British Literature: Historical Fiction

Nate Starbuck, the son of an abolitionist preacher in Boston, becomes stranded in Virginia at the outbreak of the Civil War and his great respect for Richmond landowner Washington Faulconer, and an urge to rebel against his father, leads him to join Faulconer's Confederate legion.

Nate Starbuck, renegade Bostonian and now a Confederate officer, must now prove himself to his superior and lead his men in one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is charged with leading the demoralized men of the 95th Rifles to safety through the enemy-infested mountains of Spain and discovers that turning to Spanish soldier Blas Vivar for help may be a fatal mistake.

Thomas of Hookton, having witnessed the massacre of the people of his coastal English village by a marauding band of French raiders on Easter morning 1343, embarks on a quest to hunt down the black-clad knight who led the attack, avenge his neighbors, and recover a holy treasure the knight stole from the church.

Presents a fictionalized account of Uhtred, the son of an English nobleman, kidnapped by a Danish chieftain, Earl Ragnar, in A.D. 866, during the Vikings wars against England.

Richard Sharpe is twice a hero in Wellington's campaign to protect Spain against Napoleon, and is looking forward to promotion and eager to be on the leading edge of battle, but other conflicts ensue, including the need to protect his infant daughter and her mother, and the necessity to protect himself from a fellow officer.

Lured back to the army from a rural idyll, Sharpe's career culminates in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

First sent on a decoy mission to the Gulf of Guinea, Aubrey's seamanship and Maturin's resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent are tested at their true destination, Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion.

Captain Jack Aubrey, patrolling the waters surrounding India and the Orient, stands to become very wealthy if he can find Napoleon's ships and plunder the gold they are carrying.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin race against time in an attempt to intercept a shipment of gold ingots to a horde of Muslim mercenaries who, if paid, are prepared to help Napoleon in his campaign across Europe.

Two men, Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's doctor and intelligence agent, become fast friends aboard a man-of-war ship during the Napoleonic wars.

Presents E. M. Forster's classic novel in which an affair between members of the business-centered Wilcox and cultured Schlegel families leads to a battle for the Wilcoxes' country home; and includes excerpts of criticism.

A classic account of the clash of cultures in British India after the turn of the century revealing the menace lurking just under the surface of ordinary misunderstanding.

A charming, young English woman is soon at war with the snobbery of her class and her own desires when she finds herself attracted to someone socially unsuitable.

In 1878 in London, Sally and her companions Frederick and Jim try to solve the mystery surrounding the unexpected collapse of a shipping firm and its ties to a sinister corporation called North Star.

In London in 1881, twenty-four-year old Sally finds her young daughter and her possessions assailed by an unknown enemy, while a shadowy figure known as the Tzaddik involves her in his plot to defraud and exploit the hordes of Jewish immigrants pouring into the country.

Reprint of the 1935 novel about Rose, a spinster working as a missionary in Africa, and Allnutt, a mechanic-of-all-work, who team up out of necessity and hatch a plan to help the war effort by building and launching torpedoes at a German police steamer.

Hornblower becomes a national hero when he escapes a French firing squad, but the terror of the Mediterranean becomes Europe's most wanted man, forced to fight alone for England--and liberty.

Captain Hornblower has been ordered to find a water route across the Central American isthmus and destroy a fifty-gun Spanish ship, but Hornblower finds himself distracted by his newest passenger, the beautiful Lady Barbara Wellesley.

Relates Horatio's adventures as a Lieutenant until his promotion to Commander during the early years of the Napoleonic Wars.

After only one night with his bride, Hornblower, as commander of the frigate Hotspur, sails for duty off the French Coast to keep Napoleon from invading England.

Eliza Williams--having been placed in the care of a foster mother by her guardian, Colonel Brandon, because she was an illegitimate child--embarks on a journey to learn the secret of her parentage and meets a variety of individuals, such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, along the way.

In 1821, an orphaned twelve-year-old boy runs away from his unhappy home in Spain to England where he tries to find his father's family.

A dark, suspenseful fantasy about two children suddenly orphaned and forced to live on the streets in nineteenth-century England.

As the result of an accident a young girl is faced with the responsibility of foiling a Hanoverian plot to put St. Paul's Cathedral on rollers and roll it into the River Thames during the coronation of James IV.

Paranoia threatens to destroy the very fabric of British society as the public seeks scapegoats in the spring of 1918.

The lives of four London art students are forever changed by the events of World War I after two of them decide to go to the frontlines to tend to wounded soldiers and see the atrocities of war.

