Jerome de Groot

This brief book will be a good introduction for the students in my Seminar in Historical Fiction. It introduces and defines the genre, traces its origins and development, and reviews key critical theories. Most interesting are the connections to Marxist theories of history and the increasing popularity of the historical novel, and the revisionist views of feminist theorists. In a chapter on "genre fiction," De Groot details the most prevalent forms of historical fiction for women (romance and history, including Jane Austen prequels and sequels, the movement towards female agency, and an entire industry of Anne Boleyn fiction), men (adventure and heroism, mainly set in war time), and children). Most useful for my purposes will be the chapter on literary historical fiction and the influence of modernism and postmodernism, which includes brief discussions of two of the novels I will be teaching, Restoration and Regeneration, and a lengthier section on metafiction in Atonement. The book includes a useful glossary and an extensive bibliography. A very handy guide for historical fiction lovers.… (mere)