We would be remiss if we ended this series of posts without noting one of the major reasons folks read and collect historical fiction--i.e., to give meaning to the past, something that even the best nonfiction often cannot do.
As Daniel Mendelsohn observes in a recent book review, all historical fiction must, at some level, deal with...what people in the past knew and what they didn't (or didn't want to) know about what was happening around them, and how our present-day hindsight gives their knowledge or ignorance a tragic, or pathetic, meaning. That is why many private libraries that ostensibly are devoted to non-fiction accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg almost always also contain a copy of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels...
...why private libraries focused on non-fiction titles about the reign of Richard III almost always also have a copy of Josephine Tey's (pseudonym of Scottish author Elizabeth Mackintosh) Daughter of Time nearby (especially if the real subject of such library is more the Princes in the Tower than Richard himself [which also is why Tey's book often appears on the bookshelves of folks who otherwise collect nonfiction books about propaganda])...
...and why so many private libraries devoted to nonfiction titles about World War II almost always seem to find room for Herman Wouk's The Winds of War and War and Remembrance:
Many more examples come readily to mind, but...'nuff said!
Tomorrow, a Guest Editorial....
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