Historical Fiction

Created by Kathryn Reilly

Historical Fiction Background• Historical fiction takes place in real past settings.

• Characters in this genre may be real historical persons or accurate representations of people who would have lived in a particular era.

• Authors pay particular attention in recreating period settings, and often go into great detail regarding a character’s dress or the technology of the times.

• Although historical fiction may present real people in actual settings, the conversations and actions the characters take are embellished or entirely created by the author.

Historical Fiction in the Movies

• The movie Titanic is an excellent example of historical fiction.

• Several characters in the movie are historically accurate such as the captain.

• However, Rose and Jack and created in order to humanize the tragedy.

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Try Your Hand at Historical Fiction!

• What type of characters would appear in these two different historical settings?

Creating Historical FictionStonehenge in Ireland Pyramids in Egypt

• St. Patrick• Druids• Celts• The Romans• High Kings of Ireland

• Alexander the Great• Cleopatra• The Romans• Ramses • Hatshepsut

Although all the people listed actually existed, few if any, historical records exist regarding daily conversations they had.

In historical fiction, authors create conversations that could have happened based on available historical documents and their imagination.

Common Genre Elements• Characters

– Real historic persons– Imagined but accurate

historic persons

• Settings– Anywhere in history– Any time in history– Historically accurate

• Other– Most historic fiction is set

around a key historic event, and the author creates a story examining how this event affect the people living through it.

– The accuracy of historic fiction varies by author; some stories are more realistic than others.

– Historic fiction strives to avoid anachronisms.

Historical Fiction Example• In this historical novel, the

author re-creates the life of St. Patrick, delving into how slavery shaped his life and perceptions of Ireland.

• She explores St. Patrick as a human figure, imagining imperfections and challenges he encountered and rose above.

• The author also introduces the spirit of Osian as a mentor to St. Patrick.

Historical Fiction Example

• Gregory narrates life at Court from Mary Boleyn’s perspective, instead of that her more famous sister, Anne Boleyn.

• The novel follows the rise and fall of the Boleyn family during Henry VIII’s reign.

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Historical Fiction Review• Historical fiction conveys an imagined

perspective of past events.

• The characters are often real people in historic settings, but their actions and conversations have been created or embellished for the story.

• The accuracy of historic fiction varies by author; some authors take more liberty than others in creating their characters’ lives.