Truth Based on Fact
Dateline: 08/26/97
Although Thucydides criticized Herodotus for similar reasons, even he invented speeches to put in the mouths of military leaders.
Truth, as they say, is relative, and often the most palatable way to present a truth is through story.
I used to think about writing historical fiction, particularly on Ovid's carmen et error. But before I'd written a single word, I gave up because I didn't know how to portray the petty details of life in Imperial Rome. What did they wear for underwear? What were their beds made of? What did they use for sheets? What exactly was the bathroom situation? Ignorance of these and thousands of mundane details kept me from writing and now I can no longer remember what mind boggling revelation I'd had about Ovid's mystery.
I can't begin to express my awe of historical fiction writers. They don't always include such details as above -- although those specific details are on my mind right now because I just finished reading Jack Whyte's The Skystone in which he answers them.
And I know historical fiction cannot be cited as authoritative, but the writers do something we mere mortals can't -- get beyond the fact that we don't know for sure whether the ancients were the same as us or different.
Novelists do not spend hours of our reading time arguing about whether the mass of Ancient Egyptians, who encountered hieroglyphs everywhere, were literate--an argument, that, if I knew more, I would love to take part in; nor do they squabble over whether the ancients had a different consciousness or sense of reality. It's not just online Ancient and Near Eastern discussion groups that enter into these arguments. My husband and I discuss what it would be like to live in a comparatively colorblind society where the Crayola (R) colors are unknown; where pigments are expensive; where caerulean refers more to a tonal quality of the water than a specific blue or green, and purple could be pink.
Although such discussions are stimulating, they're endless. When reading historical fiction, we don't have to worry about different realities. The author has worked it out for us. Instead, we get to look at relationships or sequences of events that are plausible, if not literally true. For me, the fewer the glaring inaccuracies, the more I'm swept up into the work. Sometimes historical fiction reveals the past in ways I've never thought about, as, when reading Morgan Llywelyn's Druids (indictment of) about Julius Caesar, it dawned on me that Julius wasn't an innocent victim of a hypocritical society that kept offering him a crown it didn't want him to accept. Similarly, through Jack Whyte's The Skystone, I can now appreciate the Romans as not merely conquerors, but also compassionate inhabitants of Britain.
Most are here on the recommendation of (www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cl/genfic.html) Jerise Fogel. For reviews and personal recommendations of Steven Saylor, Lindsey Davis, Benita Kane Jaro, Gillian Bradshaw, and more, see the Related Resources.
By Orson Scott Card
Pastwatch : The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
By Steven Saylor
Roman Blood
The Arms of Nemesis: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Catilina's Riddle
The Venus Throw
By Joan O'Hagan
A Roman Death (Crime Club)
By Gillian Bradshaw
The Bearkeeper's Daughter
The Beacon At Alexandria
By Elizabeth Peters
Trojan Gold
By Lindsey Davis
The Iron Hand of Mars
Last Act in Palmyra
Poseidon's Gold
Shadows in Bronze
Silver Pigs
Venus in Copper
By Mary Renault
The Bull From The Sea
The King Must Die
The Last Of The Wine
The Persian Boy
By Benita Kane Jaro
The Key
By John Maddox Roberts
The Sacrilege : An Spqr Mystery
SPQR
SPQR II : The Catiline Conspiracy
The Temple of the Muses : An SPQR Mystery
By Jack Whyte
The Skystone (Camulod Chronicles, Bk. 1.)
The Singing Sword (Camulod Chronicles, No 2)
By Rosemary Sutcliff -- generally (but needlessly) called Young Adult Fiction
The Lantern Bearers
The Eagle of the Ninth
The Silver Branch
Fictional Rome
Site indexes works of fiction on Rome and contains essays on historical fiction.
Famous People Biographies
Ancient / Classical History Glossary
Maps
Latin Quotations and Translations
Primary Texts /Literature and Translations
Quotes Index
Today in History
Ancient / Classical History Articles
"[The historian] affirming many things can, in the cloudy knowledge of mankind, hardly escape from many lies. But the poet...never maketh any circles about your imagination, to conjure you to believe for true what he writes."Of more than a dozen real life, personal experience essays I've sold, my son hasn't read a single one and exclaimed, "Gee, Mom, that's exactly the way I remember it." Not only is his memory and experience at variance with mine, but to make an article saleable, I've had to rearrange facts to fit the story.
