Lessons from Historical Fiction
The genre known as historical fiction sounds like a contradiction in terms. However, the work can provide the true essence of a particular historic era. My first childhood remembrance of reading a historic fiction was the beloved Elisabeth Meg’s Packet Alley: A Magic Story of Now and Long Ago. The novel tells the story of twins living in the present-day river-town of old New Castle. One day a Dutchman in period attire loans the youngsters a pair of magic-glasses, enabling them to see into the past. The two young time-travelers enter by-gone days through a portal at Packet Alley. They witness the visits of Lafayette, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and Louis Napoleon who had walked the cobble-stoned alleyway.
My interest in history and fiction has grown from that first encounter. Years later, I bought a house in New Castle and took daily walks on The Strand, passing Packet Alley. My imagination continued to stir whenever I was in the vicinity.
History as a discipline has evolved from the ancient world to today--from oral tradition to precisely documented academic journals. The ancient Greeks viewed their history as a chronicling of events and myth. For the early Greeks, history was a drama. Today, the study is a blend of art and science. Throughout the ages, history is storytelling; the historian tells a factual story.
Fiction is also storytelling. The author makes up the story though sometimes there is a factual basis. What then can the reader of a historical fiction learn? Various writers have attempted to answer this query. Jessamyn West, renowned for her The Friendly Persuasion, wrote: “Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.” WWII historian A.J. P. Taylor noted: “History is not just a catalog of events put in the right order like a railway timetable. History is a version of events.” Liberal historian Daniel Aaron (The Strenuous Decade; A social and intellectual record of the 1930's) said it most powerfully: “The best historical novels are loyal to history, but it is a history absorbed and set to music, so to speak, changed into forms akin to opera or theatrical production.” Aaron’s explanation harkens back to the ancient Greeks--history liken to drama.
Historical novels allow readers to not only enjoy human interest tales; it transport them back in history. The plot’s ebb and flow illustrates how individuals from yesteryear react to different circumstances and complex issues.
Professional historian James J. Sheehan in his 2005 Presidential address to the American Historical Association stated a truth apropos both to history as an academic discipline and to historical fiction. Sheehan wrote: “…by expanding our experience to the lives of men and women in different times and places, history teaches us valuable things both about others and ourselves.” Sheehan then quotes R.G. Collingwood (The Idea of History) to illuminate the benefits of studying the past. Collingwood states what we learn from the past is “what it is to be a man, what it is to be the kind of man you are, and what it is to be the kind man you are and nobody else.” Other than the gender political incorrectness, these words remind us that truth about the past can be woven into many different tapestries.
For your reading pleasure, I offer up 3 historical novels from Historical Novels Shelf at http://catherinedecourcey.tripod.com.
