Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Historical Novels are trash??

User avatar
Brenna
Bibliophile
Posts: 1358
Joined: June 2010
Location: Delaware

Historical Novels are trash??

Post by Brenna » Thu May 17th, 2012, 2:53 pm

I found this on one of the many historicalfiction-related websites I read in the morning. Let the ranting begin!

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/gu ... ry-mantel/
Brenna

User avatar
Vanessa
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4378
Joined: August 2008
Currently reading: The Farm at the Edge of the World by Sarah Vaughan
Interest in HF: The first historical novel I read was Katherine by Anya Seton and this sparked off my interest in this genre.
Favourite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
Preferred HF: Any
Location: North Yorkshire, UK

Post by Vanessa » Thu May 17th, 2012, 2:58 pm

He's entitled to his opinion, I suppose! I wonder how many historical fiction books he has actually read. I do hate literary snobs.
currently reading: My Books on Goodreads

Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind

User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

Post by fljustice » Thu May 17th, 2012, 3:32 pm

It sounds like he watched the movies rather than reading the books!
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

User avatar
sweetpotatoboy
Bibliophile
Posts: 1641
Joined: August 2008
Location: London, UK

Post by sweetpotatoboy » Thu May 17th, 2012, 3:35 pm

Yes, this article has created much harrumphing across the HF community and several response articles across the board.

On the very same website, HF author Allan Massie responded as follows:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/al ... ovels-are/

Essentially, he says that of course most historical novels are bad. Most novels are. HF is no different from any other genre or subset of fiction in that respect.

User avatar
EC2
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3661
Joined: August 2008
Location: Nottingham UK
Contact:

Post by EC2 » Thu May 17th, 2012, 4:02 pm

I do so hate it when smirking little snots who couldn't find their backsides with their hands set themselves up as arbiters of taste. To say that 'most' historical novels are rubbish, he will have to have read copious amounts of them to get a feel for the genre, which it's obvious he hasn't. It's like the reviewers on Amazon who say 'This novel is as rubbishy as a Mills & Boon.' But you know darned well they've never read a Mills & Boon in their life, so how would they know?!
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

SGM
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 700
Joined: March 2010

Post by SGM » Thu May 17th, 2012, 4:21 pm

There's one in a similar vein but more in depth on the History Today website with a blog response. There is value on both sides of the argument in that one and some interesting comments which give the issue a better perspective. However, I decided not to post it here for obvious reasons.

However, Hilary Mantel gets an honourable acknowledgement in that one too.
Currently reading - Emergence of a Nation State by Alan Smith

User avatar
Misfit
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 9581
Joined: August 2008
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by Misfit » Thu May 17th, 2012, 6:06 pm

[quote=""EC2""]I do so hate it when smirking little snots who couldn't find their backsides with their hands set themselves up as arbiters of taste. To say that 'most' historical novels are rubbish, he will have to have read copious amounts of them to get a feel for the genre, which it's obvious he hasn't. It's like the reviewers on Amazon who say 'This novel is as rubbishy as a Mills & Boon.' But you know darned well they've never read a Mills & Boon in their life, so how would they know?![/quote]

That's about how I described him. I so loathe people who pidgeon hole genres, especially the put downs to romance in general. It's like you are a second class citizen and first class ignoramous for reading the stuff. They are not all created equal.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be

Village
Scribbler
Posts: 15
Joined: April 2012

Post by Village » Thu May 17th, 2012, 9:38 pm

Most Newspaper based blogs are absolute rubbish and the Daily Telegraph is particularly riddled with chin-less idiots fresh out of school who fancy churning out this sort of crap and get to because daddy knows someone. I doubt Guy has even read the whole of Wolf Hall.

Ah! Good to get it off my chest!

User avatar
Divia
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4435
Joined: August 2008
Location: Always Cloudy, Central New York

Post by Divia » Thu May 17th, 2012, 11:42 pm

Rubbish.

I hate to tell the author but Ms. Mantel hitched her horse up to the gravy train and wrote about..*gasp* THE TUDORS! Whoa! What an easy sell it is! Or rather a person who lived during that time. *yawn*

Bottom line is that people write books to sell. A few write them to be literary giants. However, those that write to be literary works of art rarely sell well. What sells? Stephen King. Furthermore, for every good historical fiction novel of the past there are 10 that are completely horrid.

Um, how did Dickens write historical fiction, when the time period he was writing about I believed was the Victorian Era? :confused: Anyone? help?
News, views, and reviews on books and graphic novels for young adult.
http://yabookmarks.blogspot.com/

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Fri May 18th, 2012, 2:17 am

A Tale of two Cities would count as historical for Dickens, I believe. The French Revolution started twenty years before he was born, much less wrote anything.

Post Reply

Return to “Chat”