--Sir Philip Sidney quoted in The Bearkeeper's Daughter
Although Thucydides criticized Herodotus for similar reasons, even he invented speeches to put in the mouths of military leaders.
Truth, as they say, is relative, and often the most palatable way to present a truth is through story.
I used to think about writing historical fiction, particularly on Ovid's carmen et error. But before I'd written a single word, I gave up because I didn't know how to portray the petty details of life in Imperial Rome. What did they wear for underwear? What were their beds made of? What did they use for sheets? What exactly was the bathroom situation? Ignorance of these and thousands of mundane details kept me from writing and now I can no longer remember what mind boggling revelation I'd had about Ovid's mystery.
I can't begin to express my awe of historical fiction writers. They don't always include such details as above -- although those specific details are on my mind right now because I just finished reading Jack Whyte's The Skystone in which he answers them.
And I know historical fiction cannot be cited as authoritative, but the writers do something we mere mortals can't -- get beyond the fact that we don't know for sure whether the ancients were the same as us or different.
Novelists do not spend hours of our reading time arguing about whether the mass of Ancient Egyptians, who encountered hieroglyphs everywhere, were literate--an argument, that, if I knew more, I would love to take part in; nor do they squabble over whether the ancients had a different consciousness or sense of reality. It's not just online Ancient and Near Eastern discussion groups that enter into these arguments. My husband and I discuss what it would be like to live in a comparatively colorblind society where the Crayola (R) colors are unknown; where pigments are expensive; where caerulean refers more to a tonal quality of the water than a specific blue or green, and purple could be pink.
Although such discussions are stimulating, they're endless. When reading historical fiction, we don't have to worry about different realities. The author has worked it out for us. Instead, we get to look at relationships or sequences of events that are plausible, if not literally true. For me, the fewer the glaring inaccuracies, the more I'm swept up into the work. Sometimes historical fiction reveals the past in ways I've never thought about, as, when reading Morgan Llywelyn's Druids (indictment of) about Julius Caesar, it dawned on me that Julius wasn't an innocent victim of a hypocritical society that kept offering him a crown it didn't want him to accept. Similarly, through Jack Whyte's The Skystone, I can now appreciate the Romans as not merely conquerors, but also compassionate inhabitants of Britain.
Most are here on the recommendation of (www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cl/genfic.html) Jerise Fogel. For reviews and personal recommendations of Steven Saylor, Lindsey Davis, Benita Kane Jaro, Gillian Bradshaw, and more, see the Related Resources.
By Orson Scott Card
Pastwatch : The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
By Steven Saylor
Roman Blood
The Arms of Nemesis: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Catilina's Riddle
The Venus Throw
By Joan O'Hagan
A Roman Death (Crime Club)
By Gillian Bradshaw
The Bearkeeper's Daughter
The Beacon At Alexandria
By Elizabeth Peters
Trojan Gold
By Lindsey Davis
The Iron Hand of Mars
Last Act in Palmyra
Poseidon's Gold
Shadows in Bronze
Silver Pigs
Venus in Copper
By Mary Renault
The Bull From The Sea
The King Must Die
The Last Of The Wine
The Persian Boy
By Benita Kane Jaro
The Key
By John Maddox Roberts
The Sacrilege : An Spqr Mystery
SPQR
SPQR II : The Catiline Conspiracy
The Temple of the Muses : An SPQR Mystery
By Jack Whyte
The Skystone (Camulod Chronicles, Bk. 1.)
The Singing Sword (Camulod Chronicles, No 2)
By Rosemary Sutcliff -- generally (but needlessly) called Young Adult Fiction
The Lantern Bearers
The Eagle of the Ninth
The Silver Branch
Fictional Rome
Site indexes works of fiction on Rome and contains essays on historical fiction.
Famous People Biographies
Ancient / Classical History Glossary
Maps
Latin Quotations and Translations
Primary Texts /Literature and Translations
Quotes Index
Today in History
Ancient / Classical History Articles
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