Twelve-year-old Colin knows very little about his father, except that he served in the war, so the young boy begins watching every war film he can find to learn more about the man his father might have been.

Fictionalized account of Dr. William Rivers who pioneered treatment of shell-shocked soldiers during World War I, who tries to reconcile his work with the knowledge that the men he treats will be returning to battle.

In 1917, Siegfried Sassoon, a combat officer and poet, writes a letter publicly disavowing the war. He is found to be "mentally unsound" and is sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital, where there is a psychiatrist renowned for curing such cases.

Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans' hospital in England after being injured in World War II, and befriends Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly, and the two begin a romance that is eventually threatened by a mentor from Laurie's school days.

When Alexander the Great sinks into a coma without having named his successor, the battle for his throne begins.

Tells the story of a boy, Theseus, who must prove his manhood in a semibarbaric society.

Alexias, a young Athenian from a good family, meets Lysis, a youth who is under the influence of Socrates, and they form a strong friendship against a background of athletic games, famine, and civil war.

A Greek actor (in the fourth century B.C.) who finds himself at the center of a political crisis in which Plato is also involved.

A narrative of the life of Alexander the Great from the age of twenty-six until his death seven years later.

Mary Boleyn comes to the court of King Henry VIII, where she falls for the dashing king, and begins to enjoy her growing role as unofficial queen, however, she soon realizes she is merely a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to turn towards her best friend and rival, her sister, Anne.

Presents a novel that surrounds three women whose positions brought them wealth and notoriety in the court of King Henry VIII as well as deceit and betrayal.

A fictionalized account of the life of Katherine of Aragon, daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, discussing her passionate marriage to England's Prince Arthur, and telling how she had to deny their love after his death in order to marry his brother Henry and claim her rightful place as queen.

Presents a fictionalized account of the final years of Mary, Queen of Scots, who fled Scotland and sought sanctuary in the home of the Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, only to find herself imprisoned.

In sixteenth-century England, Amy Dudley struggles with her husband Sir Robert's betrayal when his childhood friend, Princess Elizabeth, becomes Queen, he becomes her master of horse, and the two become lovers.

Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, finds herself caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, after her ability to foresee the future leads her to work for the Queen as a spy.

The daughter of an English prince, Margaret of York is hurriedly married into obscurity upon her father's death to prevent any possible pretention to the throne. When she becomes advisor and guardian to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and his wife Katherine of Aragon, however, Margaret's fortunes turn once more. When Arthur suddenly dies, Katherine is sent to London to marry Arthur's brother, King Henry VIII, and she takes Margaret with her as her chief lady-in-waiting. There, Margaret watches the rise and fall of Henry VIII, and only she knows of an old curse on the Tudors that may be responsible for it all.

When the death of Joan of Arc shows her the dangers faced by strong women, Jacquetta, a psychic descendant of a river goddess, studies alchemy and becomes the secret wife of Richard Woodville before returning to the court of Henry VI.

Although widowed in her early teens, Margaret Beaufort, the child-bride of Edmund Tudor, uses her determination of character and wily plotting to infiltrate the house of York under the guise of loyal friend and servant, undermine the support for Richard III, and ultimately ensure that her only son, Henry Tudor, triumphs as King of England.

Luca and Isolde continue their journey searching for evil in medieval Christendom.

Frances Scott, the penniless niece of an English lord, agrees to marry Bristol trader Josiah Cole, an arrangement that provides her with a home and him with the social contacts he needs to build his business, but she is forced to confront her need for love and liberty when Josiah brings the slave Mehuru to their house and assigns her the task of training the man, who was at one time a priest and aides to the king of Yoruba, to become a house servant.

Passionately in love with Richard III in spite of her arranged marriage to pretender to the throne Henry Tudor, Princess Elizabeth of York is forced to marry the man who murdered her lover and create a royal family under the controlling gaze of his mother, Margaret Beaufort.

Elizabeth Woodville, a beautiful and ambitious woman, catches the eye of a newly crowned boy king, secretly marries him, and ascends to royalty while fighting for her family's success.

A portrait of a Japanese artist who put his painting to work in the service of the movement that led Japan into World War II.

Etsuko, a Japanese women living alone in England, contemplates the recent suicide of her eldest daughter, mingling the tragedy with memories of the devastation of Japan during World War II, and the calamities of her own life.

The life of Stevens, an aging English butler, changes after three decades of service to the same man.