Category: Historical Fiction

Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift by Franz Werfel

Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift by Franz Werfel

At the beginning of Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift (In a Woman’s Pale Blue Hand), life is going very well for Leonidas Tachezy as he celebrates his fiftieth birthday. Thanks to a lucky break in his student days, his natural abilities and discipline have led him to a high station in Austrian society in 1936. He is …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/25/eine-blasblaue-frauenschrift-by-franz-werfel/

City Of Betrayal by Victoria Thompson

Hunh, this had better not be the last book in the Counterfeit Lady series, as seemed to be hinted at in the afterword. I understand how this seventh volume would be a thematically appropriate story to finish on, but it absolutely lacked the larger part of why so many readers, myself included, have adored these …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/10/city-of-betrayal-by-victoria-thompson/

Der Verrückte des Zaren by Jaan Kross

Larger than life statue of Jaan Kross; next to that Doug Merrill holding a copy of Kross' book Der Verrückte des Zaren

The jacket copy from the Süddeutsche Zeitung edition of Jaan Kross’ historical novel The Tsar’s Madman, first published in 1978, is tough to beat for a concise summary. “In his diary, Jakob Mättik tells the dramatic story of his brother-in-law, the Baltic German nobleman Timotheus von Bock, who won not only renown in 1812 in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/09/07/der-verruckte-des-zaren-by-jaan-kross/

Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann

A thirty-year-old edition of Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann

Thirty years ago this spring I read half of Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain) during travels in southern Europe and stopped when I was no longer spending long stretches of time on busses or ferries, waiting for same, or otherwise doing the things that young people do when they have plenty of time and little …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/08/25/der-zauberberg-by-thomas-mann/

Der blaue Himmel by Galsan Tschinag

Der blaue Himmel by Galsan Tschinag

For some readers, Galsan Tschinag’s description of hard nomadic life in the Altai mountain region of Mongolia’s furthest western reaches in the 1950s will be enough. Der blaue Himmel — which could reasonably be translated as The Blue Sky or Blue Heaven — is a fictionalized memoir of a few years in a boy’s life, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/05/01/der-blaue-himmel-by-galsan-tschinag/

The Exile by Erik Kriek

This bleak graphic novel follows the Viking-Age return of Hallstein Thordson to his Icelandic home. Seven years earlier, the Althing exiled him for his crimes. Now he’s come back looking, if not for redemption, then at least for rest at his father’s homestead. Alas, he returns to find his father dead and his stepmother wary …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/08/the-exile-by-erik-kriek/

Age Of Bronze: Betrayal (Part One) by Eric Shanower

reissued in full color throughout, with the colors exquisitely done by John Dallaire. I remember the first time I read the first book in this series. Having been a bit of a Greek mythology buff in my youth, I was completely blown away by how historically accurate Eric Shanower was in his depiction of the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/12/22/age-of-bronze-betrayal-part-one-by-eric-shanower/

The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili

The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili

A country and a century, told through what happened to a family, narrated by a member of that family’s next-to-youngest generation, dedicated to a member of the youngest generation who is trying to both escape and understand the legacy she is bearing. In The Eighth Life (For Brilka), Nino Haratischvili brings her native Georgia to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/11/20/the-eighth-life-by-nino-haratischvili/

Uncanny Times (Huntsmen #1) by Laura Anne Gilman

What a fun way to get into the mood for spooky season, as we follow a pair of sibling monster hunters on the trail of an unusual killer in early 20th century New York! To most eyes, Rosemary and Aaron Harker are an orphaned brother and sister living quietly as adults in New Haven, Connecticut, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/31/uncanny-times-huntsmen-1-by-laura-anne-gilman/

On the Field of Glory by Henryk Sienkiewicz

On the Field of Glory by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Sienkiewicz, an early Nobel laureate, wrote historical novels set mostly in the days of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that, like Shakespeare’s history plays, have a resonance well beyond their initial audiences and historical settings. Sienkiewicz lived and wrote at a time when Poland’s imperial neighbors had erased it from the map of Europe, and yet …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/24/on-the-field-of-glory-by-henryk-sienkiewicz/