Historical Fiction

“Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844) is a Gothic short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) first published in The United States Magazines and Democratic Review. In 1846, it was republished in a collection of stories and sketches, Mosses from an Old Manse. Hawthorne was a leader of the Dark Romantic or Gothic movement in American literature. His close friends included fellow Massachusetts writers Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson.The work is prefaced by Hawthorne, who claims to... Read Rappaccini's Daughter Summary

Seamus Deane’s 1996 novel, Reading in the Dark, was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. It follows an unnamed narrator living in Derry, Northern Ireland, from the 1940s until the 1970s. Each of the book’s six chapters is divided into several short fragments, which provide snapshots of a character, event, or aspect of the narrator’s world. Throughout the novel, the dominant narrative is the mystery surrounding Uncle... Read Reading in the Dark Summary

Rebecca, a bestselling novel by famed English writer Daphne du Maurier, was published in 1938, and has never gone out of print. The winner of the National Book Award for favorite novel of 1938, Rebecca has been adapted numerous times, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film version, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and a 1997 television miniseries. It was most recently adapted for a Netflix film in 2020 by the same name. Rebecca... Read Rebecca Summary

Part 1Twyla and Roberta, the two main characters in Toni Morrison's short story, "Recitatif," meet at the Saint Bonaventure orphanage (St. Bonny's) as 8-year-old girls. When Twyla first arrives at the shelter and sees Roberta, who is another race (the reader is not told which girl is white and which girl is black), Twyla immediately tells the staff, "My mother won't like you putting me in here" (243). Twyla's mother has warned Twyla about people... Read Recitatif Summary

Jacqueline Woodson’s 2019 Red at the Bone is a work of fiction that centers on the coming together of two dissimilar families because of a teen pregnancy. Highly acclaimed and award-winning author Woodson offers a counternarrative to the familiar tale of teenage pregnancy while considering how identity intersects with class, race, sexuality, gender, and history. This study guide was created with the aid of the Riverhead Books 2019 hardback edition.Plot SummaryThe novel opens 80 years... Read Red at the Bone Summary

Redeeming Love is a 1991 historical romance novel written by Francine Rivers. It is set in California in the 1850s, during the Gold Rush. Taking its inspiration from the Biblical Book of Hosea, it is built upon the foundation of the author's newfound Christian beliefs.The Prologue opens the novel in New England, 1835. Sarah, a 6-year-old girl, meets her father for the first time and learns that she is the product of an adulterous affair... Read Redeeming Love Summary

Redeployment is a 2014 book of short stories written by veteran Phil Klay. Its grim humor and unflinching look at the brutality and horrors of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars won Klay the National Book Award for fiction. The twelve stories in the collection examine themes of maddening bureaucracy, camaraderie among Marines, the cost of civilian casualties to Iraqi society and to the soldiers who inflict them, the difficulty of transitioning back into civilian life... Read Redeployment Summary

Red River is a 2008 novel of historical fiction by Lalita Tademy, largely based on the history of her father’s family. Previously, Lalita Tademy wrote Cane River, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and is another historical fiction book, this one based on her maternal relatives. Red River takes place over almost 50 years, following four generations of the Tademy family. The central event in the book is the Colfax Massacre, a true to... Read Red River Summary

The Tragedy of King Richard II is a play by William Shakespeare. It was probably first performed in 1595, and published in 1597. The play covers the last two years of Richard II’s life, from 1398 to 1400, during which he was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV in 1399. The play explores Richard’s growing unpopularity and ineffective leadership, leading to his overthrow by Bolingbroke, who not only has a taste for power... Read Richard II Summary

Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare written between 1592 and 1594. It is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and his second longest. The play depicts the rise of King Richard III of England, also known as Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Shakespeare portrays Richard as a Machiavellian tyrant who uses lies and violence to unjustly seize the throne during a politically turbulent period of England’s history known as the Wars of the Roses... Read Richard III Summary

Riders of the Purple Sage is a novel by western writer Zane Grey. Set in 1871, the novel follows the story of Jane Withersteen, a Mormon woman being persecuted by her church leaders for refusing to become the third wife of church leader, Elder Tull, as well as her fondness for non-Mormons, or gentile, settlers in the area. The novel first appeared as a 19-part series in the magazine, Field and Stream, in January of... Read Riders of the Purple Sage Summary

Rifleman Dodd, a 1932 historical novel by C.S. Forester, describes the adventures of an English soldier trapped behind enemy lines in 1810 during the Peninsular War, when Britain fights alongside Portugal and Spain against Napoleon’s invading French army. Rifleman Dodd employs guerrilla tactics to harass and kill French troops as he treks across a scorched and starving land to rejoin his regiment. The novel’s descriptions of battle tactics, improvisation under fire, and relentless determination make... Read Rifleman Dodd Summary

After failing to establish a career as a lawyer, Washington Irving (1783-1859) turned to writing. Distancing himself from British literature, Irving sought to create a wholly American folktale for American readers, sprinkled with American geography, mores, and folklore. His first attempt, “Rip Van Winkle,” is one of the earliest examples of the short story in Western literature. Published in 1819 in Irving’s short story collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (which also features... Read Rip Van Winkle Summary

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Robinson Crusoe is French writer Daniel Defoe’s debut novel, first published in 1719. Structured as a journal, the travelogue chronicles Crusoe’s experiences as a seaman and his twenty-eight years cast away on an uninhabited island near Trinidad, where Caribbean cannibals kill and eat prisoners. The novel takes a plan-spoken, confessional tone. Crusoe’s inner explorations, religious doubt, and yet strong faith in God’s providence, create a character who seems to undergo many changes.Against the wishes, and... Read Robinson Crusoe Summary

Mildred D. Taylor’s semi-autobiographical Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a middle grade novel first published in 1976. The novel received the 1977 John Newbery Medal and was recognized by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards. With more than 6.5 million copies in print, the novel anchors Taylor’s “Logan saga,” a series of novels about the same family. A 1978 TV movie of the novel was nominated for two Emmy Awards. This guide references... Read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Summary

Originally printed in 1724, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress was published anonymously and only later attributed to Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. The novel appears as if it is a biography, which was a common trope amongst 18th-century fiction as it was thought to appeal more to the public if readers believed the story was based on true events in a person’s life. The novel has an episodic quality to it and is not necessarily strung together by... Read Roxana Summary

Ruined, by Lynn Nottage, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, defies easy categorization. To some, the play is an unconventional love story set in a war zone, while to others, it is a melodrama warning society of the irreparable damage war can inflict upon women and men. Either way,Ruined is a play that sends a global political message no one can ignore: rape as a weapon of war is profoundly damaging, and a... Read Ruined Summary

Published in 2011, Rules of Civility is American author Amor Towles’ acclaimed debut novel. Set at the end of the 1930s during The Great Depression, the narrative follows spunky roommates Katey Kontent and Evelyn Ross as they make their way up the social ladder in New York society. Though much of the narrative takes place at the end of the 1930s, the preface and epilogue are set in 1966 and provide a bookended point of... Read Rules of Civility Summary

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