18 books like Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since ...
Midwinter
While Bonnie Prince Charlie prepares to reclaim his throne, Captain Alastair Maclean is travelling the dangerous byways of England in a desperate search for a Jacobite traitor. His first suspect is Sir John Norreys -- but is he really the traitor, or is Maclean influenced by his love for Sir John's beautiful bride? Chased by Hanoverian huntsmen, and led to the brink of death by a crazed gypsy,…
Shares: Jacobite Rebellion, Historical Fiction
The Two Admirals: A Tale
Describing first obscure English law and then a number of characters who will ultimately prove only secondary to the plot.
Shares: Jacobite Rebellion, Scotland, Historical Fiction
The raiders, being some passages in the life of John Faa, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt
Crockett’s ‘breakthrough’ and most famous novel, first published in 1894, this is part of a loose trilogy of smugglers and gypsies stories featuring the Herons, the Maxwells and the Faas. Stevensonesque in style, it is unique in its descriptions of Galloway’s coast and hills and still thrills a modern audience.
‘'The Raiders ' vibrates with sufficient dramatic action for a dozen ordinary…
Shares: Scotland, History
Rob Roy
A historical novel first published in 1817, this was one of the first popular novels to attempt the use of regional dialect, in this case both Scottish highland and lowland dialects with a glossary of Scottish words. The story is set immediately before the Jacobite Rising of 1715 and follows the narrator, an English merchant, to Scotland in pursuit of a debt. Here he encounters Rob Roy MacGregor,…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
Outlander
Unrivaled storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Rich historical detail. These are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon’s work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured the hearts of millions of fans. Here is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of…
Shares: Jacobite Rebellion, Historical Fiction, History
Kidnapped
KIDNAPPED is an adventure story that has become the model for any thriller of escape and suspense.
Set in 1751, the flight of David Balfour and Alan Breck across the Highlands of Scotland is based on real events. Though he wrote the book to make money, while living as an invalid in Bournemouth. Stevenson was proud of it; he inscribed a presentation copy with the couplet. Here is the one sound…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
David Balfour
From the book:It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company’s office, must expect his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles. Yet, when I remember the days of our explo-rations, I am not without hope. There should be left in our native city some…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
The master of Ballantrae
The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale is one of Stevenson's darker, more political novels. Two brothers are brought into conflict by the Jacobite rising of 1745, which tears their family apart.
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
Pan Michael An historical novel
The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving…
Shares: Historical Fiction, History
St. George and St. Michael
It was the middle of autumn, and had rained all day. Through the lozenge-panes of the wide oriel window the world appeared in the slowly gathering dusk not a little dismal. The drops that clung trickling to the dim glass added rain and gloom to the landscape beyond, whither the eye passed, as if vaguely seeking that help in the distance, which the dripping hollyhocks and sodden sunflowers…
Shares: Historical Fiction, History
The Bride of Lammermoor
This new edition of The Bride of Lammermoor restores the action to 1703, before the Union of Scotland and England in 1707 rather than after it, which is where Scott's revisions of 1830 placed it. At last the sense of instability and of impermanence which permeates the novel makes sense, for what was to come in the impending revolution.
Love is doomed in this the most famous of Scott's plots.…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
Coniston
This book is about a love-story of long ago, of a time some little while after General Jackson had got into the White House and had shown the world what a real democracy was. The Era of the first six presidents had closed, and a new Era had begun. I am speaking of political Eras. Certain gentlemen, with a pious belief in democracy, but with a firmer determination to get on top, arose,—and got on…
Shares: British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction
Finding Arthur
"The legend of King Arthur has been told and retold for centuries. As the king who united a nation, his is the story of England itself. But what if Arthur wasn't English at all? As writer and activist Adam Ardrey discovered, the reason historians have had little success identifying the historical Arthur may be incredibly simple: He wasn't an Englishman at all. He was from Scotland. Finding Arthur…
Shares: Historiography, Scotland, History
Sozialgeschichte der Kunst und Literatur
First published in 1951 as Socialgeschichte der Kunst und Literatur, Arnold Hauser's comprehensive work explores the interaction between art and society. Through the detailing of social and historical movements Hauser provides insight into the origins of visual art.
Shares: Historiography, History and criticism, History
Ἱστορίαι
One of the earliest histories of the western world still extant, this gives a contemporary account of the Greco-Persian wars of the fifth century BCE with the rise of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great.
Shares: Historiography, History
What is history?
A philosophical interpretation of history, examining the significance of historical study as a science and a reflection of social values.
Shares: Historiography, History
The Masque of the Black Tulip
...But now she has a million questions about the Pink Carnation's deadly French nemesis, the Black Tulip. And she's pretty sure that her handsome onagain, off-again crush, Colin Selwick, has the answers somewhere in his archives. But what she discovers in an old codebook is something juicier than she ever imagined.
Shares: Historiography, Historical Fiction
Home as found
"No society, dear!--Why you were at the Henderson's, and the Morgan's, and the Drewett's; three of the greatest _réunions_ that we have had in two winters!"'
"I did not know that you meant those unpleasant crowds, by society".
"Unpleasant crowds! Why, child, that is society, is it not?'
"Not what I have been taught to consider such; I rather think it would be better to call it company".
"And is…
Shares: Historical Fiction