The Happy Homemaker

Everyone knows I love history. So it is natural that my favorite kind of fiction is Historical Fiction. In Historical Fiction you set a novel with the same drama and plot so forth as a normal fiction novel, except the setting and sometimes characters are based on historical fact. This is usually a writer can use a setting to disguise personal point of views and political leanings. They can use history to get the reader to pay attention to something that is happening today.

William Shakespeare used history this way, though he wrote plays and not novels of course. He took a historical fact and turned it into drama and at the same time gave his nod to the contemporary king or queen. The father of the historical novel is William Scott who was the master of using history to tell of the modern day struggles of Scotland.

I also like when authors mix genres. Anne Perry mixes historical fiction and mystery. Her mystery is used to tell of a social problem existing in Victorian England. She can get quite preachy and uses the characters’ voices to tell her own story. Jean Plaidy uses history to tell romance stories.

I am now trying to find another good historical fiction writer. I sort of like Bernard Cornwell. So far every author I have tried has been way too sexual. I thought Margaret George went too far in describing sex with Henry VIII. I thought it added nothing to the story. I didn’t gain anything by the description of Catherine Howard’s ummm hair. Julian Rathbone made Edward the Confessor homosexual and described in detail his homoerotic scenes with a lover Tostig. I almost threw up and then threw the book. I was excited to read Manda Scott’s trilogy on Boudica but then I got to read a lesbian love scene by the creek between the pre-adolescent Boudica and her older teenage friend. Ok, I don’t care and I really didn’t need a lesson on how homosexuals do it. The last bit of innocence I had is gone now.

The sad thing is that historical fiction really mirrors the time of the author. Is that what the 21st century is about? Graphic descriptions of sex? The destruction of anything heroic?

There is a difference between telling the truth about a hero, and destroying a character. I heard of this great Colonel of Colonial Maryland. Everyone wants to be related to this man. I read actual documents that showed him as mean and constantly in court causing trouble. However, he still did a lot for Maryland and I owe him my life since he is related to me twice from two different lines. I just know he wasn’t perfect, but a human just like me who has weaknesses. Those weaknesses round out his character rather than destroy his character. Turning heroes into blood thirsty psychopaths with no heart (like Rathbone tried to do with William the Conqueror) or sexual deviants (ditto with Edward the Confessor, if he was gay, fine, but did I have to know about how he loved certain umm things?? Or making the Godwinsons sexual predators??) This is throwing history out the window and destroying characters, maybe perhaps echoing the writer’s bias or own personal experience. That may be art, but that takes history freaks like me out of the story.

A good TV example is The Tudors on Showtime. Yes, I am bad, I watched it. I fast forwarded the sexual scenes, even if they were accurate. Princess Margaret did not marry the King of Portugal, but the King of Scotland and it was Princess Mary who married Charles Brandon after marrying the elderly King of France. That drove me crazy! There is historical evidence of an affair between George Boleyn and Mark Smeaton, but I still changed the channel when they appeared in front of the fireplace. (the fireplace being the signal that a sex scene is about to begin) The story still could be told without the sex scenes. I am sure they went to the bathroom, but do I need to watch them go to the bathroom?

So I am searching for that perfect Historical writer who is interested in telling me a story and not shocking me with grotesque detail. I like history pre-1600, especially of the Viking period.