Books with category 🏛 Historical Fiction
Displaying books 625-643 of 643 in total

The Grass Is Singing

1950

by Doris Lessing

Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm work their slow poison, and Mary's despair progresses until the fateful arrival of an enigmatic and virile black servant, Moses. Locked in anguish, Mary and Moses -- master and slave -- are trapped in a web of mounting attraction and repulsion. Their psychic tension explodes in an electrifying scene that ends this disturbing tale of racial strife in colonial South Africa.

The Grass Is Singing blends Lessing's imaginative vision with her own vividly remembered early childhood to recreate the quiet horror of a woman's struggle against a ruthless fate.

Shane

1949

by Jack Schaefer

A stranger rode out of the heart of the great glowing West, into the small Wyoming valley in the summer of 1889. It was Shane, who appeared on the horizon and became a friend and guardian to the Starrett family at a time when homesteaders and cattle rangers battled for territory and survival.

Jack Schaefer’s classic novel illuminates the spirit of the West through the eyes of a young boy and a hero who changes the lives of everyone around him. Renowned artist Wendell Minor provides stunning images and a moving introduction to this new edition of Shane, the ultimate tale of the Western landscape.

Frenchman's Creek

Jaded by the numbing politeness of Restoration London, Lady Dona St. Columb revolts against high society. She rides into the countryside, guided only by her restlessness and her longing to escape.

But when chance leads her to meet a French pirate, hidden within Cornwall's shadowy forests, Dona discovers that her passions and thirst for adventure have never been more aroused. Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him.

Frenchman's Creek is the breathtaking story of a woman searching for love and adventure who embraces the dangerous life of a fugitive on the seas.

Rebecca

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

On the Banks of Plum Creek

The adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as they leave their little house on the prairie and travel in their covered wagon to Minnesota. Here they settle in a little house made of sod beside the banks of beautiful Plum Creek. Soon Pa builds a wonderful new little house with real glass windows and a hinged door. Laura and her sister Mary go to school, help with the chores, and fish in the creek. At night, everyone listens to the merry music of Pa's fiddle.

Misfortunes come in the form of a grasshopper plague and a terrible blizzard, but the pioneer family works hard together to overcome these troubles. And so continues Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved story of a pioneer girl and her family. The nine Little House books have been cherished by generations of readers as both a unique glimpse into America's frontier past and a heartwarming, unforgettable story.

I, Claudius/Claudius the God

1934

by Robert Graves

Clau-Clau-Claudius the stammerer was known as a buffoon and a pitiful fool. He made it his business to watch from the sidelines and record the antics, funny, violent, and lustful, of the imperial household as its members vied with each other for power. Then he found himself Emperor.

From the great days of Augustus and the cruelties of Tiberius to the deified insanity of Caligula, he records a story breathtaking in its murderousness, greed, and folly. Throughout the swings of fortune, his own disastrous love affair with the depraved Messalina and surprisingly successful reign, his voice sometimes puzzled, sometimes rueful, always sane, speaks to us across the centuries in two great, classic historical novels.

Giants in the Earth

1925

by O.E. Rølvaag

Giants in the Earth (Norwegian: Verdens Grøde) is a novel by Norwegian-American author Ole Edvart Rølvaag. First published in Norway as two books in 1924 and 1925, the author collaborated with Minnesotan Lincoln Colcord on the English translation.

The novel follows a Norwegian family's struggles as they try to make a new life as pioneers in the Dakota territory. Rølvaag is interested in psychology and the human cost of empire building, at a time when other writers focused on the glamor and romance of the West. The book reflects his personal experiences as a settler as well as the immigrant homesteader experience of his wife’s family.

Both the grim realities of pioneering and the gloomy fatalism of the Norse mind are captured in depictions of snow storms, locusts, poverty, hunger, loneliness, homesickness, the difficulty of fitting into a new culture, and the estrangement of immigrant children who grow up in a new land. It is a novel at once palpably European and distinctly American.

Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin, a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expresses the author's own views and convictions.

Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel explores the complex interplay between love, family happiness, and the societal constraints that exist within the dynamics of city and country life. As the story unfolds, Anna's ill-fated affair with Vronsky leads to a life-altering crisis, while Levin's journey takes on a deeper philosophical significance.

The novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, exploring the variations on love and the search for happiness. Tolstoy's powerful narrative invites readers not to judge but to watch, presenting a panorama of humanity in all its flawed beauty.

Little Women

Louisa May Alcott's classic tale of four sisters.

Grown-up Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. The four March sisters couldn't be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Whether they're putting on a play, forming a secret society, or celebrating Christmas, there's one thing they can't help wondering: Will Father return home safely?

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bront's only novel, is a tale of passion and revenge on the Yorkshire moors. At its heart lies the tumultuous relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how their unresolved passion eventually leads to their destruction, affecting those around them. First published in 1847, Bront's work was initially met with mixed reviews but has since become an undisputed classic of English literature.

This novel is known for its complex structure, reminiscent of Russian nesting dolls, and its innovative narrative that was controversial at the time of publication. The dark and tragic story, set in a stark and austere setting, explores themes of social class, love, and the impact of vengeance. The intense emotional depth of the story transforms a simple tale into one with the resonance of ancient tragedy.

Bront wrote under the pseudonym Ellis Bell and her work was posthumously edited by her sister Charlotte. The novel's title comes from the remote Yorkshire manor, Wuthering Heights, which forms the central focus of the story's tumultuous events.

