Historical Fiction

Burial Rites is a 2013 novel by Australian author Hannah Kent. Based on the true story of the last woman to be publicly executed in Iceland, Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, a servant who is sentenced to death for the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer and lover. Two teenagers, Fridrik Sigurdsson and Sigridir Gudmundsdottir, are accused of aiding in the murders. While awaiting execution, she is placed... Read Burial Rites Summary

Burmese Days, written by George Orwell and published in 1934, is a critique of British imperialism and its effects on individuals and cultures. Set in the fictional district of Kyauktada in Upper Burma, at that time part of the British Raj, the historical fiction novel tells the story of Flory, a 35-year-old English timber merchant who has spent his adult life in Burma. The novel focuses on the lonely Flory’s search for a wife, as... Read Burmese Days Summary

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Caleb’s Crossing (2011) is a historical fiction novel based on the real life figure of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University in 1665. Born into the Wampanoag tribe on an island near Cape Cod, the historical Cheeshahteaumuck converted to Christianity and attended a preparatory school before enrolling in Harvard. In her novel, Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks tells a fictionalized version of Caleb’s story in the form of a... Read Caleb's Crossing Summary

Candide, or Optimism was first published in 1759 by the French writer Voltaire (born Francois-Marie Arouet in 1694, died in 1778). The most famous and widely read work published by Voltaire, Candide is a satire that critiques contemporary philosophy, and specifically Leibnizian optimism, which posited the doctrine of the best of all possible worlds. Along with other French contemporaries, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot, and Montesquieu, Voltaire published at the height of the French... Read Candide Summary

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck was originally published in 1945. A Nobel Prize-winning writer, Steinbeck grew up in Salinas, California, which is near Monterey—the location of Cannery Row. Aside from a few years in Palo Alto, New York, and Los Angeles, Steinbeck spent most of his adult life living in Monterey County, and he drew on his personal experiences to write Cannery Row.Considered literary fiction or classic literature, Cannery Row is realistic and was written... Read Cannery Row Summary

Caramelo (2002) is a multi-generational family epic by American-Chicana author Sandra Cisneros. The novel follows the coming-of-age stories of Soledad Reyes; her son, Inocencio Reyes; and her granddaughter, Celaya “Lala” Reyes. The narrative takes place as the family moves among Chicago, Mexico City, and San Antonio. Written in a unique bilingual English and Spanish voice, Caramelo features themes of memory, Mexican-American heritage, female strength, and the search for a “home” between and beyond national borders.In interviews... Read Caramelo Summary

Anglo-Irish writer Maria Edgeworth’s novel, Castle Rackrent ,first published in 1800, tells of the decline of a family from her own aristocratic class. Seeking to present an authentic picture of these corrupt, inefficient estate owners, Edgeworth invents narrator Thady Quirk, a faithful steward who recounts the fate of four Rackrent estate owners in unsparing details.He begins with relating how his grandfather was a driver for Patrick O’Shaughlin, who was descended from the Kings of Ireland... Read Castle Rackrent Summary

Cato, a Tragedy is a play written by Joseph Addison in 1712. Set in the Roman Republic during the reign of Julius Caesar, the play centers on the final days of the Stoic Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, a man of virtue who fiercely opposed Caesar. The play focuses on themes such as the importance of virtue and the battle between liberty and tyranny, and takes place in Utica, Tunisia, in the kingdom of Numidia, where... Read Cato, a Tragedy Summary

Danzy Senna’s debut coming-of-age novel Caucasia (1998) takes place in Boston, Massachusetts during the tumultuous Black Power Movement of the 1970s. It is the story of two mixed-race sisters, Birdie and Cole Lee, who have an African-American father and a white mother. In the beginning of the novel, Birdie tries to gain acceptance as black to fit in with her social circle and her family’s politics, but when she and her mother go on the... Read Caucasia Summary

Celestial Bodies is a novel by Omani author Jokha Alharthi, translated into English by Marilyn Booth. Charting the lives of various generations of a family in the fictional town of al-Awafi, it depicts an evolving Omani society that is still coming to grips with the post-colonial world and the abolition of slavery. It won the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.Plot SummaryThe plot for Celestial Bodies skips around in time, alternating between Abdallah’s reminiscences on a... Read Celestial Bodies Summary

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“Chickamauga” is a short story by Ambrose Bierce, first published in a collection of his stories in 1887. The name refers to a Civil War battlefield in Georgia.The story is set in the South during the Civil War. The story’s unnamed protagonist is a young boy, referred to throughout as “the child.” We are told that while the boy comes from a humble farming family, he is descended from victors and conquerors and has an... Read Chickamauga Summary

Christ in Concrete is a novel based on the real life of author Pietro di Donato, which he expanded from a short story that he placed in the magazine Esquire in 1937. Like the main character, Paul, di Donato was the son of an Italian immigrant bricklayer who died on the Christian holiday of Good Friday while working on the job. Also like Paul, di Donato became a child bricklayer, although he would go on... Read Christ in Concrete Summary

Published in 2018, Circe retells the story of the eponymous Greek mythological figure. The novel is also popular among the online BookTok community. Although traditionally viewed as a heartless, savagely beautiful witch who lures sailors to their deaths, the Circe of Madeline Miller’s imagining is quite different. This Circe is a multidimensional, flawed, and empathetic character struggling to find meaning and worth in her immortal life. Through Miller’s detailed and honest first-person narrative, which takes... Read Circe Summary

City of Girls is the third novel by author Elizabeth Gilbert, published in 2019. Gilbert is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels include Stern Men (2000) and The Signature of All Things (2013). A noted writer of nonfiction, she has also written a biography entitled The Last American Man (2002), as well as several memoirs including Eat Pray Love (2006), Committed (2010), and Big Magic (2015). Eat Pray Love became a worldwide bestseller... Read City of Girls Summary

City of Thieves, published in 2008, is a historical novel by Jewish American author David Benioff. The story is framed as the memories of the narrator’s grandfather, Lev Beniov. The story follows Lev, a Russian Jew, and Kolya, a Cossack soldier, during the Siege of Leningrad in World War II. The book was well received upon publication and later inspired the postapocalyptic video game The Last of Us. City of Thieves is the second novel... Read City of Thieves Summary

Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter, published in 1853 by former slave William Wells Brown, is considered the first African-American novel. Drawing on what were, in the 19th century, rumors that Thomas Jefferson had children with his slave Sally Hemings, the novel follows the slave Clotel and her family as they are sold to different masters. The novel is more than the story of a fictional slave, however: Brown includes newspaper articles, advertisements, and real-life anecdotes... Read Clotel Summary

Cloud Atlas is a 2004 dystopian novel by British author David Mitchell. The sprawling narrative is composed of a series of nested stories, spanning centuries into the past and the future. In addition to winning numerous literary and science fiction awards, the novel was adapted into a 2012 film of the same name. This guide uses the 2014 Sceptre edition of Cloud Atlas.Content Warning: The novel and this guide depict slavery and discuss racism, death... Read Cloud Atlas Summary

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