Historical fiction suggestions

I'm currently reading The Second Empress by Michelle Moran. It's about Napolean's 2nd wife Marie Louise. I also read by the same author Madame Tussaud, it was about the french revolution through Marie Tussaud's eyes...it was great!

I really enjoyed listening to Paris The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd. Downloaded from my library as an audiobook. It's a bit of a tome as a paper book. It follows several families over multiple generations including Versailles and Revolution. I found it interesting from the perspective of France during WWII and the occupation.

Thanks, Maria. I love audiobooks, so will see if audible has that one. It sounds really good & I love multigenerational tomes :)

Thanks, Kerrie for the suggestion about Madame Tussaud. I forgot about her!

A Tale of two Cities by Charles Dickens deals with the revolution. The post above suggests Paris by Edward Rutherfurd. As stated it follows several families through the generations, the key historical figures make appearances but don't really star in the book, it's very good though. Not a book but there is a 2006 movie called Marie Antoinette. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, but it is quirky and visually spectacular and shows the excesses of French Royalty.

It doesn't exactly fit your description, but A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century by historian Barbara Tuchman is by far my favorite piece of European historical non-fiction. It tells the history of 14th century France through the lens of a mid-level French nobleman who was affected directly or indirectly by most of the major events in France in that century such as the Black Death and the Hundred Years War.

Tuchman was an ace historian and author. She wrote The Guns of August, which is considered the best account of the absurd sequence of events that led to WW1.

My favorite French read is anything by Voltaire. It's probably easiest to just read Candide. My best analogy is he is to the French what Mark Twain is to Americans, French wit and wisdom in everything he writes.

I'd also recommend The Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo and Hunchback of Notre Dame. They are entertaining reads by major French authors. There is also a lot of culture and French perspective you can glean from them. They weren't written as childrens' books. They're classics because millions of people have read and loved them since they were first penned.

I recently read The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. It is a fictional account of French Resistance fighters in WWII. Lots of insight to how savage the Nazi's were and the deprivation and spirit of the French.
Bon Chance

Sandra Gulland has a trilogy about Josephine (and Napoleon). They are wonderful books and a lot of fun to read (I remember reading them straight through during a multi-day snowstorm years ago). Highly recommended.

It's been a long time since I've read it, but Anne Perry's A Dish Taken Cold. Not her typical Monk or Pitt novel, she sets this one during the French Revolution.

Hi,

on top of already suggested books, you can also watch the movie called Ridicule. It is set in the 18th century at the decadent court of Versailles, before the French Revolution.

It won a BAFTA Award (UK version of Oscars), and was nominated to Oscars (foreign movie) in 1997.

The Gods Ae Athirst, by Anatol France. Novel set during the Terror.

A Tale of Two Cities and Les Misrables.

Wife and I are reading "A place of greater safety" by Hillary Mantel. Her style is annoying, as she often does not have information about who is speaking. But this follows Robespierre and the other central characters to the end.

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. It's been a long, cold winter here in Canada and I can't wait to dig into some of these before heading to France in August!

I'd also recommend Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities". Personally, I also find Alexander Dumas an interesting read; The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo.

Being a lover of fantasy, it's sometimes hard to separate the facts from the fiction in Historical fiction. For instance, J.K Rowling can show you some insight into the British culture but you'd have to successfully identify the fiction first. I also learnt a number of things about the Italian culture from Mario Puzo's books.

The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola takes place in Les Halles market district in the 1800s. He also wrote a novel about the first department store based on Le Bon Marche - I can't think of the title, but should be easy to find on Amazon. I found Zola a much easier read than Hugo - I just couldn't wade through Les Miserables.

Another novel I enjoyed was Confessions of a Queen about Catherine de Medici. It covers the period during the reformation and the rise of Henri IV. It is well written and interesting.

Paris by Rutherford is another book I really enjoyed. It covers the history of Paris from the pre- Roman days to the building of the Eiffel Tower.

Zola's novel about the (fictionalized) Bon Marché is Au Bonheur des Dames.

I'll leave it up to you to decide whether my suggestions are a bit corny or real pieces of literature, especially if you're into French lit.

Stendahl, "The Red and the Black." (Trans.)

Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables" especially that section dealing with Waterloo, several historical references to the Hundred Years' War. (Trans)

R Sabatini, "Scaramouche" (set in the Fr Rev era), watch the movie too

Baroness Orczy, "The Scarlett Pimpernel"

Stendal, "The Charterhouse of Parma." (Trans)

How about a non-fiction work on Napoleon? For the beginner I heartily suggest F. Markham, "Napoleon" and also A. Roberts, "Napoleon, A Life" if you want a more detailed and modern work.

The play 'St Joan' by George Bernard Shaw. Some people don't like reading plays as much as novels but it's really good.

Also the book 'Desiree' by Annemarie Selinko - also made into a movie with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, very light frothy fiction about Napoleon's first love who ended up marrying Jean Bernadotte, one of his Marshalls of France who eventually became the king of Sweden.

There are numerous movies portraying Napoleon, such as "Desiree" as suggested. I would suggest 4 of them unless you're interested in seeing them all...M Brando, Herbert Lom, David Swift, Ian Holm, Rod Steiger, Charles Boyer, Christian Clavier.

1. "Napoleon" ...the great silent film of 1927 by A. Gance.

2. "Conquest" (1937) with Garbo and Boyer.

3. "Napoleon" with C. Clavier...the English version is shorter by 2 hrs than the French version. 4 hrs vs 6hrs. I suggest the French version if you want the full flavour.

4 "Monsieur N."

Hi,

If you want to read about Josephine from a primary source, read the memoir written by her daughter, Hortense, to get an insight. Only the fall of Robespierre, the event of Thermidor, (July 1794), saved her and her brother, Eugene, from being orphans, since their father had already gone to the "national razor." Josephine was next.

Another French movie (in French) portraying the French Revolutionary era is "La Nuit de Varennes." focusing on the attempted escape by the royal family, part of it is fiction behind the very real historical backdrop of 1791. ...super revealing historically and sociologically.

The work is historical fiction by definition behind the backdrop of Napoleon and pertaining to the Waterloo campaign. It is "Waterloo" by Erichmann-Chatrian.