The Pit and the Pendulum

1842

by Edgar Allan Poe

The Pit and the Pendulum is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. The traditional elements established in popular horror tales at the time are followed, but critical reception has been mixed. The tale has been adapted to film several times.

Babel

Babel is a novel that weaves a rich tapestry of historical intrigue and magical realism. Set in an alternate history, it explores the power of language and translation as a tool for imperial dominance and resistance.

The story follows a group of talented individuals who navigate through the complexities of their world, facing moral dilemmas and discovering the true cost of knowledge and power. With its captivating narrative and complex characters, Babel challenges readers to ponder on the impact of words and the boundaries of loyalty.

City of Vikings

Nora Hunt is the last of her kind from an aristocratic bloodline of Viking assassins. She is chosen by the Norse gods to carry the map of the nine Viking worlds, Yggdrasil, which is tattooed on her back.

Nora was blessed by the gods with rare gifts and will become powerful when she finds the assassin weapons. With her unique gifts, she must serve and protect the Goth Empire – the oldest standing Viking monarchy, from its enemy – the Verans.

Her mission as an assassin is to get to the City of Vikings, where her father is in exile, and discover the powerful Viking weapons before the enemy. The Goth Empire is in danger from the Verans, who hold possession of the artifacts that call for Yggdrasil and are getting closer to finding the cryptic symbols that will open the gates to the nine worlds.

The battle for Yggdrasil is about to begin. Who will rule the nine worlds of the Vikings? With a confined monarchy and weak senate trusting her to liberate them, and a heart devoted to her sworn enemy, which side will Nora choose? Will she discover the assassin weapons and win the perilous battle for the worlds of the Vikings?

Fall of Giants

It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution.

Five families, American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh, move through the dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. The plot contains profanity, graphic sexual situations, and violence. Book #1

Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis, a historical epic set against the backdrop of Rome at the height of its power, explores a Rome under the despotic emperor Nero. The novel follows our protagonist, Vinicius, a Centurion in the army who has fallen madly in love with the elusive Ligia, a Christian. As Nero's harrowing plans for Rome’s Christians become ever clearer, Vinicius will have to act fast if he hopes to save his love.

From the sweeping Alps to the blood-drenched sand of the Coliseum, Sienkiewicz brings the glory of Rome to life in an entertaining, gripping novel. Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) was a Polish fiction writer awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905, for his outstanding merits as a writer of epic fiction. He became one of the most famous authors in Poland at the end of the 19th century, before translations of his work catapulted him to international renown. Among his most famous novels are ‘With Fire and Sword,’ ‘Quo Vadis,’ and ‘Sir Michael.’

Ramonst

Hidden in the mountains of East Tennessee, an eleven-year-old goes about the business of being a boy during the summer of 1970. Within a balance of terror and innocence, he bears silent witness to ghosts of the dead and the cruelties of a teenage killer while local justice plays out in a community carved from legacies of coal mining and religion.

Regeneration

Regeneration is a historical fiction novel set during World War I. It documents characters based on real people and their experiences with shell shock and recovery at the Craiglockhart Hospital.

This novel explores the psychological effects of war on soldiers and the attempts at recovery in a medical setting. It provides a deep insight into the human mind during times of extreme stress and trauma.

SSN Seadragon: The Crucible of Leviathan

A “Leviathan spirit” is said to be a demon spirit controlled by Satan. When unleashed, it leaves total destruction in its wake, and cannot be subdued by normal human methods, but only by the power of God. The Cold War saw “Leviathan” snarling at his gate, salivating to be let loose, when humanity was treading ever closer to nuclear holocaust. During this period, American servicemen went into the breech to stand against whatever form “Leviathan” took, and like the American warriors of past years they held strong to their faith in God to see them through.

Such a warrior is Daniel O’Kean, a World War II UDT/OSS veteran and commissioned naval officer, turned covert deep-penetration maritime CIA specialist, who has only his faith to see him through his own encounters with “Leviathan.” His first test is a pre-invasion, reconnaissance mission behind the lines of Inchon Korea, where the threat of capture by North Korean invaders is around every corner. Later he leads an assignment into Latvia with near disastrous consequences. Then called upon again, into the steaming jungles near Haiphong Vietnam, while attempting to retrieve evidence of active Soviet intervention in the war, he uncovers an unusual and vital turn of events that leads to a twisted plot in the streets of London England. With each step he takes he sees God’s hand guiding him closer to a fate he does not fully understand, but follows faithfully.

While O’Kean is battling an evil he cannot see, the captain of the nuclear submarine USS Seadragon, LCDR Renzo MacKenna has his own faith challenged in another form of “Leviathan” as he and CDR David Heidleman of the USS Permit coordinate to foil a Soviet plot to end America’s involvement in Vietnam. One wrong move by them and “Leviathan’s” bite could go nuclear.

The Fish the Fighters and the Song-Girl

New blood and old warriors face unforeseen challenges as one war ends in triumph and another conflict looms. Stories you'll love to hear again and stories you've been hoping to hear for the first time in a brand-new Sacred Band anthology that takes the Stepsons where they've never been before...

Tales of risk and glory, past, present and future, among the Sacred Band of Stepsons cavalry in The Fish the Fighter and the Song-girl, the second Sacred Band anthology.

Tempus and his Sacred Band won the battle of their dreams, but now the time has come to count the cost and face the consequences in fifteen tales, old and new, of the iconic Sacred Band of Stepsons.

Includes the last six classic Sacred Band stories from the million-copy bestselling shared universe of Thieves' World and nine new adventures.

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