Is it lazy to research the history of a place by reading fiction stories set there? Asking for a friend. I do love finding out about the history of countries before I travel there and a good novel is such an interesting way to do it. Before we went to live in France, I searched high and low for a list like this but could only find one old forum post from fifteen years ago.
I also want to find out everything I can about the way people lived in the past for my novel. I’ve devoured a lot of historical novels this year, especially new historical fiction set in France and by women. By new, I mean written in the last twenty years. I have not included those old favourites like the Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables. I have read most of them and included a ♠ rating.
Medieval
Heloise, 2017
These two are in my To Be Read pile. New Zealand author Mandy Hager’s Heloise is a re-telling of Peter Abelard and Heloise, ill-fated lovers of the 12th century. They were made famous by Rousseau in Julie, or La Nouvelle Heloise, which captured the imaginations of 18th century French society, normalizing novels and bringing feminist ideals to the fore. The blurb states:
Heloise has an exceptional mind. In her determination to pursue learning rather than marriage or life as a cloistered nun, her path inevitably crosses with Peter Abelard, the celebrity philosopher, theologian and master at Paris’ famed Cathedral School.
When two such brilliant minds meet and engage, sparks are likely to fly. And when those two minds belong to a charismatic man and a determined young woman, those sparks are likely to ignite. But theirs is an impossible love.
The Lady and The Unicorn, 2004
The Lady and the Unicorn: A Novel is fiction based around the mysterious set of tapestries hung in the Cluny museum in Paris. Tracy Chevalier weaves a tale explaining the story behind the artwork. The blurb states:
Paris, 1490. A shrewd French nobleman commissions six lavish tapestries celebrating his rising status at Court. He hires the charismatic, arrogant, sublimely talented Nicolas des Innocents to design them. Nicolas creates havoc among the women in the house—mother and daughter, servant, and lady-in-waiting—before taking his designs north to the Brussels workshop where the tapestries are to be woven. There, master weaver Georges de la Chapelle risks everything he has to finish the tapestries—his finest, most intricate work—on time for his exacting French client. The results change all their lives—lives that have been captured in the tapestries, for those who know where to look.
18th Century
Becoming Marie Antoinette, 2011 ♠♠♠♠
The Executioner’s Heir, 2013 ♠♠♠♠
A Place of Greater Safety, 2006 ♠♠♠♠
The Executioner’s Heir is a tale of the son of the royal executioner of France. It discusses the duty of a son, who would much rather be practicing medicine, to take up his role as one of the most hated officials in Paris.
Please don’t judge Becoming Marie Antoinette by its cover. It is a much more well-researched and thought-provoking book than the cover would imply. It is a story of her early life and education for her later role on the world stage.
Hilary Mantel is a giant of historical fiction and A Place of Greater Safety doesn’t disappoint. A cast of real-life characters take us through the lives and events of the French Revolution. Currently reading this one.
19th century
The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B, 1999
This one is in my massive to-read pile. I will definitely get to it soon. It is the first book in a trilogy about a young Josephine Bonaparte and her love story with Napoleon, written in diary style.
20th Century
The Alice Network, 2017 ♠♠♠♠♠
All the Light We Cannot See, 2014 ♠♠♠♠♠
The Nightingale, 2015 ♠♠♠♠♠
I just finished The Alice Network, which is a wonderful story of female spies in German-occupied France during World War One. It is based on real-life courageous women, who braved the privations and abuses of living in Lille at the time to feed intelligence to England.
All the Light we Cannot See is a tale about a blind girl and a German boy during the German occupation in World War Two. It is set in Brittany and written beautifully to expose the daily lives of women and children during the war.
The Nightingale is a story of two sisters, beginning in 1939 with the Nazi invasion of France. One takes a German officer into her home and the other joins the Resistance. Another tale of women’s choices during World War Two.
These are some of my top picks for new historical fiction set in France. Have you got any to recommend?
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