
If you're willing to branch out to a different format, Otoyomegatari/A Bride's Story is a women-centric slice of life manga that takes place in and around the Caspian Mountains at the turn of the 19th century. The attention to detail in both the art and the story is delightful and a majority of the series is daily life drama, but there's also conflict and unrest due to the historical tensions of the time.
posted by givennamesurname at 6:23 PM on April 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
The Dolphin Ring Cycle by Rosemary Sutcliff. A beautifully elegiac series of loosely connected novels that take place from the pinnacle to the dissolution of Roman Britain. The best known is the Eagle of the Ninth, but the Lantern Bearers is a personal favorite. All have interesting and well researched details regarding daily life, though the main POVs are largely men and conflict (both cultural and military) is a backdrop for the time period.
The Welsh Princes by Sharon Kay Penman details the personalities and politics percolating in 13th century Wales, which came incredibly close to independence from England. The first book, Here be Dragons, centers around Joanna, the bastard daughter of King John and wife of the Welsh prince Llewelyn Ap Iowerth. The others have more diverse POVs but still a large cast of women both in the forefront and behind the scenes of history.
Sister Fidelma Mysteries by Peter Tremayne. Stylistically, they're unexciting: the characterization is blunt and the writing simplistic and expository. It's worth slogging through for a rare view at an oft ignored period of the 'Dark Ages' when Ireland was a bastion of progress and learning where women were granted unprecedented legal, religious and professional freedoms. Fidelma is sister to a king, a Sister of the faith and an advocate of the Irish courts, which illuminates these interecting spheres.
Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters. A decorated crusader retires as a Benedictine monk - and solves crimes! They're cozies and a bit dated, which means sometimes realism is sacrificed in favor of goodness prevailing. But if you're in the mood for something less weighty, they're generally a pleasant slice of life read from an otherwise tumultuous period of British history.
If you're willing to branch out to a different format, Otoyomegatari/A Bride's Story is a women-centric slice of life manga that takes place in and around the Caspian Mountains at the turn of the 19th century. The attention to detail in both the art and the story is delightful and a majority of the series is daily life drama, but there's also conflict and unrest due to the historical tensions of the time.
posted by givennamesurname at 6:23 PM on April 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
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- this list is heavily European and medieval, but that's definitely not something I'm tied to
- things that are based on fables/myths but tied into a historical time period (Song of Achilles, Sherwood by Parke Godwin) and are NOT FANTASY are good too (I love Naomi Novik, for example, but she's not what I'm looking for here)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 8:02 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]