An imagined character loosely created as a composite of known traits and class background based on real people of a particular era, and then set among actual recorded events is my favorite kind. A storyteller can take more license when imagining and conveying a good story using a fairly solid foundation. I'm not saying a composite character needs to have a multiple personality disorder per se, but I'd not be as concerned with an author getting all the facts just right if the character never existed in real life. I also like a few supporting characters to be 'real' and for them to be as factually represented as possible.
Judith Merkle Riley and Brenda Rickman Vantrease are two authors that come to mind who have created some mighty interesting characters.
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Do you prefer real or imagined characters?
- Leyland
- Bibliophile
- Location: Travelers Rest SC
Do you prefer real or imagined characters?
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams ~ Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Ode
- LCW
- Compulsive Reader
- Location: Southern California
It really just depends. Sometimes a story with imagined characters can be a much better read as the author is not restricted by known history. But I've read lots of good novels with real characters as well. My current fav being the William Marshall one by EC!
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them. --Arnold Lobel
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them. --Arnold Lobel
- Vanessa
- Bibliomaniac
- Currently reading: The Two Houses by Fran Cooper
- Interest in HF: The first historical novel I read was Katherine by Anya Seton and this sparked off my interest in this genre.
- Favorite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
- Preferred HF: Any
- Location: North Yorkshire, UK
I don't think I mind - it's the story and style of writing which count with me. As long as the book holds my interest, it can be about a real-life or fictional character.
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
Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind
- michellemoran
- Bibliophile
- Contact:
- Divia
- Bibliomaniac
- Location: Always Cloudy, Central New York
It doesnt matter to me as long as the story is good. 

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- boswellbaxter
- Bibliomaniac
- Location: North Carolina
- Contact:
I much prefer real characters.
Susan Higginbotham
Coming in October: The Woodvilles
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/blog/
Coming in October: The Woodvilles
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/
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- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favorite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
What a fascinating question! I've never thought about this before. I do like reading about real people from history, provided the author has done a reasonably good job with the research, because I learn things I hadn't known before. On the other hand, I love reading about people in times and places where no particular individual has made it into the historical records - for example, right now, I'm reading Ruan by Bryher, which is set in sixth century western Britain. There are a few names from king lists from that period, but the names are really all we know about those people. And I like reading about the lives of common people in some of the more-documented centuries. As Meat Loves Salt was terrific (I've reviewed it at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/As-Meat-Loves-Salt.html), and that story could not have been told from the perspective of any of the aristocrats documented in historical records.
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- Eyza
- Scribbler
- Location: Seattle, Washington
- Contact:
I generally prefer imagined characters that work in real situations, if it's historical fiction. Maybe I've just had bad experiences reading fictional biographies, but I generally don't find these terribly interesting, because especially with well-known ones like Elizabeth I, so much is "known" about that character, that there's not enough "tension" or surprise element in the story to interest me.
Anne G

Anne G
- Eyza
- Scribbler
- Location: Seattle, Washington
- Contact:
I generally prefer imagined characters that work in real situations, if it's historical fiction. Maybe I've just had bad experiences reading fictional biographies, but I generally don't find these terribly interesting, because especially with well-known ones like Elizabeth I, so much is "known" about that character, that there's not enough "tension" or surprise element in the story to interest me.
Anne G

Anne G