Help! Historical Fiction for my Book Club

[WhispofMemory]

I tend to read a lot of historical fiction and was actually expecting my club to vote for the Tudors but it ended up losing by 2 votes. Instead, they voted for "Authors." Basically what I am looking for is more novels based on the lives of authors OR at least where he/she is prominently featured.

I'm in the process now of finding selections (Jane Austen isn't on the list on purpose). This is what I have so far and I was wondering if anyone could offer up any other suggestions for me.

Still She Haunts Me by Katie Roiphe (Lewis Carrol & Alice Liddel)
The Master: A Novel by Colm Toibin (Henry James)
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl (I realize this one is a bit of a stretch since Poe isn't the protagonist but I think it's better than nothing)
Girl in a Blue Dress by Gayor Arnold (Charles Dickens)
The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert (Beatrix Potter - Is this the ONLY historical fiction that features her in a prominent way? I'd prefer not to force my readers to have to read another mystery after we've just finished one)
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees
Charlotte & Emily by Jude Morgan (Ugh couldn't they have kept the original title? This is awful! 'A Taste of Sorrow' was a much better title)
The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Virginia Woolf)

In the following month, we will read a non-fiction to go with the fiction we have just read. I've found a non-fiction to follow up each of these already.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-WhispofMemory

[Misfit]

Hi and welcome. The only one on your list I recognize is Lost Summer of LMA. Divia loved it but I was kinda *meh*. I prefer Glory Cloak (author's name escapes me) which is also a fictional account of Louisa.

Other than that I'm personally stumped, but Michele has some suggestions here, http://readersrespite.blogspot.com/2010 ... books.html

[WhispofMemory]

Thanks so much! I'll have to check out that other historical fiction of LMA too...it might be the better option then.

[boswellbaxter]

Drood by Dan Simmons features both Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens.

Syrie James has written novels about both Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte.

Jerome Charyn has written a (very) literary novel called The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson.

[annis]

Elizabeth Battrick, who wrote several NF books about Beatrix Potter, also wrote a novel called Beatrix Potter's Tale (pub. 1993)

[WhispofMemory]

Elizabeth Battrick, who wrote several NF books about Beatrix Potter, also wrote a novel called Beatrix Potter's Tale (pub. 1993)

Looks like it's OOP. I would love to read that on my own sometime but in order for a book to become a choice in my book club, it has to be available for everyone.

[Elizabeth]

Susan Wittig Albert has written a series of cozy-style historical mysteries featuring Beatrix Potter as a gentle sleuth in England's turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th) Lake District. The series is collectively known as "The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter."

Laura Joh Rowland, who writes the excellent Sano Ichiro mysteries (17th century Japan) has just begun a new series featuring Charlotte Bronte, beginning with The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte.

Nicola Upson's An Angel with Two Faces features Josephine Tey, author of The Daughter of Time, as a sleuth.

Stephanie Barron's The White Garden is billed as "A novel of Virginia Woolf." It features a mysterious lost journal of Woolf's and a search for hidden truths about her death.

[annis]

Richard Maltby has written a novel based on the movie, Miss Potter, also called Miss Potter, but you may not consider it literary enough for your book group. I agree absolutely about the boring Amrican title for Jude Morgan's novel, btw- "A Taste of Sorrow" is so much more evocative.

[Vanessa]

There's Daphne by Justine Picardie which features Daphne du Maurier and also Peter Llewellyn Davies (Peter Pan). I'm not sure if she is classed as an historical author, though!

[sweetpotatoboy]

Fanny: A Fiction by Edmund White is about the novelist Fanny Trollope (mother of the more famous Anthony Trollope).