Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One image from the CFT archives.
The Coronation of King Charles III is the latest chapter in the story of kings and queens throughout our history. It was that thought which made me think of this topic for this week’s post. History turns up in fiction, as well as in non-fiction.
I love non-fiction but find the former especially interesting because so often it can lead to a greater understanding of the period and of the historical person written about. It is a way of keeping their story, the real one, alive for people who may not pick up a history book but who will read a historically based novel, novella, or short story. I’ve written historical flash fiction too so it can be done in the shorter forms of writing. The idea is to show to a reader something of who this historical person was.
The Use of History in Literature
History was a great school subject and I still love it. I enjoy the straight re-tellings of history in non-fiction but also love the way history can be portrayed in fiction. The latter can be a great way of introducing people to a period of history and that can encourage them to read more on the subject away from the original novel they’ve read.
It happened to me with The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey which looks at the controversial figure of Richard III. Indeed, it remains the only work of fiction which has made me change my mind about a real historical figure. I wasn’t expecting that. (The Richard III Society acknowledge this book as many people’s way in to finding out more about Richard and his times. I hope that was what Josephine Tey was after here).
One of the “jobs” of fiction is to show readers characters in terms of who they are and why they are that way. This can be a fabulous way to encourage empathy. So this is where historical fiction has an important role to play. It can help increase our understanding of those who lived in times past. They say the past is a different country, they do things differently there. True but historical fiction can help bridge the gap.
Sagas, Eras, and “Using” Historical Characters
A well written regional saga can also bridge gaps. There is often background history in those as the author shows you the characters in their environment. A good sense of history can be conveyed through reading what a character has for their meal, what they wear, the work they do, and so on. Saga writers have to get those details right. Readers will pick up on errors.
There can be alternative history in fiction but even there the authors need to know a reasonable amount about the real history to be able to make this work. I mentioned before Les Dawson had to be able to play the piano properly to know how to play it badly. The same principle applies here. You have to know the real history.
Certain authors will always be associated with specific eras. Dickens is the obvious one. You expect his books to show something of his Victorian setting and they do. From a writing viewpoint, it is interesting to see how he has to describe his settings in some detail. Modern writers do not. We know what London looks like. Many of Dickens’s readers would not. There is a history element in that too.
The way stories can be told now has changed due to the advent of the film and TV age. Mind you, writers can use that. If you don’t want technology coming to the aid of your lead character, you either need to put them in a location where that help is not available or you set them back in time.
Then there are re-tellings of history, using historical characters themselves. I’ve read Jean Plaidy, Sharon Penman, and others who use this technique. They try to show us something of what they feel the historical characters would be like. Again, it encourages greater understanding. Again the writers have to know their stuff here. What they come up with for the historical figures they’re using here has to be reasonable, based on what we know of these people’s lives.
Historical characters can also take a life of their own, so to speak, long after their time. The writer, Jennifer C Wilson, whom I’ve interviewed for Chandler’s Ford Today before, does this with her Kindred Spirits series. This series crosses history with ghost stories. In her books, Richard III and Anne Boleyn become good friends. They never met in life but in a ghost story they can. But again the known facts about the historical characters Jennifer uses has to be borne out in the books (and they are).
Timeslip novels can also bring history into fiction. Timeslip is where characters can travel through time by various means, including portals and time machines. When the character slips into a previous time, the story has to show something of that past era. The Lady of Hay is a good example with echoes of King John’s reign.
History in Unexpected Fictional Places
Then there are the cosy crime stories. Yes, really. History crops up in various ways. Again technology used by the police/detectives in the stories has to be what was available at the time so the writer has to know this. Attitudes of characters, including those in authority, must be of the time too to be able to keep any sense of realism going.
Something that is obviously unbelievable people will stop reading. (Even in fantasy, the rules are set early on and then adhered to by the writer. That is the reality there which is why readers accept it). Also cosy crime in and of itself is unlikely to be set in the modern era. You do have to go back to a less frenetic time and pace for this to be convincing.
Sometimes characters can be used to show what they know about local history and national events. The latter can often act as a backdrop to the main story. The author’s job here is to give enough information to show us this story was set against the backdrop of, say, World War One and then get on with telling the story.
It should be apparent from the story and the characters why the tale has to be set in that time. The event, especially something as catastrophic as a world war, would have some bearing on how the characters act and react even if they’re not caught up in war itself directly. Everyone was affected by the wars in some way.
Books set in those eras would show something of that. Even Jane Austen, whose works were written against the backdrop of the wars with Napoleon, shows something of this – she refers to the militia. She refers to Fanny Price’s brother being in the navy. Lydia Bennett in Pride and Prejudice eloped and then married George Wickham, a militia man. The wars themselves are not the focus of her work though but even she couldn’t ignore altogether the reality of the world around her at the time she was writing. It did effect what she wrote.
Conclusion
So do fiction writers “make it all up then”? Oh yes. But we do our research too. Often historical research comes into it. Sometimes, in writing crime stories, and to name just one example, an author will need to know what poisons were available and how people could get them at a specific point in history. Arsenic was readily available in Victorian times.
Now I double checked that so this is going to be an interesting entry on my timeline. Allison Symes looked up what poisons were available in the mid 1800s or so.
Hmm… authors can often have interesting internet histories. Now you know why!
Related Posts:-
Ghosts, History and What Might Have Been: Introducing Jennifer C Wilson
Writing Historical Fiction – Interview with Gill James Part 1
The Joys and Woes of Writing Historical Fiction – Part 2 of Gill James Interview
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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Great subject Allison. History and fiction is a fantastic combination providing opportunities for writers to explore wider avenues such as politics, morality and philosophy. Consider Tolstoy’s War and Peace which chronicles the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families. Scott Fitzgerald uses his novel, The Great Gatsby, based in part on characters from Petronius’ Satyricon, to develop a moral criticism of wealthy Americans. Solzhenitsyn’s. Cancer Ward, is based on facts relating to his own experience as a cancer patient and expands to a criticism of Soviet Communism. Koester’s Darkness at Noon is primarily a work of fiction but is presented against the background of the Moscow Show Trials. Whist the facts support his account of the trials my own experience based on conversations with participants in events in Russia at the time conflicts with Koestler – something I am unlikely to publish in the present political climate., And finally. Sartre’s, The Roads to Freedom, based on WW2 and the Nazi occupation, provide an opportunity for the author to develop his philosophical views on human freedom.
Many thanks, David. And don’t forget Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. Recent history (to him) fed into those. History crops up more often than people think in fiction. It is also not unknown for fantasy/sci-fi writers to world build their own settings based on what they know of our history here. It would make a great place to start. Game of Thrones, for example, I understand takes elements of our Wars of the Roses (I’ve not read the books or seen the series to comment further), but this comment came up recently. And yes I can see why the author here would do that.