James Metcalf on the fictionality of the latest archaeological page-turners
Stephen Puddicombe looks at the unusual appeal of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
Yes, there is an army of trashy swords ‘n sandals books out there which aren’t historically accurate, especially well-written, or even good value for money. But don’t let these low-rent scribes who couldn’t get a job on the set of Xena: Warrior Princess (probably the most entertaining historically bogus TV show ever made) fool you – some of the funniest and most influential novels of all time have been set in the past. Here’s a run-down of the greatest:
10. The Family (Mario Puzo)
The author of The Godfather looks back to 16th Century Italy to show that crime families and high-level corruption are nothing new, with his account of the sordid goings-on surrounding Pope Alexander and his backstabbing children.
9. The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper)
Nathaniel ‘Hawkeye’ Bumppo and his adopted Mohican brother, Chingachgook, fight the French colonial forces in North America and their Native American allies, leading to tragedy for Chingachgook’s son, Uncas.
8. The Young Hornblower (C.S. Forester)
A collection of stories about the young Horatio Hornblower, an introverted but brilliant Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars.
7. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Arguably Dickens’s most famous novel, in which two men – one, an exiled French aristocrat, the other, a disreputable but brilliant lawyer – are drawn into the bloodbath of the French Revolution.
6. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
Edmond Dantes has got it all – youth, a rising career as a merchant sailor, and his engagement to a beautiful woman. All of this changes when Edmond is suddenly imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. He emerges years later as the Count of Monte Cristo, to have his revenge on his enemies.
5. Flashman (George MacDonald Fraser)
Harry Flashman is the Victorian soldier who drinks his way across the Empire, beds as many women as possible, never does any fighting, and steals whatever loot he can get his hands on. Yet, through cunning and twists of fate, Flash always comes out a hero.
4. Lincoln (Gore Vidal)
Vidal’s fictional account of Abraham Lincoln’s time in The White House shows the president from the angle of those surrounding him – his wife, his personal aid, his secretary of state, and his eventual assassin.
3. The Aubrey-Maturin Series (Patrick O’Brian)
The series of historically studied novels (or one long novel, depending on your perspective) follows the careers of Captain ‘Lucky’ Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his best friend and ship’s surgeon, Stephen Maturin, who moonlights as a secret agent, during the Napoleonic Wars.
2. The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas)
Dumas’s most famous and influential work, as the young provincial d’Artagnan works his way up the Parisian social order, desirous of becoming a King’s musketeer like his best friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis.
1. War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
Possibly the ultimate historical novel, which has so many characters and plot threads that if I were to even attempt to summarize it my head would explode.
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